Path to Hope: America's New Face

Book excerpt: /About The Book Life is the pursuit of happiness, something that is ordained not by men, but bestowed by God. Our Path to hope is our purpose, something we all must discover if we are to truly live up to our potential as human beings. In this book, I will address one of the most pressing concerns facing our country today: Immigration and cultural diversity. One is the problem and the other is the solution. As a citizen of the world, I will use my experiences to show how cultural diversity is not to be feared, but used to benefit us all. In difficult economic times, native citizens will naturally look for scapegoats, and immigrants, both legal and illegal, fit the bill. But if we are to move forward, we need to find ways to allow immigrants to freely contribute to our society in order to solve the problems we accuse them of causing. If we embrace the cultural diversity rather than fight it, we will succeed. In the global economy, we cannot afford to discount such a valuable resource as the many who leave their homes for a better life, fueled by their own Path to Hope. Immigration isn’t the problem, it’s the answer! Even when unemployment is high, millions of jobs remain unfilled 49% of businesses find it hard to fill critical jobs, 15% above the global average. By 2018, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics jobs won’t be filled even if every American graduate with an advanced degree finds employment. Immigrants bring critical skills Construction will add 1.8 million jobs by 2020. 60% of Latino immigrants arrive with a sophisticated knowledge of the trade. 25% of scientists and engineers in the U.S. are foreign-born. Immigrants are 13% of the U.S. population but make up 28% of in-home health workers. Immigrants have higher work force participation rates than those born in the U.S. The U.S. must attract and retain human capital Immigration caps force 20,000 American-educated students to leave the U.S. every year. As the U.S. population ages, unfilled jobs will hinder growth By 2030, the U.S. will need to add 25 million workers to the labor force to sustain current growth. Without immigrants, the U.S. will not have enough new workers to support retirees. More than one-third of the U.S. population growth is attributed to new immigrants. By 2050, 93% of growth in the U.S. working-age population will be due to immigrants and their children. 75% of the foreign-born labor force is in the vital 25-54 year-old category - higher than their U.S.-born counterparts. Multi-lingual immigrants boost trade Every 100 H1-B visas creates 183 jobs for American-born workers. Every 100 H2-B visas creates 464 additional jobs.