NW Diversity Learning Series Workshop #3:
Immigrants: Do They Take Jobs Away From U.S. Citizens?
Wednesday, May 14, 2025 from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM PT
Replacing Myths With Data
A single voter in a viral New York Times focus group declared that immigrants “take our jobs,” and the quote ricocheted through social feeds faster than any Bureau-of-Labor-Statistics chart ever could. As someone who has spent a lifetime challenging misconceptions about disability and productivity, I’ve learned that stories, no matter how shaky, gain power when they go unchallenged. On May 14, 2025 the Northwest Diversity Learning Series will flip that script. Using the Aspen Institute’s Better Arguments Framework, our workshop will give leaders the tools to replace fear-laden myths with data, empathy, and productive dialogue.
Here’s what to expect: we’ll ground the immigration/employment debate in hard evidence, practice the Better Arguments method through real-time exercises, and connect the session to ISDI‘s mission of sustainable inclusion. If you care about factual clarity, civil discourse, and a workforce where everyone can thrive, this is your on-ramp. Register, sponsor, or simply share the invite, because better conversations start when more of us are in the room.
Why Immigration Myths Persist in 2025
The spark for this workshop was a focus-group sound bite, one Pennsylvania voter insisting that “twenty million illegals just took American jobs.” The line fed an algorithmic bonfire because it matches a familiar script: when the economy wobbles or technologies shift, newcomers become convenient villains. From the Chinese Exclusion Act to the post-9/11 suspicion of Arab engineers, U.S. history is dotted with cycles of scapegoating that flare whenever uncertainty meets competition.
But numbers alone rarely extinguish those flames. Employment data show immigrants expand labor demand and fill demographic gaps, yet the myth endures because it touches deeper nerves: fear of status loss, anxiety over cultural change, and the human instinct to simplify complex systems into clear heroes and villains. That emotional fuel is precisely why we pair spreadsheets with the Better Arguments Framework, because you can’t fact-check feelings without first acknowledging them.
The Data vs. the Narrative
First, the macro picture: economists across the political spectrum agree that immigrants are net job creators, not job thieves. They launch businesses at nearly twice the rate of the U.S.-born, fill essential roles from STEM labs to care-giving floors, and, by enlarging consumer demand, spark downstream hiring that drives wages modestly upward for most workers. Layer on our demographic reality: ten thousand Baby Boomers retire every day, and birthrates sit at a fifty-year low. Simply put, America’s labor pipeline can’t meet its own demand without new talent arriving from elsewhere.
That doesn’t mean every concern is imagined. Certain sectors and geographies do feel short-term pressure, meat-packing towns in the Midwest or construction sites in the Sunbelt, for example. Yet even where localized displacement occurs, longitudinal studies show labor markets rebalance as businesses expand and workers retrain. Our May 14, 2025 session tackles these nuances head-on: participants will test-drive arguments that honor legitimate anxieties while anchoring the conversation in verifiable trends, proving that complexity is no excuse for complacency.
The Better Arguments Framework in Action
Our toolkit hinges on three dimensions, historical context, emotional intelligence, and power dynamics, that remind us every debate carries a backstory, a heartbeat, and a hierarchy. Layered onto those dimensions are five principles: prioritize the relationship, listen passionately, embrace vulnerability, take winning off the table, and pay forward what you learn. Together they shift the goal from scoring points to building understanding sturdy enough to survive disagreement.
I saw the framework work last year when a workshop alum told me she finally broached immigration policy with her father, a retired steelworker convinced his plant closed because of “foreign labor.” She began by acknowledging his economic anxiety (emotional intelligence), then traced the mill’s history through automation and trade shifts (historical context), and finally shared how power differentials shape whose stories get airtime. No one flipped sides that night, but both stayed at the table, and scheduled a follow-up call to dig into wage data together. That is victory in the Better Arguments playbook, and it’s the kind of conversational muscle we’ll build on May 14, 2025.
Workshop Spotlight: May 14, 2025 Agenda
Our guide for the morning is Jess Galván, a first-generation Mexican American whose résumé fuses labor-market analytics with frontline refugee work. Jess opens with numbers, how immigrant entrepreneurship and payroll taxes ripple through local economies, then anchors those stats in her own family’s journey from farmworker wages to professional careers. From there we move into live breakouts where participants practice Better Arguments moves on real scenarios.
The session runs from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM Pacific, is fully virtual, offers SHRM and HRCI credits, and includes ASL interpretation and screen-reader-ready materials. Organizations can still claim pro-rated sponsorships, $4,800 buys ten seats for the remaining 2025 workshops, while $22,800 opens unlimited access plus two special events. Individuals are equally welcome via single-session passes or a three-workshop bundle. Register now, lock in your seats, and come ready to test, then refine, your best arguments.
How the Session Fits ISDI’s Sustainable Inclusion Mission
This workshop is no one-off fire drill; it’s a stitch in a 27-year tapestry called the Northwest Diversity Learning Series. More than 15,000 alumni, from line supervisors to C-suite leaders, have carried NWDLS tools back to workplaces across five time zones, and our virtual format now lets anyone with Wi-Fi join the circle. Behind the curriculum stands a board whose expertise interlocks like gears: Effenus Henderson anchors us to ISO 30415 and the Global DEI Benchmarks, Barbara Deane ensures the pedagogy is research-grade, Eddie Pate translates big ideals into daily leader habits, Kimberly Miyazawa Frank ties it all to ESG and public-policy stakes, Amelia Ransom tracks the culture metrics that prove progress, and I keep accessibility front-and-center so every voice can enter the dialogue.
Because each session maps to auditable standards and measurable outcomes, sponsors aren’t buying inspiration; they’re investing in a sustainability engine that holds up under scrutiny from investors, regulators, and employees alike. The May 14, 2025 Workshop is simply the next turn of that flywheel, one more way we convert Better Arguments into better business and stronger communities.
Join Us on May 14, 2025
Immigration myths endure only until evidence meets empathy, and the Better Arguments framework supplies both in equal measure. On May 14, 2025 we’ll combine Jess Galván’s data-rich storytelling with hands-on practice so you can engage colleagues, customers, and community members without slipping into silence or shouting matches.
Your move: secure a sponsorship or individual pass today, repost this article across your networks, invite a teammate who needs these skills, or reach out if your organization wants a tailored follow-up session. Let’s turn friction into shared prosperity; when we widen the tent, we all see farther.
” Inclusion isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s a strategic advantage. “
Dr. Kirk Adams, Ph.D.
Advocate, Leader and Keynote Speaker on Disability Inclusion & Leadership
Leading the Way to Accessible Innovation
Innovative Impact, LLC Consulting
Managing Director
Impactful Workforce Inclusion Starts Here
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