Regional Competitiveness and Latino Integration

Keynote Remarks:

• Mayor Sam Adams, City of Portland
• Speaker of the House Dave Hunt, Oregon House of Representatives

Panel: Workforce Development and the Latino Community:

• Mayor Sam Adams, City of Portland
• Gary Furr, Chief Operations Officer, J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co.
• Wim Wiewel, President, Portland State University
• Jason Marczak, Director of Policy, Americas Society and Council of the Americas (Moderator)

Welcoming/Opening Remarks:

• John Aguirre, Director, Oregon Association of Nurseries
• Gale Castillo, President, Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber
• Christopher Sabatini, Senior Director of Policy, Americas Society and Council of the Americas; Editor-in-Chief, Americas Quarterly

Summary

Since 2007 Americas Society and Council of the Americas has catalogued and showcased programs and policies that promote integration with the goal of creating more opportunities for the upward mobility of Latinos and the overall U.S. immigrant population. Through local and national meetings and a new website (www.hispanicintegration.org) that serves as a resource for the public to learn about the role of Latinos in the U.S. today, AS/COA is working to better equip Latinos with the tools to enter into the middle class and to bring to the forefront the many socio-economic contributions of this increasing segment of the U.S. population.

To raise awareness about Latinos’ contributions to Portland, OR, and the importance of workforce integration efforts, AS/COA hosted a lunch discussion attended by approximately 120 guests. The program was part of a larger AS/COA series of public events and private meetings in new gateway cities, including New Orleans, LA, Nashville, TN, Omaha, NE, and Atlanta, GA. In the Portland metropolitan area Latinos are the largest foreign-born group at 38.2 percent.

Workforce Development and the Latino Community

With Portland currently positioning itself as a leader in high-tech, manufacturing, active wear, and green industries, a key concern is how to ensure that a local workforce is developed to meet future employment needs.

Mayor Adams spoke of the lack of access to education for many Portlanders due to the disparity between the “haves” and “have nots.” According to the mayor, “it’s a shameful reality that Portland has some of the best and worst high schools in the state.” He emphasized that Portland can and will do better. For one, the city is addressing the equity gap faced by foreign-born citizens who may have sub-par English-language skills. With national recognition, Portland has developed and is working to expand a program of on-site English proficiency courses, which allow workers to gain basic language skills and to eventually move up the job and pay-scale ladder.

But one of the real keys is addressing access to higher education. Wim Wiewel sees a real need to address college preparatory training at the high school level and is leading Portland State University’s efforts to develop new programs to reach out to schools. Latinos currently account for 4 percent of Portland State University’s population but 20 percent of the city’s high school enrollment. An increase in parental involvement would also facilitate students’ potential path to tertiary education.

This percentage gap can be reduced through collaboration between academic institutions, private sector and public sector. Once at the university, Wiewel noted that the retention and graduation rate of Latinos is actually 1 percentage point higher than that of the non-Hispanic white population. Speaker Hunt emphasized Oregon’s support of the Dream Act, which he says “simple means allowing Oregon’s children to attend Oregon’s schools.”

From the private-sector viewpoint, Gary Furr spoke of how the nursery business requires high-skill workers and that his company offers education and loan reimbursement programs for worker training purposes. These programs, along with opportunities to move up the corporate ladder, have a secondary effect of contributing to employee retention. Some of his Latino employees have been with the company for over 25 years.

Eliminating Stereotypes and Misperceptions

Misinformation and stereotypes hamper the overall integration of the Latino population and immigrants overall. Gary Furr noted the false perception that immigrant workers are getting paid under the table and are not paying taxes. In fact, the opposite is true: Latino immigrants contribute significantly to the economy—both as employees and entrepreneurs.

Speaker Hunt emphatically called for state and federal legislative policies that do not evoke anti-immigrant sentiment. For example, on the issue of driver’s licenses: “We’ve got to make sure that we are not using driver’s licenses as a tool to bash any Oregonians—immigrant or non-immigrant. It’s a tool to make sure people know how to drive,” said the speaker.

Mayor Adams concluded by noting that diversity is very new in Portland and that there is still work to be done in making sure that this new reality is embraced and that inclusion is achieved. He mentioned that new initiatives, such as the Oregon Latino Agenda for Action, a coalition identifying key policy needs in the Latino community in Portland, will be instrumental in paving the way.