A Hand Up: Building a dream one success story at a time

N. Peter Antone

Jamal Kalabat had been attending engineering school for three years in Baghdad when the opportunity came for him to move to the United States. Arriving in America in 1976, he knew his engineering education must continue and he enrolled at Lawrence Technological University (then Institute). He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Construction Engineering in 1978, with highest distinction in Business Administration studies.

Upon graduation, Jamal started a construction firm that within a few years grew to include 50 direct employees and hundreds of subcontractors. As Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Kalabat Companies, Jamal was responsible for building and developing commercial, residential, and municipal construction projects.

His success branched into architectural, engineering, and construction services in the medical and dental field, into hotel construction and portfolio management, and into international commerce in global architectural, engineering, and construction program management.

Kalabat has since become a leading provider of structured businesses in engineering, development, construction, real estate, and financing solutions to high-end private and corporate real estate investors in Southeast Michigan. His companies, which include many subsidiaries specializing in various design, construction, and real estate development services, have quickly become some of the most resourceful and innovative local real estate developments and construction and property management companies in Metro Detroit.

Yet despite all his success, Jamal did not forget his roots in the community he left behind in Baghdad.  When the Iran-Iraq War was at its peak, Jamal began thinking of the bright Iraqi engineers like himself who were stuck in a country riddled with war. Jamal realized that his thriving engineering business would authorize his company to legally petition for and obtain the services of qualified Iraqi engineers, allowing them to get work permit visas to come to America and work in the construction field. For nearly twenty years, Jamal worked very hard to seek, find, and assist a yearly average of four to five Iraqi engineers in obtaining proper work permits from the U.S. Consulate in Baghdad.

Salam (in cart) and Jamal Kalabat at the 2020 CACC Golf Outing benefiting the CCF.

Within a few years, many of these engineers had obtained green cards and some of them went on to establish businesses, becoming very successful on their own merit. Kalabat helped over one hundred Iraqi engineers in total obtain work visas, enabling them to legally come to the United States and work at his company. Almost all of these Iraqi engineers either had families previously or established families during their time in the U.S., and many now are proud parents or grandparents of American citizens.

There are literally hundreds of people living in this country achieving remarkable success who, without Jamal’s help, might have not been able to come here. In a worst-case scenario, some of the parents and grandparents for whom he petitioned may have otherwise been killed in the numerous wars and troubles that have besieged Iraq for decades.

The process of helping so many Iraqi engineers obtain work permits and immigrate to the U.S. was neither easy nor straightforward. On numerous occasions, Jamal had to submit extensive documents of the processes he was involved in to the U.S. government, and he had to prove the bona fide qualifications of those whom he was assisting and for whom his company was petitioning.

Yet, throughout this entire process, Jamal remained calm and quiet, never bragging or showing any sense of entitlement to praise. In fact, I only know about this because I was involved in the legal processes for several of those whom Jamal assisted. He is clearly one of the unsung heroes in our community and it is about time that this story be told. I am honored to tell it to the readers of the Chaldean News.

N. Peter Antone is a lawyer with Immigration Law firm of Antone, Casagrande & Adwers, P.C. in Farmington Hills. Jamal Kalabat has many different companies including Kalabat Engineering, ICON Global Architecture, and K4 General Contractors, a Design-Build firm.