What’s America’s superpower? Immigration, says Global Refuge’s Krish O’Mara Vignarajah

What’s the superpower behind a global superpower?

Global Refuge President & CEO Krish O’Mara Vignarajah recently took the stage at TEDxApex Women in Apex, North Carolina to make the case that the United States owes its preeminence on the global stage to one key asset: immigration.

According to O’Mara Vignarajah, immigration is America’s superpower. Immigrants support economic growth, drive innovation, and provide the workforce needed to support thriving communities.

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Though the political environment has sparked divisive rhetoric and negative attitudes about immigration, she argues, the hard work, determination, and creativity of our immigrant population has helped us through the hardest times in our nation’s history and helped facilitate some of the best.

“While we –– like other nations –– have the drive, the grit, the spirit from those born in our country to innovate, grow, and achieve great things, we also have another gift,” she says. “It’s something no other nation has on the scale that we do, a superpower, unique to our nation’s DNA and central to the notion of the American Dream. Our superpower as a Superpower is immigration.”

O’Mara Vignarajah joined women from across industries and backgrounds to explore the topic “What's Next” on October 12, 2024. Her complete TEDx talk was released on October 30, 2024 and is available on YouTube.

In the talk, O’Mara Vignarajah stresses that the American economy could not survive without robust immigration, and that American citizens benefit from immigration more than they may realize. She points out several iconic American inventions that were actually developed by immigrants.

“If you’re carrying an iPhone, thank the son of a Syrian immigrant. If you used Zoom for a meeting, thank a Chinese immigrant. If you like hamburgers, blue jeans, basketball, Old Bay seasoning – in my view, Baltimore’s greatest contribution to the world –– thank 1st and 2nd generation immigrants.

O’Mara Vignarajah also shares her own immigration story and speaks to the potential immigrants have to continue to transform the United States for the better.

“America has an aging population and the lowest birth rate since the census started tracking it,” she shares. “We have a federal debt north of $35 trillion. And we face a climate crisis that is estimated to cost us tens of trillions of dollars per year in the next couple of decades.

We need every tool in our toolkit to combat those challenges. That means we need our superpower.”

O’Mara Vignarajah explains that in previous decades, immigration was seen as a solution to a broken economy, and recalls that during the COVID-19 pandemic, immigrants were on the frontlines in healthcare, food services, and shipping.

“What immigrants contribute to this country never used to be up for debate,” she says.

She refers to the politicization of immigration as America’s “Kryptonite” and calls on the deepest of American values to refute claims that immigration is hurting U.S. citizens.

“My daughter’s lives will be easier because my parents’ lives were hard. To me, that is the American Dream. But it’s a dream each and every one of us must work & fight to keep alive,” she says.

“Because even superpowers can be weakened. And if we succumb to our Kryptonite, not only do we lose a gift, but we lose something that makes us us.  The fact is: We welcome immigrants, not because they are Americans, but because we are Americans. That’s who we are and that’s our superpower.”

Watch the talk here and share it on Facebook, X, and Instagram.