Perspective: Immigration Reform and Small Business
Just this morning I saw a question asked in a group that I’m a member of. It’s called Succeed: Small Business Network, Powered by Staples and it asked a question. How would immigration reform affect small businesses? You can read that post here.
There was a blog post to the NY Times as well, where an immigration lawyer talked about how she built her firm and what impact immigration reform would have on her firm and other small businesses.
And for those that aren’t yet aware, this stems from the passing of the Immigration Reform Bill in the Senate, and it goes on to the house.
For the most part it [the article] was a Q&A post, and as I read through I couldn’t help but reflect on my own story, because I am an immigrant and a small business owner as well, and for me, the impact of immigration reform on small business will be much bigger than anyone realizes.
My parents brought me and my 3 sisters to this country 25 years ago because they wanted a better life for me and my sisters. I had just turned 11 and I don’t know about the rest of my family, but I was pretty scared.
In fact when we came I had a map of my home country and my parents asked me why I brought that and I said, “in case we get lost.” Everybody laughed and I couldn’t figure out why. I don’t even think it dawned on me that I was in a different country, just a long trip.
From then to today, the hardships were insane. We faced everything from homelessness because of a house fire, (we lived in a plywood lean-to we built ourselves), went through hurricanes and storms that left us without power.
My family knows what it’s like to face racism and we know what it’s like to be shunned by a community because we were the only ‘fly in the glass of milk’ as my mother would say.
We know first hand what it’s like to face intolerance from people who don’t like immigrants – idiots who would say ‘welcome to America’ after doing something horrible like slashing our tires or poisoning our dogs…
And what it’s like to have have to rely on the food kitchens at the local church to be able to eat that night, and seeing my parents’ faces as they didn’t know what to do next because they both worked 3 or 4 jobs between them.
My sisters, even though they were shielded from a lot of that turned out pretty cynical about a lot of things, and it’s a completely mystery to my family as to why I’m always so positive and hopeful and grateful. In fact they’d probably say that how I remember and recall things is fantasy and that I should be realistic – but being realistic didn’t invent electricity, airplanes, and put a man on the moon.
But I really am grateful, not for all of the bad things we’ve experienced, but because of the great things we’ve experienced as well.
I’ve seen the worst face of Americans and I’ve also seen the best of them – people who would open their doors and homes to us, as well as their hearts and did everything they could to help us get to where we’re going. Like our neighbor who would hire me to mow his lawn every week and pay me way more than it was worth. Or the family that hired me as a farm hand, just to make sure we had a couple hundred bucks every week coming in.
It was they who gave me the first advice in business I’d ever received. I had asked them for more work and they said no. And I kept asking and eventually one of them sat me down and said that he knew it hurt they weren’t going to give me more hours, but it was only because they believed I was meant to do greater things and that life, cleaning pig sties, mucking out horse stalls, loading hay and stuff wasn’t the life I was meant for, and they said they wanted more for me.
That was the same family, after the local church turned their backs on us, followed me and my family to the church we started going to, more than 20 miles away.
And I saw opportunity where others saw hardship. I learned to chase my dreams even though it upset my family beyond belief – like when I dropped out of college for civil engineering and went to trade school to become a programmer and systems engineer, (I like computers).
And roll up to today, I’m a small business owner and entrepreneur, working from home and just really enjoying life and having a great time helping others, because now I’m the person that gets to hire local kids and make sure they have income over the summer.
I’m the one that gets to give to others when they need it and going through their hardships, and I’m the one that gets to say thank you and express my gratitude every time I outsource or buy products and put money back into the country that made a home for me and my family.
For me, when the President talks about immigration reform, it’s not some piece of legislation or politics. That’s me they’re talking about and voting on.
What is immigration reform going to do for small business?
It’s going to ignite small businesses and fuel the economy for the next 100 years as more and more immigrants find a place to start over and a path to citizenship. It’s going to bring more opportunity for small business.
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