Immigration: An Old Solution for the New Economy
Date: June 28, 2012
Metromode
June 28, 2012
Many believe that the key to the new economy is the classic immigrant story: education, work, more education, more work. Yousif Ghafari is one.
Born in Lebanon, he emigrated to the United States in 1970, attained three masters degrees, and established an engineering company that grew worldwide in less than 25 years.
Ghafari is one of Southeast Michigan’s most prominent Arab American professionals and philanthropists. As he looks out on Michigan Avenue from his modern office in Dearborn, he sees the future not so much in the young talent graduating from the area’s universities — who, he believes need considerably more knowledge in mathematics and technological sciences — but in hungry immigrants who are well-educated, skilled, and willing to take risks and out-work their competition. Ghafari looks to Asian, Indian, Middle-Eastern, East European, and Hispanic immigrants as the drivers of the new economy in the region.