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OPINION

Immigration law needs major updates

Ralph Schulz

Since the 1990s, our region has seen tremendous growth, fueled largely by people choosing to relocate to the Nashville area. Our quality of life, low cost of living and growing cultural diversity are attracting attention from throughout the country and around the world. Nashville continues to grow its reputation as a city and region that welcomes creative and entrepreneurial talent.

Nashville is known as a welcoming, friendly city. It’s simply who we are. That’s an important attribute because the human talent our region needs to continue its prosperity will have to come from both U.S. citizens and immigrants.

Today, the foreign-born population makes up 7 percent of the population of the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area, and this segment continues to grow as a valuable feature of our regional economy. Over the next 10 years, we project there will be more than 20,000 jobs created in the Nashville region for which we don’t have the necessary skilled or knowledgeable workers. Those workers need to come from existing residents of Middle Tennessee and new arrivals, or those jobs will simply move somewhere else.

The current federal immigration law is clearly broken. It doesn’t allow for the entry of enough highly skilled workers to help our new and growing companies and it doesn’t prevent illegal immigration. That why it’s time for comprehensive, common-sense immigration reform.

The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce supports legal immigration, and believes that new legislation must protect our borders while providing work visa programs and a path to citizenship. U.S. senators took a leadership role on this issue by passing a reform bill last year. It’s time for our congressional delegation to do the same, so the two bodies can forge a bipartisan solution. We continue to advocate for constructive discussions surrounding immigration reform that take into account the needs of the U.S. workforce, as well as giving our country the real capability to put a stop to illegal immigration.

Immigrant populations in the U.S. have played an important role in our nation’s economy throughout our history. America always has attracted hard-working, talented individuals drawn by our freedom and prosperity. And as our country competes in a global economy, we need to address our broken immigration system at the national level. It is vital that we strengthen our laws to support economic growth.

As the Nashville region continues to be a national leader for job growth, we must continue to be a welcoming place in which people want to live. A key component to Nashville’s quality of place is its cultural diversity. That’s an important asset that needs to be supported by our country’s immigration policies.

Ralph Schulz is president and CEO of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.