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CWS Dialogues contribute to U.S. immigration debate
A discussion group during the Syracuse, New York, dialogue, held at Pebble Hill Presbyterian Church.
Photo: Debra Virgo
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New York, New York -- Nine Interethnic Dialogues on Immigration held across the United States this year offered a snapshot of their diverse participants' top priorities. Most urgent: comprehensive immigration reform that protects family unity.
Improving services for immigrants and refugees also ranked highly, as did helping immigrants and refugees become fully part of their new communities, education of the American public about immigrants and refugees, and the effect of U.S. foreign policy on immigration and refugees.
Frustrated that anti-immigrant voices often prevail in public discourse especially on talk radio dialogue participants also expressed their longing to "change the debate" to include a more accurate representation of Americans' diversity of views on immigration policy.
Church World Service organized the dialogues as a contribution to the U.S. national debate on immigration. Although comprehensive immigration reform has yet to be enacted, the debate continues across America and on Capitol Hill.
The dialogues sought to help people of different ethnic backgrounds and viewpoints share their concerns, listen to each other, then draw from the wisdom of the whole community to move toward unity and action.
 Matthew Riak, Joe Walker, and Carlos Pava, participants in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, dialogue. Photo: Elizabeth Smith
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Average attendance was 24, with the largest Omaha attracting 75. Participants typically featured a mix of faith-based organizations, immigrant and refugee service providers, immigration advocates, ethnic organizations, and local, county, and state government staff. Trade unions, development associations, chambers of commerce, and the education sector occasionally were represented.
There was fairly consistent participation by Latinos, Asians, Africans, African Americans, Jews, and Muslims albeit somewhat fewer in relation to Christian and Euro-American participants than dialogue organizers had hoped.
Participants included many refugees and immigrants, both recent arrivals and longtime members of U.S. communities.
Dialogues used a format called "Open Space Technology," which begins by asking participants to write down the one or two immigration-related issues most important to them or their community or organization.
These priorities are grouped and taped to a wall, then the dialogue's agenda is created around those issue clusters. Next, in two rounds of small groups, participants work together on their priority issues.
For example, issues tackled at the Omaha dialogue included barriers to education for immigrants and refugees, with focus on the lack of English as a Second Language classes and early childhood education. "Why aren't refugee kids doing as well as they could in school?" one participant summed it up. "Because they didn't have early childhood education."
Other Omaha issues included the need to train local law enforcement in how to approach immigrants, given many newcomers arent yet fully informed on U.S. laws and procedures.
At each dialogue, time was set aside at the end of the day for strategic planning to ensure the implementation of action steps that had arisen from the discussions.
 In Omaha, Nebraska, Dialogues Coordinator Jamie Pitts adds Pastor Liz Connor's priorities to the mix. Connor serves Lutheran Church Christo Rey. Photo: Carol Fouke-Mpoyo
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- The Grand Rapids dialogue April 28 spawned a group that met the very next week to organize a "speakers' bureau" for citywide education efforts. Participants also formed a coalition to press their congressional representatives for balanced immigration policies.
- At the May 7 dialogue in Miami, participants promptly mobilized their networks to send Mother's Day postcards from immigrant mothers to Senator Mel Martinez, a Cuban immigrant, urging him to take a leadership role in immigration reform that keeps families together. They appealed to Martinez's own experience of being separated from his mother when he came to the United States in the 1960s under Operation Peter Pan.
- May 12 in Boston, CWS affiliate Refugee and Immigration Ministry and the African Community Health Initiative agreed to hold regular joint staff meetings.
- Participants in the May 24 Syracuse dialogue launched an investigation into recent local deportations. And participant Rev. James C. Bresnahan said he planned "o work with others to set up a teach-in about immigration issues at Syracuse University."
- A citywide night of prayer for immigrants was organized out of the June 1 Atlanta dialogue. The event was launched with an interfaith news conference and held on June 21.
- In Columbus June 26, dialogue participants planned an advocacy initiative to urge the city to pass a resolution banning local enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Participants in the Columbus dialogue, among others, expressed their desire to hold more of these kinds of dialogues.
"They saw the value in the dialogues," said Interethnic Immigration Dialogues Coordinator Jamie Pitts. "Conversations were positive, energy was very high."
Angela Plummer, Director of Community Refugee and Immigration Services, the CWS affiliate in Columbus, agreed, saying the Church World Service dialogues offered an opportunity not only to wrestle with issues around undocumented immigration, but also "to show everyone more of how the lawful process works."
"A lot of people have no idea that the lawful process is what it is, and that close family members have to be left behind when immigrants and refugees come to this country," she said.
By Carol Fouke-Mpoyo, Jan Dragin, and Jamie Pitts
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