Anuj Gupta, President & CEO of the Welcoming Center

Anuj is a proven leader in Philadelphia’s government, non-profit and private sector communities with a professional track record of achieving impactful results.  Anuj now serves as President and CEO of The Welcoming Center, an organization he helped start with his graduate school research in 2003.  Anuj is responsible for leading execution of the organization’s strategic plan focused on building pathways to upward economic mobility for Greater Philadelphia’s immigrant communities.  Prior to this, Anuj served as Chief of Staff to Congressman Dwight Evans (PA-03).  In additional to building a team, across two offices, Anuj has led successful legislative strategies towards passage such as the $1B Reconnecting Communities fund in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.  Prior to this, Anuj served as the General Manager of the historic Reading Terminal Market for five years.  During this time, Anuj was selected as a Public Space Fellow by the Knight Foundation for his work in making the Reading Terminal an inviting, accessible space for all Philadelphians.  Anuj was an attorney at Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP where he practiced in the firm’s real estate/affordable housing group from 2004-2007.   Anuj also started a fast-casual Indian restaurant in 2013 in Philadelphia’s Mt. Airy neighborhood called Jyoti Indian Bistro, utilizing his family’s traditional recipes.   

Anuj is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School (J.D., 2003), the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government (M.G.A., 2003) and Carnegie Mellon University (B.S., 1996).  He currently is a board member of the Reading Terminal Market Corporation, Independence Public Media Foundation, Victor’s Homes, Regional Housing Legal Services and Mt. Airy Baseball.  https://welcomingcenter.org/  

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:04):
Business An President the Welcoming Center. The Welcoming Center's mission
is to help immigrants across Philadelphia and the broader region
gain pathways to upward economic mobility. We do it by
helping them start and grow businesses. We help them prepare
to successfully enter and then succeed in the American workplace,

(00:28):
and we do it through leadership development.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Tell us more about the role of immigrants in the
city of Philadelphia. What are the misconceptions that we have
and what are the things that we need to know
in terms of how immigrants contribute.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
The vast majority of the city's repopulation and growth that
we have experienced has been through immigration. Whereas at the
turn of this century, Philadelphia's form born population was little
under six percent, it's now just under sixteen percent. The
form born population in Philadelphia alone has more than doubled,

(01:07):
and that's a similar dynamic that our surrounding counties are
experiencing as well. Chester County, the immigrant population accounts for
seventy percent of the population growth they've seen in the
last twelve years. In Montgomery County, it's over fifty percent.
But it's not just population that's growing, it's who is
comprised of that population growth, who's making it up. The

(01:31):
vast majority of immigrants coming into our region, our working
age population, thirty percent of the job base increase that
we have seen as a city has been through immigration.
The number of foreign born workers in our city's economy
has more than doubled since twenty ten, and thirty six

(01:54):
percent of small business owners now in the City of
Philadelphia our immigrant entrepreneurs. And just to further expand upon
the profile of who's coming, thirty three percent of immigrants
in Philadelphia have a bachelor's degree or higher. So we
have an incredibly talented educated with a varied diaspora of

(02:16):
skills and backgrounds of immigrants from around the world, Africa, Asia,
all of Latin America coming here, helping to rebuild our
city and region and really helping to write the next
chapter for the next several hundred years for the city
of Philadelphia. A large portion of our rebound and our

(02:38):
growth over the last two decades is attributable to immigrants
and the forecasts for our city's population which projects Philadelphia
getting back to one point eight million by twenty fifty,
a number we haven't seen since the mid nineteen sixties.
Almost all of that growth will be fueled by immigration,

(03:00):
is the same forecasts anticipate that the native born population
will decline through that same time period.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
So from the Welcoming Center's point of view, how should
we view this increase in this rise in immigration.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
We should understand that people that are coming here are
coming here for nothing but opportunity. They just want to
work and create a better life for themselves and their families.
Were it not for immigration, our employers and you can
pick your industry, whether it's hospitals and healthcare, our academic sector, universities,

(03:36):
the manufacturing community that we have here, food service, we
simply wouldn't have had the wherewithal to hire just the
baseline talent that we need to continue operations over the
last twenty years, but for immigrants, and so looking forward,
if we are interested in an economy that's growing, an

(03:57):
economy that provides opportunity for everybody, not just for immigrant workers,
then immigrant talent will have to be fund center. Because
the reality is, if you're an employer and you can't
hire the people that you need to, not only sustain
but to grow your business. You've got a couple of choices.

(04:18):
You can stop growing and just try to stay where
you are, But if there's not enough workforce to even
support that, that's a difficult choice. You could close, which
would imperil not only the immigrant workers, but native born
employees that you have as well. Or you could move
somewhere else where you can find that talent. That's the

(04:41):
reality of employers in a lot of sectors. Without the
access to the labor force of the future, it will
hurt those that are already employed.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
I always have one fun question, and that is, what
would you tell your eighteen year old self if you
had to go back in time and whisper in your
ear as an eighteen year old, what would be the
advice that you would give to your eighteen year old self.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
The advice I would give my eighteen year old self
is take better stock and don't take for granted everything
that your parents have done to get you to where
you are. Because subconsciously, years later, that drove my interest
in trying to explain why Philadelphia needed to become a

(05:26):
reposition itself once again as an immigrant destination, and ultimately
my work now in leading the Welcoming Center. I'm not
an immigrant myself. I was born here, but I had
a front row seat to see what immigrants have done
in this country. My parents and my extended family, all
of whom were immigrants, and I didn't fully appreciate that

(05:46):
when I was eighteen years later. In reflecting upon it,
seeing what my parents did and what my extended family
has done, that absolutely drives what I do today.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
If people want more information about the Welcome Center, how
do they find out more?

Speaker 2 (06:02):
To find out more about the Welcoming Center, you can
go to Welcomingcenter dot org, call us at two one
five five five seven two six two six, or check
us out on our social media pages on Instagram and
or Facebook.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
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