How Immigrants Make a City

What does naturalization mean for immigrants seeking United States citizenship? According to research by the Cities for Citizenship initiative, it could mean $3,200 in extra income per year per immigrant and a $37 to $52 billion increase in overall national GDP. That's because foreign workers are able to more easily and affordably meet citizenship requirements, ultimately increasing the tax base and wellbeing for the community at large. In this episode, Namita Koppa (City of Las Vegas) and Gwen Migita (Caesar's Entertainment) explain how Las Vegas is capitalizing on opportunities to foster a creative, diverse and sustainable workforce through a wide range of corporate, government and public-private naturalization programs. Currently, at least 30% of Nevada's entrepreneurs are immigrants and 19% of the overall population in Las Vegas is foreign born. Three of the four Fortune 500 companies in Nevada have founders who are foreign born or children of immigrants. About Our Guests Gwen Y. Migita, Social Impact & Inclusion Vice President, Chief Sustainability Officer Working with more than 70,000 team members at more than 40 domestic and international resorts, Gwen sets the strategy, direction and management goals for the company's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives including Responsible Gaming, Diversity & Inclusion, environmental sustainability, community involvement and global philanthropy. She also has oversight for the Caesars Foundation, a private entity funded by resorts owned or operated by Caesars Entertainment. Gwen leads the industry in assessing macro trends and issues that may affect the business and development goals. She is on the forefront of utilizing customer data and spending behavior to show that strong CSR programs deliver a positive financial outcome. Her work involves human rights, social safeguards, food scarcity, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and context based targets. Gwen is currently a Corporate Advisory Board member for the World Resources Institute (WRI), Sustainable Brands and serves as Trustee Chair of Impact NV. She and her wife Cuc Vu enjoy parenting their budding social justice advocates: Max (4) and Ava (2) in their pseudo spare time. Namita Koppa is the Sustainability Management Analyst for the City of Las Vegas. She serves as liaison between City of Las Vegas Sustainability and Las Vegas hospitality and gaming industry partners to advance sustainability, social equity, and corporate citizenship efforts across the Las Vegas Valley. For more resources, visit

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How Immigrants Make a City is an episode from How to Make a City - City Planning, Urban Development, and City Policy.

This episode is 29:41 long.

This episode was published on Jul 9, 2018.

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