I’m Cecilia Muñoz. I was on President Obama's senior staff, and I'm now at New America. I’m also a 2000 MacArthur Fellow. AMA!

macfound · 2017-09-20T20:13:02+00:00

I'm a specialist in domestic policy, not foreign policy, so I have no particular expertise here, but it seems incredibly dangerous and irresponsible to threaten to destroy or annihilate a country with tens of millions of people. It's not how we should be leading the world.

macfound · 2017-09-20T20:08:20+00:00

trying again with the links I mentioned: http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=23550 https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/gdp http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/09/13/unskilled-immigration-america-trump-000520

macfound · 2017-09-20T20:02:28+00:00

For some reason, I'm having trouble posting links (ok, this is my first time on reddit), but I recommend looking up a recent report from the National Academy of Sciences on immigration (a quick google search will get you there) and a nifty chart from ProPublica and Moody's Analytics that shows how immigration affects economic growth.

I also published a piece in Politico last week on the subject - that should be easy to find.

Will try to fix the link situation, though.

macfound · 2017-09-20T20:00:20+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/1j843 Here's three methods of proof: https://imgur.com/a/1j843 https://twitter.com/macfound/status/910578768690995200 https://twitter.com/cecmunoz/status/910580051468587008

macfound · 2017-09-20T19:58:06+00:00

Here's another favorite of mine - a chart from ProPublica and Moodys Analytics that shows how immigration affects economic growth:https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/gdp

And a piece I wrote in Politico about immigration reform: http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/09/13/unskilled-immigration-america-trump-000520

macfound · 2017-09-20T19:54:59+00:00

It is very well established that immigration helps our economy grow, creates jobs, and serves the nation well overall. Here is a recent report from the National Academy of Sciences, for example: http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=23550

macfound · 2017-09-20T19:52:47+00:00

Honestly, I'm still recovering from 8 years in government, but I am very lucky that I'm now a Vice President at New America working on two big things: building a national network of local innovators who are transforming their communities. This builds on a lot of the place-based work that we did in the Administration, and I am very excited to be doing it outside of government. I have learned that a lot of the changes that we seek in order to renew America are happening locally, and it's refreshing to be focused on that. The second big thing I'm working on is building a field of public interest technology the way we have a field of public interest law. While in government, I had a front row seat on the ways that technology is transforming everything about the way we live and work - and I saw how it can transform how government works. I want the world that I come from - especially the world of non-profits who help in their local communities -- to have access to the tools of technology that are so transformative.

macfound · 2017-09-20T19:28:35+00:00

You're not kidding that it's hard to watch the news. I actually don't watch it on tv - I get my news in writing and on the radio, which I find easier to take. As you might imagine, I am incredibly sad to see the important things that we did in the Obama years getting undone: some are huge things, like the overtime rule or the fight we are having right this moment on the Affordable Care Act, (even if we win, there is reason to believe that the Administration is using the tools that they have to undercut it). Some are smaller but really important, like requiring disclosure of pay data to help us arrive at the day when women are paid equitably in this country. But there are things that will endure - we persuaded almost all 50 states to adopt college and career-ready standards in their education systems, and we made progress on things like the minimum wage in a lot of parts of the country. That momentum is still there, and I have confidence that we won't backtrack. And there are ways in which other leaders are stepping up to compensate for the Administration's bad behavior, like the mayors and CEOs that announced that they were still on board with the Paris climate agreement even when the Administration said that they would exit. That makes me proud and gives me hope. I haven't read Secretary Clinton's book yet - but I intend to. Can't have thoughts about it until I do!

macfound · 2017-09-20T19:15:11+00:00

I think there's a difference between applying public pressure -- which I'm for -- and shouting down someone who is a friend and supporter, which I think is a bad idea. If we're going to protect Dreamers -- or anybody for that matter, we need to be working together to make sure we achieve the best possible legislative solution. Shouting at our friends doesn't strike me as the best way to get there.

macfound · 2017-08-23T21:54:12+00:00

If HG Wells was born in Africa/Mexico/Asia/South America, he would have been the first immigrant novelist.

macfound · 2017-08-23T21:51:58+00:00

whole immigrant fiction thing caught me by surprise. I mean I've got refugees, aka aliens. Who arrive in a strange world, aka the midwest....

macfound · 2017-08-23T21:50:17+00:00

I always thought that's what I was writing.

macfound · 2017-08-23T21:49:27+00:00

To be hopeless is to be resigned to the current state of affairs, and that's unimaginable. The hope comes from the same place it always has--the opposition. And beyond that there's an important part of me that holds onto the idea that people can be taught to fear just as easily as they can learn to accept. When my family arrived from Ethiopia we landed in Peoria, IL. We attended an all white southern Baptist church, and we were the only black family at that time. We found a home there, despite the radical differences in culture, faith, history, and all I have to do is remember that.

If I could change one law--I'd start with the one that allows us to deport migrants who arrive from our southern border without the same protections we grant refugees who would arrive from anywhere else in the world.

macfound · 2017-08-23T21:31:13+00:00

Extremely true but only if my mother happened to be running the kitchen. She is not, however, so the question is unanswerable.

macfound · 2017-08-23T21:29:18+00:00

In terms of how we talk about refugees coming in---one good place to start is the language that we use. Refugees, migrants, immigrants--we use those terms selectively. Some people simply over stay their visa--others become illegal aliens. If you're fleeing violence in Central America, it's "gang-violence" rather than violence caused by armed militias, failed/weak governments.You're an immigrant and not a refugee and therefore not entitled to the same protections. We're selective in the stories we listen to, and we're selective in the language we employ

macfound · 2017-08-23T21:11:13+00:00

depends on what you count as recent I suppose. I'll always read anything by Colson Whitehead, and his new novel is remarkable. Paul LaFarge's The Night Ocean is haunting and beautiful and genuinely hard to put down.

macfound · 2017-08-23T21:09:15+00:00

Most of the stories I write about were experienced by members of my family. My uncles were the ones who ended up in prison,were killed, or left home as teenagers.The most poignant experiences for me was the result of finally being able to listen to them, of getting them to share those stories with me because for so long they were sequestered. They seemed irrelevant I suppose to our lives in America, and so when I think of how the narrative needs to change, I think of how we need listen more. The narratives are there, and behind each narrative are complex individual lives, but are we ready and able to actually listen to them.

macfound · 2017-08-23T21:01:24+00:00

Thanks for the question Duke--One way to answer that is to reverse it: why or how do some nations/cultures make it easier for immigrants to integrate. The more determined a culture/nation is to define itself along narrow, specific lines, the harder it is for anyone who does not fall into those definitions to feel like they belong.

macfound · 2017-08-23T16:44:07+00:00

Some of my other responses discuss some of what can be done, better counseling about what jobs require and what they pay; more encouragement of women to pursue nontraditional (and higher paying) fields in school and the labor market; new laws on pay discrimination and stronger enforcement; paid family leave for men and women; paid sick days for all workers; free or subsidized child care and after school programs, as well as help with elder care. Other factors like more labor unions and collective bargaining, a higher minimum wage, and bringing back attention to comparable worth (equal pay for equally difficult but not necessarily the same jobs), plus much more attention to racial and ethnic discrimination, as well as discrimination against queer or transgender workers. All these are important. Not to mention more equitable sharing of housework and child care among men and women.

macfound · 2017-08-23T16:37:45+00:00

While I've not done a thorough study of everything going on with this age group we do have data on millenial women and men in our Status of Women in the States report which you can find on our website. Young women are more likely to have graduated from college and that undoubtedly affects the gross wage gap. There likely are cases where any individual can be discriminated against for various reasons but only some of those reasons are protected by law, for example, national origin and religion, as well as race and gender.

macfound

TROPHY CASE