Chris Clark: “We have to differently about immigration, uh, and how we work with these other countries over the longterm to get the skilled talent, healthcare professionals that we’re gonna need.”
- The Georgia Chamber of Commerce on “global talent and immigration.”
- The Georgia Chamber of Commerce on “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.”
Transcript by Rev.com
My cost: $12.00 and about 1.5 hours.
We note that the usual interview at Zoller’s show is 10 minutes. This one was the entire show hour.
GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:
So, hey, we, we- Don’t get me wrong, we still have alphas that are in our schools, but, as I said, the schools are getting smaller, we have to think differently ’bout how we train the kids that are here. We have to (do?) differently about immigration, uh, and how we work with these other countries over the longterm to get the skilled talent, healthcare professionals that we’re gonna need.
radio show host Martha Zoller:
And, um, l- like what you said about we have to work differently about immigration, and I certainly think that, um, you know, we, we focus a lot on the illegal immigration. And I think rightfully so right now because there is a problem at our border right now because we have immigrated legally over the last three years about 1.1 million a year, but it looks like the number we know of is about 2.8 million coming across the border each year in the last three years. So that’s, like, 7% of the population in three years. It’s, it’s a lot to deal with.
But I think the answer to that is fixing our legal immigration system, which is a mess right now. Um, and they’re, you know, I liked the RAISE Act, okay? Uh, it didn’t go anywhere but I think it was focused on merit and it was focused on what we needed, and it was focused on clearly the backlog of people that were waiting in line the right way and getting people into skills. So what’s your vision on that?
GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:
Yeah, listen, I, I don’t disagree that you have to secure the border, but we also, a- and this maybe goes back to, to safe a little bit more, Martha, than anything else. You gotta stop demonizing those people that come from other countries that are different. Um, we’ve got to fix the federal system, and this was, you know, this was a two administration, Republican and Democrat’s, problem.
But the system during COVID, probably if you went back to 2014 or 15, you would bring through either Permanent Worker’s, Green Card Worker’s, Temporary Worker’s at about 3 million a year. They’ve skilled trades, our farmers needing them, our tech co- tech companies needing them, our, uh, hospitality, retail needing them. Uh, and here’s the statistics to keep in mind longterm f- for those of you that, that struggle with this – 24% of all nurses in America are immigrants. That’s your caregiver population that is so vitally needed right now.
So, yeah, uh, we need to have more judges to processes them. Uh, the Biden administration has drug their feet, they’ve been unwilling to hire, um, the judges and the additional staff that they need to process those men and women that are trying to get here legally. I- I’ll give you a great example. Um, there’s a hospital in south Georgia that has traditionally brought in foreign nurses on a temporary basis, rotating them in and out. Some stay, get their permanent legal residence. They, they found a couple, husband and wife from Central America that, uh, you know, have their master’s degree in nursing, they were fantastic. Uh, the hospital did all the recruitment, moved them up here, and then the w- the, the wife was able to get her documentation, everything she needed. She’s working in that hospital right now, providing incredible care, but the husband is still waiting for the federal government to process his paperwork.
radio show host Martha Zoller:
Oh, I- You know, we could-
GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:
Unbelievable.
radio show host Martha Zoller:
If we started telling those stories, Chris, we’ll be here all day.
GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:
(laughs)
radio show host Martha Zoller:
I’ll tell you one. A girl that worked for me in a, as a intern about 10 years ago who was from Rwa- Rwanda. She finished her degree in, uh, at Cornell and got her master’s degree at Texas. She is a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda. It’s her and her sister, the only two people that are left. The rest of her family were killed, okay? Uh, her father made it through a little bit but has since died. But, but, you know, she went here, her sister has a Green Card and is living in Atlanta and s- at the e- after she got her master’s degree she got sent home and she has not been able to get back in.
When her u- You know, we talk about asylum seekers, this is a legitimate-
GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris clark:
Yeah.
radio show host Martha Zoller:
… Survivor of, (laughs) you know, of a genocide.
GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:
Right.
radio show host Martha Zoller:
Okay?
GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:
Yeah.
radio show host Martha Zoller:
And her only living relative is living and working as an accountant in Atlanta, and she has a master’s degree from a United States college and she can’t back into the country.
GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris clark:
Yeah.
radio show host Martha Zoller:
So there, there are a million stories like that.
GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:
Right.
radio show host Martha Zoller:
And it gets frustrating for people who are trying to either bring workers in, or bring peop- or people coming in, like, on H-1B visas.
GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:
Yeah.
radio show host Martha Zoller:
I mean, I had meetings all the time when I was at Senator Perdue’s office with these families that are in limbo because things are moving so slowly.
GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:
Well, I didn’t- And, and when you were in that-
radio show host Martha Zoller:
Well, I’m sure you’d beat him too.
GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:
That- We do and, and the other part of that is you still have farmers who have problems bringing the crops in from the fields, three years later now. Um, and so it, it does impact every section of the economy and it, and it will continue. I mean, right now we expect the immigrant workforce population in Georgia to be about 12.5% by 2028. That number should probably be 15 to 16%. Um, and, a we said before, longterm, 10, 20 years from now, it’s gonna need to be higher than that.
radio show host Martha Zoller:
Right. Right. We got a lot of work to do. Hey, we’re gonna take one final break and then we’re gonna wrap things up when we come back and just give- Uh, we’ll talk about what are the opportunities going forward and how we can take this information o-
