Several years ago our local Chamber of Commerce brought in a renowned demographer to talk with a large group of business and civic leaders about the future impact of immigration (legal and illegal) on our community of 100 000 people.  “Your community will soon experience the full force of a tsunami of brown young unemployed fertile sometimes violent non-English speaking immigrants from the South. It is going to affect every institution and as it has everywhere else the economic resources of your city and region.”  I raised my hand and asked him if he thought there were any opportunities or should we all move to Switzerland and wait it out?  I agree it was a snide question but his bias upset me.  He said his job was just reporting facts – not looking for opportunities.  Afterwards a number of us huddled and decided we would fund our own research and look for economic opportunities in the wave moving in our direction.  As it turns out ” over 300 Hispanic-owned businesses have been identified and grown since that day. He did us a favor.

Claudia Kolker does us another favor with her book “The Immigrant Advantage” published last year.  “Now living in Houston” Kolker — who has reported for the Los Angeles Times  The Economist  The Boston Globe and theHouston Chronicle — drew on her experiences as a world traveler to focus on what traditions first-generation immigrants bring to this country. In her new book  The Immigrant Advantage Kolker discusses more than a half-dozen practices brought from wherever different people call “the old country.” These include a Vietnamese savings club called a hui ” an age-old Mexican practice of caring for a mother for 40 days after giving birth called a cuarentena and after-school study habits of Asian students.” 

For me” most important is her broad look at the smart ideas that immigrants of all stripes bring to their adopted country and culture.  There are many things they choose to leave behind because they are rotten practices but those they carry on make life in America better for all of us.  Some of the most enduring are food customs.  They live for generations when dress language and other rituals are lost in assimilation.  However even when those things fade away they leave behind contributions that enrich everyone.  The book is about good habits and traditions those last – family values thrift revering grandparents and their wisdom.  This is not about the politics of immigration but about the net benefits of importing the strengths and customs of other cultures.