Attended a meeting today with an Associate Professor (pioneering the discussion), the Director Entrepreneurship Program, the MBA Director, the Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Business and four affluent Hispanics. The topic was to discuss increasing Hispanic Entrepreneurship opportunities in the bay area and more specifically in our college.
It was interesting to note that one of the articles handed out (from Businessweek July 18 2005) detailed the increase in illegal immigrants or as the more politically correct term says, undocumented immigrants. And because their population is no longer possible to ignore, or more accurately put - unwise to ignore due to their increasing purchasing power, many corporations are beginning to target their business at these undocumented Hispanics.
“By finding ways to treat illegals like any other other consumers, companies are in effect legalizing - and legitimizing - millions of people who technically have no right to be in the U.S.” (p58)
The article goes on to show statistics of the population size, which was further illustrated by the Associate Professor, indicating that the projected Hispanic population in California alone by 2050 will be 50% of the total population. That’s a scary number but is also effective in putting across the fact that “There’s no point in pretending that millions of people aren’t here, so let’s find ways to deal with them.” (p60)
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