DANCING AROUND A HOT TOPIC
I just got back from the Opportunities Conference in Washington DC, a gathering of Asian-American and Hispanic-American leaders on the subject of community economic development that was hosted by the Department of Labor. All in all, I was inspired and impressed by the event, both in its content and in the diversity and size of the group in attendance.
However, I was a little disappointed that none of the speakers mentioned anything related to the undercurrent of indignation in our country over the loss of jobs to overseas and immigrant workers. Many Americans still fear what Ross Perot called "that great sucking sound" of jobs being lost to south of the border in Mexico. Asians and Hispanics are often vilified in our cities as the recent immigrants who come in and take away jobs and commercial opportunities. Unions are in an uproar over the millions of American jobs being lost as manufacturing and customer service call centers gets outsourced to India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. And Congress just slashed the number of H1B visas allowed per year, curtailing the number of high-end high-tech jobs in the US that could be filled by immigrants from Pakistan, China, and Japan.
We are in an election year, after a recession that raised unemployment, and now in the midst of what many economists are calling a "jobless recovery" (i.e. the economy is heating up again, but it isn't yet translating into lower unemployment). A nation that has lost jobs into the millions is looking for scapegoats and solutions. And I can't help but feel an uneasiness in the Asian and Hispanic communities, that they are feeling the scrutiny of the unhappy and unemployed.
To be sure, maybe this wasn't the setting to tackle such a sensitive and inflammatory issue. The tenor of the speeches were gracious and motivational, as they should have been. Still, I came to the conference curious to see how this hot topic would be addressed. And I left a little disappointed that it had been danced around.
I just got back from the Opportunities Conference in Washington DC, a gathering of Asian-American and Hispanic-American leaders on the subject of community economic development that was hosted by the Department of Labor. All in all, I was inspired and impressed by the event, both in its content and in the diversity and size of the group in attendance.
However, I was a little disappointed that none of the speakers mentioned anything related to the undercurrent of indignation in our country over the loss of jobs to overseas and immigrant workers. Many Americans still fear what Ross Perot called "that great sucking sound" of jobs being lost to south of the border in Mexico. Asians and Hispanics are often vilified in our cities as the recent immigrants who come in and take away jobs and commercial opportunities. Unions are in an uproar over the millions of American jobs being lost as manufacturing and customer service call centers gets outsourced to India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. And Congress just slashed the number of H1B visas allowed per year, curtailing the number of high-end high-tech jobs in the US that could be filled by immigrants from Pakistan, China, and Japan.
We are in an election year, after a recession that raised unemployment, and now in the midst of what many economists are calling a "jobless recovery" (i.e. the economy is heating up again, but it isn't yet translating into lower unemployment). A nation that has lost jobs into the millions is looking for scapegoats and solutions. And I can't help but feel an uneasiness in the Asian and Hispanic communities, that they are feeling the scrutiny of the unhappy and unemployed.
To be sure, maybe this wasn't the setting to tackle such a sensitive and inflammatory issue. The tenor of the speeches were gracious and motivational, as they should have been. Still, I came to the conference curious to see how this hot topic would be addressed. And I left a little disappointed that it had been danced around.
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