Over de grens kijkend: St Louis' open armen richting immigranten

Ibrahim Vajzovic sits behind a large wooden desk at First Bosnian Insurance Agency, the company he started in St. Louis eight years ago, and talks about the values of education and hard work. It’s one of three businesses he owns, in addition to teaching a course at Webster University, a liberal arts college in Webster Groves.

Vajzovic, 53, who came to the U.S. in 1994 as a war refugee from Bosnia, is the portrait of a striving, successful immigrant that business leaders would like to see replicated, by the thousands. They say nothing short of St. Louis (USCUSTLO)’s survival as a major American city is at stake.
Enlarge image St. Louis Welcome Mat Says Help Wanted From Huddled Masses

For much of its history, St. Louis was a place people wanted to be. Its “Gateway to the West” motto was earned during westward expansion in the 1800s and German immigrants steamed up the Mississippi River to settle there. Photographer: Karen Bleier/AFP via Getty Images

While states such as Arizona and Alabama pass laws that put up stop signs to immigrants, St. Louis is offering a welcome mat. City boosters see attracting foreign-born workers as perhaps the only way to stem a population slide that has left their home with its lowest number of residents since 1880.

“We are not going to grow unless we have immigration,” said Charlie Dooley, the St. Louis County executive, who governs the adjacent county with interests tethered to the city. “Without immigration, no major metropolitan area will grow and expand and be a vital place where people want to be.”

The move to embrace immigrants in St. Louis comes along with signs that the debate in the U.S. Congress has shifted as well. Before the November elections, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney called Arizona’s restrictive immigration law “a model” for the nation. Yesterday, Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky and a favorite of anti-tax Tea Party activists, endorsed comprehensive immigration changes to give legal status to the nation’s 11 million undocumented workers.

Lees verder (gaat nog een eind door): http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-20/st-louis-invokes-lazarus-for-immigrants-with-dire-stakes.html

--------------------------
Law blog
Klik op +1 als u dit een interessant artikel vindt en Google zal het dan beter zichtbaar maken in de zoekresultaten.

Tweet

In verband met geldwolven die denken geld te kunnen claimen op krantenartikelen die op een blog als deze worden geplaatst maar na meestal een dag voor de krantenlezers aan leeswaardigheid hebben ingeboet terwijl wij vreemdelingenrecht specialisten ze soms wel nog jaren gebruiken om er een kopie van te maken voor een zaak ga ik over tot het plaatsen van alleen het eerste stukje. Ja ik weet het: de kans dat u doorklikt is geringer dan wanneer het hele artikel hier staat en een kopie van het orgineel maken handig kan zijn voor uw zaak.