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“… the insight that more immigration may result in an overall gain in entrepreneurial activity may be a useful reminder of the opportunities associated with migration. It suggests that public money may be better spent on building incubators for migrant entrepreneurs than on building border walls.” – Peter Vandor and Nikolaus Franke, Harvard Business Review
Immigrant entrepreneurs, one of the greatest assets of the U.S. economy, have a PR problem. Instead of highlighting the abilities they bring to our businesses and economy, we (and they) are downplaying their roles.
In the U.S., immigrants are almost twice as likely to become entrepreneurs as native-born U.S. citizens. Immigrants represent 27.5% of the countries’ entrepreneurs but only around 13% of the population, according to research reported in Harvard Business Review. These facts would suggest their skills are prime advantages for the organizations they serve. But in press and public understanding, the opposite tends to be true. The fear of native citizens losing jobs to infiltrators is prevalent. Sentiment around the security risks of immigration is high. The entrepreneurs themselves are unwittingly complicit as well: Instead of celebrating their capabilities, many are soft spoken about the contributions they bring.
Interestingly, the resilience and creativity immigrant entrepreneurs bring to the U.S. applies to at least 69 other countries as well, according to the 2012 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, as all reported higher entrepreneurial activity among immigrants than natives, especially in growth ventures.
For example, Steve Sanghi, Chairman and CEO of Microchip Technology, entered the U.S. 41 years ago from India with $100 in his pocket and a desire to complete a master’s degree in engineering in Mass. Today his company has a market cap of $19B and 14,000 employees, according to a company spokesman. He is proud of his ethnic heritage (his wife, Maria, is an immigrant as well, from Columbia). He is also proud to be an American, the sponsor of multiple scholarships and is passionate about urging the U.S. to advance its efforts in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education.
I urge immigrant entrepreneurs and all who employ them to take a stronger voice in acknowledging the advantages they bring to the companies, the communities and the economies they serve.
This week I interviewed an exceptional immigrant entrepreneur in depth. He is Ovleng Chhour, of Salt Lake City, Utah. The first portion of Chhour’s family of six brothers and three sisters, many with spouses and children (some of the siblings and his parents came later) arrived in Utah as refugees of the Khmer Rouge on July 13, 1981. It is a date that Chhour will never forget.
In all, the Khmer Rouge genocides during the communist overthrow of the Cambodian government (as outlined in “The Killing Fields” and the upcoming September, 2017 movie developed by Angelina Jolie, “First They Killed My Father”) resulted in an estimated 1.7M – 3M deaths.
Chhour married his wife, Kim Hour Khiev, a fellow refugee and sister of the wife of his older brother, shortly after arriving in the U.S. His first job was as a dishwasher for a Dee’s Family Restaurant. “None of us went to college,” he said. “We finished high school, but in 1970 Cambodia went to war with the Khmer. We had to run away to another city. They burned our house down…we were on the run for a period of five years, including a three-year span where we were unable to see our parents until they escaped to the freedom side, to Battambang.”
While on the run and in various refugee camps the family endured atrocities too great to describe. In their hunger, many refugees would run from the camps to the jungles in search of food, where they died. Ultimately, those who fled had become so inured to the atrocity they ran forward even as they were running atop the human skulls of those who had perished before.
Chhour’s ingenuity began early, when he implored an empathetic FBI representative to “let me help you,” as he had mechanical skills. The man hid Chhour, even sending him for a time to live with the agent’s own parents. Later, he was selected for a government position in the communist regime to do mechanical repairs and run deliveries of people and goods. Chhour knew, as he was asked to transport people during the night to assigned destinations, the instructions he was told to give were fictitious and that he was, in fact, delivering them in many cases to the locations where they were to be killed. But in his terror and desire to remain alive for his family, he obliged. In the worst cases, Chhour was called upon to pick up people he knew, but had to remain quiet at all costs, as he didn’t want his brothers and sisters to know.
Why Utah? Chhour brightens and notes with a smile that his extended family, numbering 50, was happy to go to any country and location at all, as they were simply anxious to get out of the country alive. “The Mormon church is used to large families and were willing to sponsor us here.” Any delay could be fatal. Girls, in particular, were at risk of being kidnapped, raped and killed as the family remained in the war-torn country.
Upon his arrival, Chhour’s dishwashing job was the first in a six-year series of part time and menial jobs. Finally, a better job appeared in the form of the Marriott company, near the Salt Lake airport, to prepare inflight food. But Chhour had another plan. Continuing at his low paid labor would teach him the skills he needed to eventually run a restaurant of his own. He had learned that $30-40,000 could open a fast food restaurant. If he and his siblings joined forces, they could eventually open a restaurant. They divided and conquered by taking jobs that would allow them to learn the various skills of cooking, cleaning, licensing and operation. From their small roles, Chhour and his wife Kim had amassed $11,000. In cooperation with his five siblings, they pooled their funds to purchase a fast food restaurant in Utah's Layton Hills Mall.
The work was hard, but eventually the team was able to save up enough money to open up several more restaurants throughout the Salt Lake Valley. “We paid the down payments; then 5-10 years later we shared and split the businesses, each taking a location.”
Because he has always been handy with maintenance and repairs, Chhour used his share of the proceeds to purchase several rental properties. “People thought we’d hit the lottery,” he said. “But we didn’t. We just continued to work and invest.” In 2004 he added a torque converter company to the mix. “I walked in to see what they do,” he said. “And I said to myself, okay, I can do this.”
Yes, he has struggled. The couple smile as they recalled the “snow days” when Chhour’s work in Ogden (north of Salt Lake) required him to stay overnight as his old-model “beater car” was unable to make the drive home to his wife and his child.
Chhour desires no publicity, although he still smiles about an article in the Deseret News paper that acknowledged him as “The Cambodian King of the Food Court” in 2003. Today he has distilled the fast food firms to two restaurants operating under the same name, the Chang Chun, in Salt Lake’s prestigious City Creek development and the International Center just West of the Salt Lake City airport. He is proud of his accomplishments and continues to work long hours and resides in a modest home.
When asked about his goals, Chhour’s response today is the same as in 2003: “I don’t need a big house…I just like working.” High in the legacy Chhour is leaving is the family’s ability to rear four grounded and exceptional children in America who include Heather Chhour, his second daughter, who is the significant other of my software engineer son, Richard Snapp. She holds a degree in accounting from the University of Utah. I am grateful to realize that this entrepreneur’s journey, in the raising of his daughter and family, has also impacted my own.
In all, as we become more aware of the exceptional entrepreneurs who’ve come to America from elsewhere, it is my hope that we (and they) will acknowledge their contributions proudly as one of their highest and best PR goals.
