Friday in NEO
- where's our unique value today? Start at the City Club for lunch with
Ambassador Ross, speaking on the what’s next for

After the Death of Yasser Arafat, What’s
Next for Israel and Palestine?

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Feel free to join the Friendship Foundation of American-Vietnamese (Hoi Ban Huu Viet-MY), this Friday evening, Dec. 10th, as we welcome Ambassador Ton Nu Thi Ninh and her high level delegation from Vietnam.

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One thing is for sure: the topic of immigration policy will be heating up in 2005. The reason: high end labor shortages. jeffbuster [at] sbcglobal [dot] net passed along an article from Newsweek that underscores the point. Our research and technology base depends deeply on foreign scientists. Read more

Even worse, we are drying up this source of talent with a cumbersome, ill-advised immigration policy. As the Newsweek article points out: We are facing "a dramatic decline of foreign students in the U.S.—the first shift downward in 30 years".

Passport Professionals event

Sponsor: The British-American Chamber of Commerce and The
Hermit Club

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The National Child Care Information Center website contains a wealth of information for NEO about the economic impact of child care. In recent years, researchers and policy-makers have begun to recognize the important contributions the child care sector makes to the regional economy in both the short and long term. Across the country, states and localities are using regional economic analysis to measure the economic contributions of the child care sector. Click here to find a sample of publications and organizations that have information about the economic impact of child care on state, local, regional, and national economies.

Highlighting the need for a fresh perspective on childcare, Elizabeth Aldred states, "The availability and affordability of high-quality childcare is an economic development issue, an educational issue, and a human services issue. It has both immediate and long-term impacts on schools and employers, as well as on families and the communities in which they live. And if we continue to ignore its importance, we will pay the economic and educational price." Read this article, Childcare solutions require collaboration, by Elizabeth Aldred.

Ashland Univeristy and Ashland Economic Development have a good program to help companies in Ashland County connect with Canada. Read more from this article from Mansfield. 

Go Global Cleveland is a research, advocacy, and outreach
initiative designed to promote greater regional understanding of the importance
that internationals play in local economic development, and the need for NE
Ohio to be a welcoming destination for immigrant entrepreneurs, international technology talent, and foreign
direct investment.

According
to the National Association of International Educators, international students
to NE Ohio colleges and universities contribute over $100,000,000 to the
regional economy per year. Ohio’s nearly
19,000 international students (and their family members) made a net
contribution to the State economy of over $425,000,000 in 2002-2003. Read on to consider related opportunities - entire proposal is attached at the bottom of this posting.

Job creation, repopulation, and
rehabilitation of distressed housing stock, present the most difficult
challenges to Cleveland’s West Side neighborhoods. Entrepreneurial immigrants are an untapped
resource to help revitalize and repopulate the West Side neighborhoods. Why? Two reasons: high ratio of
entrepreneurship in immigrant communities; and population growth in U.S. cities
are predominantly driven by immigrant influx. Read the intruction to the following Pilot Program proposal below and follow the link and the bottom of this posting for the complete proposal:

The following Washington Post article puts the immigration issue and opportunity in economic development perspective, regarding NEO. From 1980-2000, foreign-born population of Cleveland sank 11 percent. Cleveland -- in earlier times known as a city of immigrants -- has joined
the ranks of cities seeking more immigrants. Civic and ethnic groups have
mounted major immigration forums over a three-month period. This region
is suffering an "entrepreneurial drought." Residents need only look
across the Great Lakes to the "bustling international metropolis of
Toronto" to see the difference. Toronto's population is 43 percent
foreign-born, Cleveland's only 5 percent. Read the entire article, posted here. 

In an increasingly global economy, highly skilled and entrepreneurial
immigrants provide the necessary bridge to the talent, business, and
capital in their homeland. The risk-taking factor in the immigrant
community, coupled with scientific accomplishment, internal networks
providing seed capital, and access to inexpensive overseas labor markets,
provide a formidable combination for local economic development. Recent
studies show that immigrants to the U.S. are much more likely to be
entrepreneurs than native-born Americans. For some immigrant groups, the
entrepreneurship rate is 2 to 3 times greater than the American-born
population. As a result, Northeast Ohio is less connected to global
opportunities (particularly in emerging markets), and remains vulnerable
to adverse consequences of globalization.

My thanks
to Ed Morrison and Betsey Merkel of REI for leading a vibrant discussion last Tuesday@REI
on the importance of international human capital (students, entrepreneurs,
knowledge workers, venture capitalists, etc.) to the future of NE Ohio. I am
pleased by their further interest in a potential collaboration between CASE/REI
and CSU/URBAN AFFAIRS COLLEGE in holding a national conference/workshop
entitled: â€œAttraction, Integration,
Retention of International Talent to Post-Industrial, Depopulating Cities.�

Regarding
this issue, Harvard Business Review and American Demographics Magazine this
month feature articles by/about Richard Florida who argues that nations and
regions that do the best job in attracting international talent (the best minds
the world has to offer, and very mobile) will prosper in the new global
market. 

The 11/16/04 Tuesday@REI session surfaced one of the most serious problems being confronting by America, our region, and Case today - the fact foreigners are not interested to visit, work, and study in America at levels seen in the past. This is in fact a reason for the most pressing and escalating outsourcing issues surfacing today, that American knowledge-based jobs and important innovations are being realized in foreign regions having greater talent than here - its not just about cheap labor.

Enlightened economic strategy appreciates diversity in population, education and workforce development, including attracting and retaining excellent international inputs through promoting immigration and visas for foreign entrepreneurs, students and workers. Because of current national and local economic, political and global conflict issues, America is facing a crisis of poor inflow of international talent - the world's best and brightest are not coming to America at previous levels, and that is of concern for USA and NEO universities, employers, and overall economic development. Addressing these issues in NEO offers opportunities and competitive advantages here. Read and post related information in this area of REALNEO.