As the global migrant crisis continues to dominate our airwaves, Welcome.US has triggered a dramatic impact on U.S. immigration, resettling 800,000 refugees across all 50 states. The organization’s cofounder and CEO, Nazanin Ash, shares how her team developed an effective and efficient model, unlocking a nonpartisan community of 2 million volunteers supported by corporate partnerships with the likes of Meta, Google, and Uber.

This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode.

You’ve said that newcomers resettling can bring big economic benefits to the U.S. economy. That’s kind of the opposite of a lot of political rhetoric, people worried about their jobs, and the cost of supporting newcomers. What are you looking at differently?

Wow, so many indicators. I mean, let’s start at the top. Over 50% of our billion-dollar companies were founded or cofounded by newcomers, many of them refugees. Scaled immigration pathways of the last three years are estimated to contribute $9 trillion to our economy over the next decade. You have thousands of communities, rural and semirural communities, across the country that have been losing population year over year and are eager to reverse that decline. There are enormous needs. I mean, the Census Bureau estimates that we require net immigration of nearly one and a half million a year just to sustain our economy. So we not only have the capacity to welcome, we have a need to welcome.

You’ve gotten support from corporate partners, Meta, Google, Uber, others. What’s been the role of........

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