Weekly Podcast

VPOD: Former Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Jim Cheng

It was a regular occurrence during the McDonnell administration to see Virginia as one of the best states for business, and at that time at the helm of the state’s business development operations was former Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Jim Cheng.

Yesterday, Cheng, along with others across all 50 states at 55 events, advocated for a more substantive dialogue on immigration reform, as opposed to the shouting match that we’ve grown accustomed to recently.

And Cheng has some good data on his side to make such a request. He was part of the effort by New American Economy to bring awareness of the profound impact immigrants have had on our country – not just historically but in very recent years – and released information specific to Virginia to support his case:

• There are more than 1 million immigrants in Virginia today- this is the 8th largest foreign-born population in the U.S. (pp.1)
• 1,010,544 Virginia residents were born aboard (pp.1)
• Virginia immigrant-owned businesses generated $1.8 billion in business income in 2014 (pp.2)
• 66,656 immigrants in Virginia are self-employed (pp.2)
• Of the 19 Fortune 500 companies based in Virginia, 8 had at least one founder who was an immigrant or the child of an immigrant (pp.3)
• In 2014, immigrant-led households in Virginia earned $36.5 billion (pp.6)
• Through their individual wage contributions, immigrants paid almost $4.7 billion into Social Security and Medicare (pp.6)
• Immigrants made up 12.1% of Virginia’s population in 2014, yet 16% of the employed population in the state (pp. 8)
• Foreign-born Virginians made up 19.9% of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) fields, while they make up 12.1% of Virginia population in 2014 (pp. 12)
• In 2014, students on temporary visas made up roughly 1 of every 10 students earing a STEM Master’s degree at Virginia’s universities. They also made up 36.1% of students earning a PhD-level degree in STEM (pp. 12)

The entire report can be found here.

This is not to say there are not legitimate concerns regarding our immigration system that Cheng would like to see addressed. He sees immigration reform as a larger issue that Congress must begin to address and that H-1B Visa status would be a good first step. But we need to have a discussion based on facts.

Listen to Secretary Cheng discuss the workforce in the new Virginia economy:

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