Greater Cleveland Partnership

Public Policy Agenda, 2011-2012

Immigration

GOAL: Urge Congress to focus on immigration reform and authorize a pilot “High Skill
Immigration Zone” in Northeast Ohio.

The Greater Cleveland Partnership played a leadership role recently in helping launch an
unprecedented show of regional unity, the Great Lakes Metro Chamber Coalition, a group
comprising metro chambers from the 12 U.S. Great Lakes states, with representation from the
Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario.
The coalition focuses on six essential areas where it believes the region has potential growth
opportunities: one of which as federal immigration policy.
The regional coalition is an outgrowth of research conducted by the Brookings Institution, which
noted in a 2007 report the diminished economic clout the region has suffered after several
decades of pressures arising from globalization. At the same time, Brookings argued that the
Great Lakes region has several assets that, if leveraged properly, could serve as building blocks
of a reinvigorated regional economy.
The challenges this regional coalition must address are even more acute in light of electoral
changes that are expected to occur in the wake of the 2010 U.S. Census. With this 12-state area
collectively losing population over the last decade, the region will lose Congressional seats and
thus have less political clout, relative to other regions of the country.

The Greater Cleveland Partnership believes that it is critical to establish federal immigration
policy that facilitates significant attraction of international talent to the U.S., while also better
facilitating integration and retention of this broadly diverse talent pool throughout the nation.
We also believe we must create a 21st century northern border with Canada that balances
national security needs with economic security, through identifying and accelerating projects and
technologies that will enhance the movement of both goods and people. We must recognize that
border security issues on our northern border are far different—and less problematic—than the
issues surrounding America’s southern border.
In the shorter term, we believe the public and private sectors should respond to
the particular and pressing need for deeper pools of talent in Great Lakes
metropolitan areas, through the creation of High-Skill Immigration Zones.

Toward that end, the federal government should lift the cap on HB-1 visas
allowed annually. In addition, it should consider the creation of a High-skilled
 Immigration HUBZone Program modeled after the Small Business
Administration’s highly successful HUBZone Program

HUBZone eligibility should be limited to economically distressed areas with

higher-than-national-average unemployment and lower-than-average median
income. The HUBZones would be guaranteed a number of HB-1 Visas annually,
based on greatest need for HB-1 workers. Companies within the HUBZones
would register to participate in the program, thereby guaranteeing them access to
a certain number of HB-1 Visas on an annual basis. We believe this concept could
be tested through a pilot program focused on economically distressed
metropolitan areas in the Great Lakes Region. We believe that test would
demonstrate the result of such a program would be considerable economic
progress.

Strengthen Global Connections. The global competitiveness of the region and its
companies is tied to having world-class physical and human capital assets along with
organizational capacities that support and increase commerce with the rest of the world.

Prosperous, growing regions tend to share several common ingredients, but

perhaps chief among them are world-class infrastructure and a welcoming
attitude to a diverse array of talented immigrants from around the world.

The Greater Cleveland Partnership believes Northeast Ohio must continue to focus on those
crucial elements of our success in order to maintain our historically close connections with the
rest of the world.