Political Risk and Identity Lab

‘Villains nor victims’: Why immigration is good for our economy

Ali Velshi stands in front of a tv monitor that reads "The Truth about Immigration"

(Outlet: MSNBC)  In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed the National Origins Act – a restrictive immigration bill that had lasting negative economic and social consequences. 100 years later, we find ourselves having a similar rhetorical and ideological debate about immigration. Donald Trump and his allies are stoking anti-immigrant sentiment and pushing the idea that immigration is the reason the United States is a “nation in decline”. Wharton School Professor and author Zeke Emanuel Hernandez points out to Ali Velshi that it’s in America’s best interest, socially and economically, to embrace immigrants. …Read More

The US is reviving the worst of its immigration history to all of our peril

A graph demonstrating Immigrants as a % of the US population

(Outlet: The Hill) 100 years ago today, America committed its biggest immigration blunder when President Calvin Coolidge signed the National Origins Act. As we commemorate the anniversary, most of the conversation focuses on condemning the racist motivation of excluding Asians and Southern and Eastern Europeans. But almost nobody talks about two things. One is the self-harm the restrictions caused to America: significant job losses, obliterating innovation by American scientists and companies, lowering investment across our communities and giving rise to the border problems we still experience to this day, writes Zeke Hernandez.…Read More

Immigration in its different forms is a benefit to communities, League of Women Voters told

Migrants who crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico are lined up for processing by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Sept. 23, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas.

(Outlet: Delco Daily Times) The League of Women Voters of Central Delaware County took on the issue of immigration on Friday as experts delved into the numbers and issues behind what drives immigrants to the United States. “We’re in a very important moment in the history of immigration in the United States,” Exequiel “Zeke” Hernandez, one of the presenters, said. “There’s a widespread misunderstanding about just very basic facts about who immigrants are and what they do.”…Read More

Inside a Brooklyn kitchen that trains migrants for restaurant jobs, lifting an industry

Four chefs stand in a kitchen wearing aprons and red shirts, one holding a tray of cupcakes.

(Outlet: Gothamist) The five-week course called Culinary Career Pathways for New New Yorkers was launched in April by the nonprofit group Hot Bread Kitchen, which trains New Yorkers for jobs in the food industry. Although the course is patterned after the organization’s signature Culinary Fundamentals course, it has an important twist: It was designed specifically for newly arrived Latin American migrants who have secured work permits and set their sights on careers in the food industry. But the benefits and possibilities extend far beyond the individuals in this classroom.…Read More

How to Resolve Conflict in Business

Two business men holding briefcases with antlers on their heads stand off angrily on an outdoor wasteland.

(Outlet: Wharton Magazine) Alas, disputes, disagreements, and discord are parts of human nature (and that seems to go double for the nature of business). But research into a variety of scenarios, from interpersonal tension to geopolitical friction, offers hope for a more successful path forward. Here, five Wharton faculty share insights about conflict in its many forms and how to navigate it, resolve it, reframe it, or even avoid it entirely, for better results.…Read More

The Value of Corporate Purpose

A wiper clears soap off a sudsy windshield, revealing a blue cloudy sky.

(Outlet: Harvard Business Review) Instead of conceiving of the firm as a collection of managers writing contracts specifying roles and tasks and then struggling to get workers to comply, we need to develop theories that better match the organizations we lead, study, advise, and report on, argues Witold J. Henisz, Vice Dean of the ESG Initiative at the Wharton School.…Read More