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Loan program for immigrants: discuss
Submitted by Ray Murphy on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 8:05am.
"Chinese millionaires turned away" was an eye-catching headline this morning. Here's the basic summary from the Inky:
Close to 150 Chinese millionaires want to help Philadelphia expand its Convention Center, but the center's board wants no part of their cash.
...
For the Chinese, the money represents a legal way to expedite access to U.S. "green cards" for permanent residency. Adhering to the requirements of a nearly 20-year-old federal immigration program, they have each plunked down $500,000 in an escrow account at a U.S. bank.
For the state, that money - $73.5 million - could be a cheap way for the Convention Center to borrow funds to cover some of the expansion's construction costs, which are projected to surge over the $700 million budgeted. (Under the loan program, the money would be repaid, over five years, at a remarkably low interest rate of 2.5 percent.)
Read the whole article here.
What do you think? Xenophobia? Larger back story? Real economic concern? What?
I don't know why they are
I don't know why they are doing it- I would guess some xenophobia in a Joey Vento- Hazleton type state, but, it seems pretty dumb.
Get you coming and going
This is disappointing. Someone from the board saying that they didn't want to get involved in immigration policy, turned it into exactly that. If the CCA is letting the politics of immigration (this is LEGAL immigration they are squeamish about) turn away money at below market rates, they have bad business sense and bad politics.
Immigration is the key to Philadelphia's future
Philadelphia owed much of its 2 million resident population peak in the middle of the 20th century to immigration. Today, even cities like NYC + Boston, which are gaining population, would be shrinking were it not for the influx of new immigrants.
Combine these two factors, and it's obvious that Philly *needs* immigrants if it wants to prosper in the 21st century. To think anything else is simply stupid.
-Z
I agree 100%. I've said it
I agree 100%. I've said it about 1000 times on this blog, Philadelphia needs to attract immigrants.
I would like to point out that the PCC, however, by rejecting this loan offer does not make Philadelphia a less friendly a City for immigrants than it already is (or may be). These folks are investors--"millionaires" to be exact. They are not folks who are looking to make Philadelphia their home.
I believe that saying Philadelphia is not immigrant friendly is fine. I do not believe that saying Philadelphia is less immigrant friendly because of this financing deal is correct. I think it is needless conflation.
Well I was unsure from the article
This was a federal program from what I can make of the article that was originally designed to attract Canadian business owners to relocate to the US, bumping them up the naturalization ladder for creating certifiable US jobs. It does not explain why these particular wealthy Chinese businessmen picked the PCC as their "job creating" investment - though I would assume lots of projects would apply. The article is scant on details but I imagine they have some interest in picking the PCC as "their" project - perhaps a real estate investment in nearby Chinatown that might benefit from the expansion as a total random guess. Thats the stupidest thing about this decision though - since the bump up the line at INS comes from making jobs, the PCC boards decision will probably not disuade these businessmen from finding some other project - probably not in Philadelphia - to earn their immigration aiding job credits on. Sheer stupidity.
When the Feds hand you free money you better have better reason than the one cited for turning it down.
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.
If I remember correctly...
Now this is based on a whirlwind car tour I got of Vancouver a few years ago, and frankly at the time I was more attentive to the sites Battlestar Galactica used for exterior sets than I was points about the city's cultural/economic history. Anyway, I remember some mention of banks like HSBC (philly presence) were instrumental in transferring a lot of nervous Hong Kong wealth to North America in '99 (British Columbia's position actually allowed the incredibly rich to live with their families in Vancouver while "commuting" to oversee their business interests in HK. The result was a transformation of some of Vancouver's skyline, lots of tall high-rise apt. buildings more to the emmigres' tastes, etc. I imagine it also wound up with a lot of "new" interests getting "invested" in Vancouver at the time.
I guess Philly/PA's doing the opposite of that. I don't think it's "yellow menace" xenophobia, I think it's simply the state not wanting to feel politically or economically 'beholden' to an otherwise "cloutless" power. It's a shame, because I imagine some of those investors are literal neighbors to the convention center, and you'd figure as a result they'd be more invested in their money being used right.
Clarification
First, the state supports the program; it's members of the Convention Center board who balked as soon as they heard that it had any connections with immigration, even legal immigration as Fabricio points out.
Second, you're right to point out that other cities like Vancouver, Toronto and Sydney have seen significant economic transformation as a result of (specifically Chinese) investment there, but that has had nothing to do with the country of China, it's had to do with people putting down roots in those cities - and not all of them are wealthy. A friend of mine had her sister invest as a way to protect some assets and find an alternative place for herself and family.
But really, there has to be a lot of questions for me about not only xenophobia but out and out racism. Would the board acted the same way had it been the program's other Canadian investors? If the Convention Center board had said it's a complicated issue, so we need to look into it to understand it better, it might be one thing. But for them to say it involves Chinese and immigrants and therefore its a "dead issue" smacks of something else.
The Convention Center sits on half of Chinatown's land and demolished 200 homes. This statement is insult to injury for its Chinatown neighbors.
Thanks for the
Thanks for the clarification. I don't think anyone said that the state of China had anything to do with this, I can't think of a single incident of anti-Chinese immigration ("yellow menace") attitudes in the U.S. that was based in fear of "China" the country. Regarding the economic tranformation of Vancouver, et al of the late 90s, yes people of all economic backgrounds migrated; but you have to admit, when a considerable amount of wealthy Chinese, or any ethnic groups, set down prosperous roots in a new city, that action de facto "leads" a community.
I still wonder whether this is the "simple" racism you're painting this with, or a more subtle form of stupidity on the board's part. By that, I mean it's not simple prejudice or animosity toward particular ethnic groups. Rather, it's a group of image conscious money people worried how "foreign investment" would be perceived, particularly tied with "immigration." Would they have had a problem were it white Canadians or Europeans, or Russians? Probably not because media flame fanners discount them when it comes to the nefarious forces of "foreign investment. Stupid, yes, but I'd say this is 2nd order racism, i.e. fear of a public relations debacle predicated on perception of the "native" population's racial politics. Again, stupid.