Snyder wants Michigan's 'ethnic communities' to recruit legal immigrants
Gov. Rick Snyder plans to ask "ethnic communities" to recruit legal immigrants to come to Michigan to create jobs, according to a report by former CBS network news anchor Dan Rather.
Journalist Dan Rather interviews Gov. Rick Snyder about his immigration proposals.
Photo courtesy of HDNet's Dan Rather Reports
Snyder, a first-term Republican and former Ann Arbor venture capitalist, said he wants to communicate with Michigan's "ethnic communities" to ask them to conduct "outreach back in their countries to actually bring and attract people to Michigan because I think we’re a great economic opportunity that we can all win."
"One of the keys, if you look at history, (to how) we built this wonderful country was immigration," Snyder said. "We already educate so many wonderful students from outside our country. Is there a way to help keep them here?"
The immigration initiative faces opposition.
"Take the Michigan people that left, that were forced out of here, why don’t you offer them the jobs first?" Joe Valenti, president of Detroit’s chapter of the Teamsters union, told Rather. "Then if no one wants them and no one can fill them, then you go where you have to go."
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Comments
Bignumone
Sun, Oct 9, 2011 : 12:59 p.m.
You know, one day after Snyder was elected I saw recall signs up. The Dems in this state have become so irrational (and abusive) that it is no wonder no businesses want to be here. I don't want to get political (Dems/Reps), but I almost have to in order to make a point. Engler was Gov. and Repubs. ran the show, things were GREAT! We were getting a diverse business community, people had jobs, companies were putting headquarters here, small businesses were thriving. Granholm and the Dems took over and it was a slow decline all the way to her re-election, after which we took a nose dive into this morass we are in. Blame it on the recession? I don't think so. My company left when a bunch of others were leaving, incidentally, as Granholm and the Dems took on another term. These companies saw the writing on the wall and decided this place was not worth the hassle. I don't believe you can deny the correlation of higher taxes, more regulation, and hate of anything that resembles capitalism to the killing of jobs, loss of small/large businesses and overall bad economy. A few years after that, the economy as a whole collapsed. Dems were looking for "change" in the last presidential election, and spouted about GWB's spending. They wanted us to give something different a chance (and I did). It is time for this state to give something different a chance as well. While Snyder was not my choice (I wanted Cox), I think we should at least listen to his ideas and give him a chance to explain why they will work. If nothing else they are different than what has been done in the past. So Dems, lets try to embrace "change", right!?! Stop being hypocrites before this whole state ends up looking like Detroit, Flint and Saginaw with sky-high unemployment, record illiteracy rates, and disgusting urban blight.
Todd Alwood
Tue, Oct 4, 2011 : 2:08 a.m.
I think people are disagreeing with what Rick Snyder is doing, because they think that he is welcoming uneducated day laborer type immigrants to come to Michigan. In reality, what he is promoting is the recruiting of WELL educated LEGAL immigrants that are likely to be entrepreneurs and start businesses. They are needed to replace the uneducated and lazy Americans that are already here and not creating businesses themselves. I'm all for it as long as they limit their immigration to well educated and ambitious immigrants, not someone to just hoe weeds or dig ditches.
cmu engr
Tue, Oct 4, 2011 : 1:29 a.m.
we have high employment rate but we need to hire foreigner. This is counter intuitive but it is a right decision to save America business. America needs 1 million new engineers each year from aerospace to computer, chemical and other high tech industry. US universities produce only 200,000 engineers a year. US companies can only hire 65,000 immigrants via H1-B per year BUT we need 1 million engineers every year!!! This the the reason a lot of companies move to China, India and Ireland. Lower salary is one reason, lack of human capital is probably more true for companies looking to fill position with salary > $100K/yr
John
Mon, Oct 3, 2011 : 7:26 p.m.
A positive step in the right direction. The government of Ontario also enacted a law encouraging firms and corporate organisations to hire legal immigrants offering tax rebates as well as training fees. Snyder's definitely earned my support especially if this plan goes through.
Carole
Mon, Oct 3, 2011 : 12:51 p.m.
So many of our jobs were out sources to other countries causing the problem. I say bring those out sourced jobs back home and employ our own.
Billy Buchanan
Sat, Oct 1, 2011 : 4:16 p.m.
First, we have to decide what percentage of legal immigrants from each country we want to allow to legally migrating to America. Legal immigrants are great job creators. Also, thanks to the Koch brothers for the thousands of jobs they have created in our country. What our country needs are fewer regulations on people who create jobs. Our government over regulates and has to many rules and regulations that stifle job creation. Obama's government creates hundreds of regulations each week, costing the American taxpayer at least one hundred thousand dollars for each regulation his bureaucracy creates. Over ruling and regulating has got to stop for our country to get back on track. Fewer regulations and smaller government is best for our country and I know the founding fathers had that in mind when they wrote our Constitution. However, since then millions of regulations have been created that never should have been.
RayA2
Sun, Oct 2, 2011 : 4:12 a.m.
Why do republicons attack all regulations rather than specific ones? I don't believe that anyone in their right mind would say that we don't need any regulations at all. Goldman Sachs, AIG, Enron, BP have all proven how necessary regulation is.
OLDTIMER3
Sat, Oct 1, 2011 : 11:08 a.m.
@Nephilim , you are probably one of the people who employ ILLEGAL immigrants to better line your pockets. Or the person who owns a landscaping co. that operates with faulty and dangerous equipment is why you can't get an educated person to work for your wages.
RayA2
Sun, Oct 2, 2011 : 1:25 a.m.
Nephilim, Why should your employees get paid so little that they can't afford to feed and house their families? What is your salary compared to theirs? What is your total compensation compared to theirs? Are you not getting a decent price for your services because your competition employs illegal aliens?
Nephilim
Sat, Oct 1, 2011 : 5:56 p.m.
No.....more so because all of you have beat it into every person that there is no job worth 8 or 10 bucks an hour. Even the unskilled manual labor type jobs such as ditch digging and brush dragging and such. Most companies wind up not being able to afford to upkeep their equipment because people such as yourself would like to see these unskilled people make 20 bucks an hour. Look at how well it works paying your "American" people a union wage for that type of work? All I need to do is point you to the vast stretches of highway under construction and count how many guys you see using a shovel as a leaning post. That's your skilled Americans at their finest. I'm not at all advocating the use of illegal immigrants at all. Quite honestly I am all in favor of very strict enforcement. I just think a lot of people are out of touch with reality on what their perceived self worth is. Sorry.
OLDTIMER3
Sat, Oct 1, 2011 : 11:01 a.m.
Slick Ricks idea sucks, He wants to bring in people who will work for next to nothing so the business cronies can made more profit.
Monica R-W
Sat, Oct 1, 2011 : 7:59 a.m.
So, let me understand this here. Gov. Rick Snyder is endorsing racial segmentation in "communities within our state, set up by whom? Him...the Republican who have lost their minds in the Legislator? My hope....people that voted for Snyder and company in the last election, have LEARNED a valuable lesson that this so-called "re-inventing Michigan" is nothing more than 2000's set racism. WOW....just wow!
RayA2
Sun, Oct 2, 2011 : 1:21 a.m.
Nephilim, We have learned a valuable lesson. Make sure you get rid of republicons in congress too. They would rather dismantle this country than offend their top 0.01% real constituency and agree with anything the President tries to move thiscountry forward.
Nephilim
Sat, Oct 1, 2011 : 11:52 a.m.
And I hope the people that voted for Obama have learned a valuable lesson. Sorry Monica, you can't attach the R word to everything. You can try but most people are getting tired of hearing that.
al
Sat, Oct 1, 2011 : 2:43 a.m.
I'm starting to wonder if we're trying to solve the unemployment problem by driving the unemployed out of the state.
quitoslady
Sat, Oct 1, 2011 : 2:07 a.m.
So when he said he wanted to work for more jobs in Michigan he meant for people from other countries willing to work for low wages.
T. Kinks Heiss
Fri, Sep 30, 2011 : 11:17 p.m.
I cannot believe this one. How could this idea possibly "create" jobs? The Republicans must think we are really stupid.
Monica R-W
Sat, Oct 1, 2011 : 8:01 a.m.
T. Kinks Heiss, It doesn't exist (get it)! Wonder will they cover the #occupymichigan campaign starting in Lansing in two weeks or will that not fit into the corporate operated owned and controlled news resource, we read here?
T. Kinks Heiss
Fri, Sep 30, 2011 : 11:18 p.m.
Where is Ann Arbor .com's coverage of OCCUPY WALL ST ?
Forever27
Fri, Sep 30, 2011 : 6:27 p.m.
This is not a xenophobic "they took our jobs" rant, but how would bringing more people into the workforce pool help lower unemployment for Michiganders? Oh, that's right, immigrant labor is the cheapest labor available.
RayA2
Sat, Oct 1, 2011 : 1:50 a.m.
Nephilim, Why do you think you people should work for you for nothing? Henry Ford made a fortune paying his employees more than the competition. He knew that paying people a wage that kept them in poverty meant he had no market for his cars. Do you think that people should be compelled to work for a wage that causes them to have their families live in tin shacks in Tijuana?
Nephilim
Fri, Sep 30, 2011 : 11:30 p.m.
Immigrant labor is the cheapest labor, why? I own a physically labor intensive business and just try to find locally raised people, black or white that are willing to do this job for the wage that it's worth. Everyone other than "immigrants" have this self perceived belief they are worth far more than the job title is willing to pay. If the teamsters had their way, a ditch digger running a shovel would be paid 20 bucks an hour. Plus, no one anymore wants to put a hard days work in other than "immigrants". So the next time you are driving drown the road and see those so called "immigrants" landscaping or digging trenches and you mutter, "there goes some more American jobs.". Find me an American willing to do it for the wage it's worth! Good luck.
alan
Fri, Sep 30, 2011 : 6:11 p.m.
I'm submitting the phrase "job creator" to LSSU for inclusion on their list of banned phrases.
Kai Petainen
Fri, Sep 30, 2011 : 9:04 p.m.
hahahahah... I love LSSU's list. here's my submission... 'thanks for sharing' <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kaipetainen/2011/09/02/thanks-for-sharing-thats-nice-shut-up/" rel='nofollow'>http://www.forbes.com/sites/kaipetainen/2011/09/02/thanks-for-sharing-thats-nice-shut-up/</a>
sparty2219
Fri, Sep 30, 2011 : 6:08 p.m.
Huhhhh??? Ok, where does job creation fit in this one Mr SNyder? or was that Sarah P? See Russia from Alaska?
RayA2
Fri, Sep 30, 2011 : 5:02 p.m.
Slick is relentless in his pursuit of driving down wages for Michiganders. I don't suppose he's ever bothered to explain how a state with such a high unemployment rate, despite slick's "business friendly changes" would need to recruit immigrants? I suppose its because he knows that he and the rest of the Koch brothers republicon party have done enough damage to the school system here that we will need to recruit educated people from out of the country.
lynel
Fri, Sep 30, 2011 : 4:46 p.m.
Just what are "ethnic communities" ?
Carole
Mon, Oct 3, 2011 : 12:50 p.m.
In this day and age, I believe we need to define "ethnic" so all understand the meaning.
xmo
Fri, Sep 30, 2011 : 4:43 p.m.
Mr. Joe Valenti (president of Detroit's chapter of the Teamsters union): Why don't the teamsters start a few companies to employe some of its laid-off workers? You have a steady cash flow from your union members and could really help get this economy going by starting a few companies.
valerie
Fri, Sep 30, 2011 : 4:05 p.m.
Really...???????