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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

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When I came to D.C. in spring 2008, one of the first people I wanted to
meet was Demetri Papademetriou, co-founder and then president of the
Migration Policy Institute. As we got to know each other over the years,
I saw there was no smarter, no more compassionate, no more committed, no
kinder advocate for migrants than Demetri. And once you got to know him,
you realized he was bloody hilarious.  

So, it is with a heavy heart I share the news

that Demetri passed away earlier this week. Our thoughts and prayers go
out to his wife, Margie, and children, along with the entire MPI
family. Migrants around the world lost one of their best advocates this
week.  

Welcome to Friday's edition of Noorani's Notes. If you have a
story to share from your own community, please send it to me at
[email protected]
.  

[link removed]

'NO-BRAINER' - In Forbes
,
Stuart Anderson writes about "two potentially game-changing measures for
immigrant entrepreneurs and immigrants with Ph.D.s in STEM." Rep. Zoe
Lofgren's (D-California) LIKE Act

would create "a temporary visa for foreign-born entrepreneurs who
qualify," Anderson writes, executive director of the National Foundation
for American Policy. A startup visa could create 1 to 3 million jobs
over a decade, NFAP has estimated. Over at Law360
,
my colleague Danilo Zak told Alyssa Aquino: "This is another pathway
where we're trying to compete with these other countries for the best
and brightest, so it's a no-brainer to start an official pathway. ...
Republicans understand how important this is for competitiveness. We
need to be stapling visas to immigrant students' diplomas."  

**IMMIGRANT LABOR** - Today the Department of Homeland Security is
making 20,000 more H-2B visas available for employees to hire workers
amid the labor shortage, per Grace Dixon of Law360
.
"The move adds to the 33,000 H-2B visas set aside for employers looking
to bring on seasonal employers between Oct. 1 and April 1, exhausted
before the fiscal year even began
,
as well as the additional 20,000
added in December," explains
Dixon. A portion of the newly allotted visas will be reserved for
migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Haiti. As Jeff
Brumley of Baptist News Global

reports following our press call Wednesday, the U.S. "urgently" needs
more immigrant labor to sustain its economy. Elsewhere, there's
welcome news for lawful permanent residents working at Tyson Foods: The
company is expanding its Immigrant Connection Program to help its
employees find a pathway to citizenship "with free legal counsel and no
application fees," per Montse Ricossa of KWQC
. 

CLIMATE BILL - Repeatedly, undocumented migrant workers are cleaning
up the U.S.'s natural disasters with inadequate equipment, little pay
and little recognition, Zoya Teirstein reports for Grist
.
"The recovery workforce is largely undocumented and lacks the kind of
job stability, health care benefits, and labor protections that
government employees receive," explains Teirstein. In many cases,
contractors or subcontractors have threatened to call ICE on
unauthorized workers. And if they're hurt on the job, they must pay
their own medical bills. But a new climate bill - spearheaded and
introduced Tuesday by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) - could
change that. Known as the Climate Resilience Workforce Act
,
it would be "the first federal effort to recognize these workers and
provide them with health care, wage stability, and a path to
citizenship, among other things." 

[link removed]

**WELCOME** - Despite financial and cultural challenges, Americans
continue to step up to support Afghans as they resettle in the U.S.,
writes Danielle Pletka, senior fellow at the American Enterprise
Institute, in an op-ed for The Washington Post
.
Pletka shares her own experience getting connected to a family of seven
via the Immigrant and Refugee Outreach Center in McLean, Virginia.
"Americans are wonderful, and it's not just my neighbors and
colleagues. They're generous, they're kind, they're selfless,"
Pletka writes. " ... I know from the relief agencies I'm talking to
that it's not wealth that's a factor in so much generosity. It's
character." 

Today's compilation of local welcome includes: 

* With the help of nonprofit Hello Neighbor in Pittsburgh, teen Eli
Olifson "baked 814 cookies, brownies and muffins" ahead of his bar
mitzvah to welcome Afghan refugees to the community. (Adam Reinherz,
Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle
)
 

* Redeemer Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Danville, Pennsylvania, is
seeking help from the community to secure a home for an Afghan family
awaiting resettlement. (Joe Sylvester, The Danville News
)
 

* West Virginia University Libraries recently hosted a discussion on
justice for Afghan women and refugee resettlement to garner community
support. Renee Corbett, an outreach worker for the Refugee Resettlement
and Immigration Services with Catholic Charities WV, pointed to her
organization and the Sponsor Circle Program
as ways to help. (Katelyn Aluise, The
Daily Athenaeum
) 

'SPARKLE' - Inspired by her family's history of migration and
language teaching, 13-year-old Lujain Alqattawi decided to use her
language skills to give back, reports Eloise Barry of TIME Magazine
.
So, from her home in Maryland, the Kid of the Year finalist connected
with a group of 9- and 10-year-old Palestinian girls living in Jordan to
help them learn English. Her tutoring sessions have since blossomed to a
nonprofit called "Sparkle." Her main goal? To continue empowering girls
to become "more confident." Working with these young girls has not only
helped her get closer to her heritage, but has also "helped me grow,"
she said. "We started with me, myself, and I, then my family, my
neighborhood, my community, the world, the universe." 

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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