A multidisciplinary panel of local and national experts, including Tavis Smiley, examines poverty in America and its connection to immigration and the labor market. It is a hot button topic that addresses a long running debate. Do undocumented immigrants “steal” jobs in Albuquerque and contribute to the sustained level of poverty in the city, state and country?

The panel will be held Thursday, Oct. 29, at 6 p.m. at the University of New Mexico’s Continuing Education Conference Center located at 1634 University Blvd. NE in Albuquerque.

According to Map the Impact, New Mexico continues to attract a large immigrant population. Foreign-born individuals make up one in 10 of the state’s residents and their numbers increased by more than 40 percent over the past decade.

New Mexico was hit hard in 2008-09 losing 36,000 private-sector jobs. 
This past August, the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent, compared to the national unemployment rate of 5.1. A report put out by 
Governing shows New Mexico at the very bottom for long-term unemployment. Nearly half of New Mexico’s unemployed workers have been out of a job for 27 weeks or longer. While the long-term unemployed across the nation are securing employment or giving up after 28 weeks on average, New Mexicans are still searching for jobs many months later.

The panel, joined by UNM’s own Jozi De Leon and Gabriel R. Sanchez, will explore this question and its expanded impact on education, health, homelessness, foreclosure, national security, the prison industrial complex and other issues. The panel will also examine how to empower those living in poverty to become their own best advocates through civic action.

Panelists
Jozi De Leon, UNM vice president for Equity and Inclusion/Chief Diversity officer
Gabriel R. Sanchez, executive director, RWJF Center for Health Policy and associate professor of Political Science
Veronica Garcia, executive director, New Mexico Voices for Children
Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, executive director, Enlace Comunitario
v
Yvette Kaufman-Bell, executive director, New Mexico Office of African American Affairs

Click here to register.

For more information, visit: Ending Poverty or contact Kimberly McFarland at (323) 290-4690 or email, kmcfarland@tavistalks.com.