The director of FPI’s Immigration Research Initiative, David Dyssegaard Kallick, was invited to testify before the Congressional Small Business Committee about the role of immigrant businesses in the economic recovery after Covid.
Kallick talked about two recovery scenarios: A Main Street-centered rebuilding that picks up on some innovations from the Covid period such as outdoor restaurants, expanded pedestrian areas, and bike paths that have transformed many downtowns and urban centers in very positive ways. This scenario would entail Main Streets as vibrant places where people meet, walk around, and poke into locally owned stores and restaurants. And immigrants would play a big role in that.
The other is an online and on-the-outskirts rebuilding scenario that leaves Main Streets relatively empty, with Amazon and big box stores the big winners.
Click below to:
See the hearing on video (testimony starts at 19:30).