Immigration Clampdown: The threat to Brooklyn’s economy
When Zaid Nagi started his first business in 2005, he had just $5,000 in cash and had to borrow $20,000 more. Today Nagi, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1994 as a teenager, owns five cellphone stores and a bodega in the city.
He owes much of that success to fellow Yemenis who have immigrated to the U.S. Nagi, 36, has hired about 15 people from Yemen who arrived through the Diversity Immigrant Visa program, a lottery that allows people from countries with few migrants to the U.S. apply for a lottery to enter the country.
Diversity Visa winners make good managers, said Nagi. They tend to be well educated and are at the beginning of their careers, he said. It gives him the best of both worlds: skilled employees willing to work for less than someone born in the U.S. who has the same qualifications. After a couple of years working as employees, it is not uncommon for managers to leave and start their own businesses, some of which Nagi has invested in.