Delaware Companies a Draw for Diversity
Published Apr 16, 2005
Fraunhofer USA, which develops plant-based technologies and products, has its headquarters in Newark.
With its many international corporations and a growing global biotech presence, New Castle County has a cosmopolitan flair – a lively sense of diversity that adds to the area’s eclectic feel.
Polish, Hispanic and Italian neighborhoods can be found in Wilmington, and communitywide festivals celebrating a host of countries – Italy, Greece, Germany and Ireland, to name a few – give people a chance to learn about each others’ traditions.
“The Italian festival is the biggest,” says Sam Dali, corporate relocation manager for Patterson Schwartz Relocation Center. “It draws between 15,000 and 20,000 people over seven nights. It’s huge.”
Dali is accustomed to learning about other cultures. In fact, his employer, real estate company Patterson Schwartz, helps international companies settle their employees from abroad into the community.
Yadja Zeltman, global relocation specialist for Patterson Schwartz, is on the front lines of the process.
“We help the companies get the people and families settled in, from the most basic things – Social Security cards and drivers’ licenses, bank accounts – and we also work on their cultural integration,” she says. “The family often does not speak English, and we help them find their community through organizations. We do all the worrying for the company, and the worker quickly becomes a productive member of the company.”
On average, Patterson Schwartz works with 20 to 35 people each year, most of whom are in the country to train with their companies temporarily, Dali says. But the jobs could – and many times do – develop into permanent positions in the United States.
Along with such names as DaimlerChrysler, Ciba-Geigy, ING and AstraZeneca, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft of Germany is one of the many international companies with divisions in New Castle County.
Fraunhofer established its only biotech center in Newark in 2001, choosing Delaware when the state committed $3.6 million to the project over four years.
Fraunhofer USA is a nonprofit research organization that develops plant-based technologies and products under governmental and private-industry contracts. The company hires top scientists from all over the world, says Vidadi Yusibov, executive director of Fraunhofer’s Molecular Biotechnology Center.
“We have people from Russia, Ukraine, China, Germany, Austria, India,” Yusibov says. “It’s also diverse in the sense that these people come from different educational backgrounds, and they have a positive impact on the community in terms of education and quality of life.”
A number of ethnic restaurants – including Japanese, Chinese, Indian and Egyptian – have sprung up in and around Newark, which is also the home of the University of Delaware.
“It’s a great community and very international,” Yusibov says. “People keep their cultural identity – in the kitchen or traditions or holidays they observe – and great things come from that diversity, but you don’t see walls from that diversity. There’s a good understanding that we live in America and should be Americans.”
Story by Rebecca Denton
Photo by Stephen Cherry
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