For 86 years, Jewish Vocational Service Boston (JVS) has been a pivotal force in supporting individuals–including immigrants from around the world–towards financial independence. Through training programs, skills development, and English-language education, JVS Boston helps the people it serves secure new or better employment opportunities in high-growth industries and realize the American Dream. Kira Khazatsky, whose family was served by JVS Boston when they fled the Soviet Union in the 1980s, is JVS Boston’s CEO.
This blog is part of a series where we interview clients and colleagues on the topic of how Massachusetts can build on our strengths in turbulent times.
How is the current federal landscape impacting your work or your industry?
The impact is enormous. Many of our clients are just stunned. They’ve done everything they were told to do—followed the rules, waited for work authorization, completed training, and contributed to society. Now, so many of them are experiencing sadness, anxiety, and fear as they face loss of work authorization and even deportation. We have worked with many people who have been admitted to the United States under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), who have been tremendously successful and in several cases are literally leading departments in hospitals and other organizations. They are some of the best employees these workplaces have–yet they’re now living in terror of getting deported.
What do you see as Massachusetts’ biggest strengths in this moment?
From our perspective, one of the Commonwealth’s greatest strengths is the sheer number of employers who know and appreciate the value of hiring immigrants and who know what talented, devoted, and hard-working employees they can be. I talk to business leaders every week who understand that if we lose access to the immigrant talent pool, they have thousands of jobs they can’t fill. They will literally shut down operations, cut back on opening hours if they’re in fields like retail or hospitality, or pass up on opportunities for profitable growth and expansion that benefit all of us.
We see it every day in the demand for our agency’s services. JVS is continuing to move full speed ahead on making connections between fantastic job seekers who are trained up and ready to work and employers who recognize, even amid all this uncertainty, that they need to operate and grow. Even as we’re all trying to figure out how we best make our voices heard, the Massachusetts employer community overwhelmingly wants us to remain a state that appreciates and cherishes the value and talent immigrants bring to us.
What would you say to other Massachusetts leaders about where we go from here?
I acknowledge that it feels, right now, like there is a lot of silence from people and organizations you might think should be speaking up and speaking out. I do know, however, that lots of internal conversations are happening, every day, between businesses, employers of all kinds, non-profits, advocates, people affected by these policies.
I would describe this as a stunned silence–and a temporary silence, as many business leaders are strategizing every day about what their response to the changes will be. Businesses in particular are working to understand the impact of these immigration policies and actions and threats of action. They want to be able to make, at the right time, a really good argument and a really good case and one that will best reach the people who need to hear and act on it. I know they will.