Reflection / For WIZARD KIM

Running Header: ANALYZING AN EDITORIAL ARTICLE 1

ANALYZING AN EDITORIAL ARTICLE 6

Analyzing an Editorial Article

Casey Lee

American Public University

BUSN410: Critical Thinking for Business Decisions

12/18/2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/opinion/sunday/immigrants-and-small-business.html

The article is about immigrants and how their driving force to entrepreneurship; they have the synergy to move from their native lands for whatever reasons and to start businesses in the U.S. The writer explains the research findings of Fiscal Policy Institute which reveals that immigrants own most of the small businesses in the U.S. The writer further explains how the businesses contribute to the economy of the country by offering employment to other people and through taxes. Most of the entrepreneurs are Mexican, followed by Indians, Koreans, Cubans, and Chinese. They mostly concentrate on business services, social services, construction, retail, and hospitality businesses. The highest number of immigrants who are in small businesses are found in California, which hosts 33% of the total immigrant entrepreneurs in the U.S. New York, and New Jersey has 29% and 28%, respectively (Bhachu, 2017). The writer also points out the hostility that the entrepreneurs face in the hands of political leaders who are racists.

The premises in the article gravitate towards the notion that even though immigrants entrepreneurs majorly contribute to the economy of the U.S., the government has done so little to ensure that they are not discriminated against on a racial basis. The writer reveals how some Republican leaders such as Mayor Michael, Rupert Murdoch, and Mitt Romney have together limited the immigrants from getting involved in business and, worse still, made an effort to ensure that they are kicked out of the country. The writer explains that if the Republican leaders can look at Arizona and Alabama where economic growth in those parts is majorly contributed to by the efforts of Latino's bodegas and laundries, they would realize how much the immigrants do to support the economy of the country and to fight poverty as well.

The writer gives statistical evidence of immigrants' businesses in the U.S.A as researched and recorded by the Fiscal Policy Institute. The data was sourced from census data, which is a credible source of information. The writer highlights the fact that among small business owners in the U.S, 900,000, which is 18% of the total, are immigrants. According to the 2007 data, which is the latest available source, the immigrants who are business owners had employed 4.7 million people, and there were $776 billion receipts. The writer says that the statistics showed that the 2007 statistics showed that there was a 30% growth of small businesses in the U.S. Independently, the data is credible since, per se, immigrants are most likely to start small businesses as compared to Americans. California is a hotbed of immigrants’ entrepreneurship.

Immigrants start and own all kinds of business from strip mall restaurants to some of the largest entrepreneurial businesses in California. It suffices to say that they have massively contributed to the development and the shaping of California’s economy. The media has been revealing how Korean entrepreneurs have been facing hostility from the government; they are only allowed to invest in areas of the low economy, thus putting them at risk of robberies, a stagnant economy, boycotts, and general rejection from the American natives (Min, 2017).

The writer powerfully depicts the counter-arguments in the article. The essence of having immigrant entrepreneurs and their contribution to stabilizing the economy of the U.S. is portrayed. The writer then points out the hostility and the injustices that the immigrants face in their businesses, starting and developing them face under the eyes of the same government whose economy is being advanced and stabilized. The writer even points out the Republican leaders who have publicly been hostile to the immigrants. He further challenges the Republican leaders and all the American natives to check out Alabama and Arizona, whose economy would be currently worse if no immigrant small business owners were shaping it. He goes ahead to challenge the people who discriminate against the business owners to stop viewing the immigrants as "a sea of troubles." Instead, they should see the as “a deep well of capitalist energy" that is on wait to be fully tapped to generate more income.

The writer reveals that he has an interest in the effort that the immigrants are making, and it is the high time that the government opens its eyes to see the impact that the immigrants have in stabilizing the economy. Sadly, the government is pulling the entrepreneurs' efforts (Wang & Liu, 2015). The writer even calls the immigrant entrepreneurs " a deep well of capitalist energy," which is a strong metaphor that means that the immigrants have so much potential and synergy. Their contribution to the economy is, sadly, ignored. The writer is fighting for the full legitimacy of immigrants' businesses and the fact that they should be treated as equally as American small business owners without discrimination.

The writer's article uses simple language that is easily understandable by the general public. Any general audience can easily comprehend the writer's message. The writer gives a wise and realistic explanation of whom immigrant entrepreneurs are and in a way that will make the audience have a positive perspective towards them. They are described as people with ambition to move from their home countries and the confidence to build businesses in distant lands to grow them as well as develop the economy. The writer also uses metaphors such as referring to the immigrants as a 'sea of troubles", a perspective used by American natives to mean that immigrant small business owners are extremely troublesome or they bring more troubles than good in the U.S.'s economy. Another metaphor, " a deep well of capitalist energy," is also used by the writer as a perfect description of the intensity and the infinite potential that immigrant employees must contribute to the economy of America.

There are no errors in the development of the knowledge, the evidence, and the statistics that the writer has used in the article. The statistical data is sourced from the census data, and the comparison between the growth in business has been made over a wide range of years; 1990, 2007, and 2010, which is a good enough range to conclude from. The only fallacy that the writer commits is failing to identify the other causes of hostility that would make the government or the stated Republican leaders limit the businesses that the small business immigrants are involved in. The writer fully leans on one side of the argument and blames the government for the cases of hostility, especially racial discrimination. He fails to show the government's or the Republican politicians' side of the story. There are also no quoted passages in the article to reveal the thoughts of the government or even the immigrants. The passages would have spiced up the piece and made it more authentic than it currently is.

Overall, the writer has compiled a compelling article; the premise is well depicted, proved, and supported. The audience now knows the essence of immigrant small business owners to the economy of America and the sad reality of the hostility that the government and the leaders who are expected to be in full support of any legal business that is contributing to the stabilization and the growth of the economy. The writer makes the audience aware of the fact that it is the high time that the government and American natives fully support the small business immigrants since they are a deep well of capitalist energy that needs to be tapped and not a sea of troubles as they are majorly seen.

References:

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/opinion/sunday/immigrants-and-small-business.html

Bhachu, P. (2017). Immigration and entrepreneurship: culture, capital, and ethnic networks. Routledge.

Min, P. G. (2017). Korean Immigrants in Los Angeles 1. In Immigration and Entrepreneurship (pp. 185-204). Routledge.

Wang, Q., & Liu, C. Y. (2015). Transnational activities of immigrant-owned firms and their performances in the USA. Small Business Economics, 44(2), 345-359.