Weekend Reading: Highlights from this week’s Gateways for Growth Challenge (March 28 – April 1)
Date: April 1, 2016
This week, the Partnership and Welcoming America announced that twenty communities were selected for the Gateways for Growth Challenge, which invited communities across the United States to apply for research, technical assistance, and matching grants to support the development and implementation of multi-sector strategic plans for welcoming and integrating new Americans. With the exciting launch, we dedicate this Weekly Reading post to local coverage from some of the selected cities and counties.
“In New Orleans, diversity is one of our greatest strengths and our city maintains deep roots with immigrant communities,” Mayor Mitch Landrieu said in Biz New Orleans. “The ‘Gateways for Growth Challenge’ recognizes New Orleans as an inclusive and welcoming city for all its residents and visitors. Our participation is important to creating the New Orleans we always knew she could be.”
Mara Kimmel, an immigration attorney and wife of Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, outlined how Anchorage will participate in Gateways for Growth by “reaching out to communities of immigrants and newcomers to ask how the city can adopt more inclusive policies,” while focusing on “economic research and figuring out obstacles to entrepreneurship.” Read more in the Alaska Dispatch News.
“We think this is a huge opportunity for Upstate (New York) and New York state,” said Eva Hassett, executive director of the International Institute of Buffalo in Biz Journals. “One of the hopes is that by being able to articulate (the economic impact of this population) we can attract the attention of economic development leaders in the state.”
At the launch of a Task Force to highlight and enhance the economic contributions of immigrants, Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams said, “We’re going to come together and develop policy recommendations and tools to better tap into the innovation and entrepreneurship that is here with the new Americans that come here.”
See also:
“New Americans in Salt Lake County,” a PNAE research brief that examines the economic and demographic contributions of immigrants in the area. It shows that immigrants positively impact the county’s economy through their entrepreneurship, workforce participation, tax contributions, and spending power.
