They are the stories we re-create, we frame, we nourish.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez said it best.

“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.”

Because the ethnic news media is the mirror to the past and window to tomorrow, it should embrace the stories of its people.

I struck when Reklama, a Russian language outlet, not long ago told the stories of Russian Jews and their sufferings in World War II. Week after week, they gave a page to one person’s life, a page that had never been dedicated before in their lives.

I marveled when Radio Arte invited people to come on the air to tell about the jobs they did before they came to the United States. There was a life and a career that they lived before and another which they live now. But they needed to talk about those lives which meant so much to them.

Take this effort by the Washington Post. They go over the history of immigration in the last few decades. You can do the same thing on a small scale, talking about communities, lives, and politics. Here’s a link to the series:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/immigration/path_to_now/?wpisrc=nl_politics

In this place of so many stories, I hope more news outlets would answer this hunger for stories.

How?

By producing short one-person videos. By enlisting story tellers from towns, communities and places that live on in memories. By training people to write for your webpages and to become correspondents from over there. By inviting your audience to help decide what is your news coverage.By encouraging events like the one listed below.

JCUA (Jewish Council on Urban Affairs) invites you to listen and experience “Immigration and Its Discontents: Stories and Schtick,” an evening of Jewish and non-Jewish immigration stories and the life that comes next.  Kevin Coval, author, poet and co-founder of “Louder than a Bomb,” will share his tale of Jewish assimilation “in all its bawdy, contradictory, and inventive glory.”

At “Immigration and Its Discontents” you are invited to reflect on the Jewish American story and take action for immigrant justice.

Thursday, June 13, 2013 / 7:30 p.m.

Heartland Cafe
7000 N. Glenwood Ave. Chicago
(Located right off the CTA Red Line’s Morse stop)

The event is free, but online RSVP is required.

So are you doing this?

If you are telling these stories, let’s share them so others can see what this means to our audiences.

Talking of memories, I will not forget the first few times I took part in the annual Ricky Byrdsong race. I think it is the most diverse race today in Chicago and that’s very appropriate because it is called the Race Against Hate.

Byrdsong, a former basketball coach at Northwestern, was shot down one day by a white extremist,who went on to randomly kill a young Korean-American, and then injure several other blacks and Asians and Jews walking on the streets.

The race is June 16th in Evanston and if you would like to tell the story of it, or share you legs in a very good cause, I urge you do so because I’ll be there. I’ll be the old guy way at the end, coming across the finish, hands held high like I’m a winner.

Here’s the link:

http://www.ywca.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=1055514

Talk to me – digame. Steve@chicagoistheworld.org, office 312 369 6400

By Katherine Iorio

 Cantonese music plays softly behind the clanging of metal tins holding more than 60 different types of dim sum.

The large banquet style room of Three Happiness on south Wentworth Avenue is crammed with tables, enough to fit more than a hundred customers. Two college students, Kelly Tan, 19, and Shirley Tang, 21, are tucked in their usual corner.

“Three Happiness has been serving dim sum for over 30 years,” Tan said. “Dim sum is basically small portions of Chinese brunch; we usually have it every day for breakfast.”

Chicago’s Chinatown has more than 20 restaurants that serve traditional dim sum, according to Urban Spoon.

The unique culinary art of dim sum (Cantonese) or dian xin (Mandarin) means “a little bit of heart” or “touch the heart” and originated in China hundreds of years ago. Teahouses sprung up to accommodate weary travelers journeying along the famous Silk Road. Rural farmers, exhausted after long hours working in the fields, would also head to the local teahouse for an afternoon of tea and relaxing conversation, according to Nom Wah Tea Parlor’s historical dim sum webpage.

While dim sum was originally not a main meal, only a snack, and therefore only meant to touch the heart, it is now a staple of Chinese dining culture, especially in America, according to Princeton’s historical review of dim sum.

Typically served with tea, bolay (po lai, pu erh), which is a strong, fermented tea, or Jasmine tea, dim sum offers customers dozens of steamed, fried and baked items.

“Dim sum is a very traditional Chinese food served throughout Chicago’s Chinatown and the world,” Three Happiness manager, Keri Lee, said. “It is an extremely competitive market.”

Of the 20 restaurants that serve dim sum, Lee said Cai and Phoenix are their closest competitors.

“Cai and Phoenix both keep hiring new chefs from Hong Kong in order to keep making new types of dim sum,” Lee said. “We are constantly on our toes trying to compete with their types of dim sum, but our boss is loyal to the chefs that we have had and he doesn’t want to hire new employees.”

To keep up with the business, Three Happiness constantly is improving their recipes and developing new types of dim sum.

“We have three chefs who make our dim sum and they have years of experience in making dim sum,” Lee said. “One of the chefs has 16 years of experience in making dim sum from Hong Kong where his parents used to own a restaurant in Hong Kong where they made dim sum.”

The technique of passing down the traditional art of making dim sum is popular in the Chinese culture, Lee explained.

“The reason why so many customers come back to our restaurant is because we have traditional family techniques of making our dim sum,” Lee said.

One of the challenges of serving dim sum is keeping them all hot, which is why Three Happiness uses metal cans placed on heated carts.

“It is traditional in Hong Kong to use carts, so as soon as you get seated you can order them hot, fresh and ready to eat,” Lee said. “This system we have with the carts is faster. So, we can do a lot more, versus ordering it and having to wait a long time for it to be made.”

The United States is home to about 1.6 million Chinese immigrants (including those born in Hong Kong), making them the fourth-largest immigrant group in the United States after Mexican, Filipino, and Indian immigrants, according to Migration Information Source.

The first Chinese immigrants to arrive in Chicago were in the early 1870s from the West Coast of the United States, according to the Encyclopedia of Chicago.

According to Quick Facts Census information, there was an estimated 2,707,120 people living in Chicago in 2011; 5.5 percent were Asian persons.

The New York Times‘ interactive map showing immigration data 1880 reported having Cook County in 2000  with 28,233 Chinese born citizens living there and an estimated total population of Chinese residents of 5,376,741.

Nearly one of every seven Illinois residents is an immigrant, according to Illinois’ Coalition for Immigration and Refugee Rights. In Illinois, 25.8 percent of immigrants come from Asia.

For the two college students, Three Happiness is the best because of the prices.

“They have the best specials,” Tan said. “Both Saturday and Sundays are popular for people to come in get dim sum; it’s sometimes hard to get our usual corner table.”

Dim sum is prepared hours before Three Happiness opens in order to have them hot and ready for the customers, Lee said.

“Today we opened early for our chefs to come in and prepare the dim sum, so everything is freshly made in the morning,” Lee said. “It takes an hour to two hours to make the dim sum, but depending on what kind it can take longer.”

Pork Siu Mai, rose duck and sesame pork are only a few of Three Happiness’ most popular dim sum, not to mention their homemade sweet and sour sauce that goes with them.

“There are a lot of different restaurants that served dim sum in Chinatown, but every restaurant has their own unique way of making dim sum and types,” Tang said. “I like Three Happiness’ the best.”

Katherine is a recent Columbia College graduate

And that’s why the news media needs to listen to the community as much as possible.

And that’s why it is especially important for the ethnic media, because folks count on you to care for them, to pay special attention to them, to protect them.

Again and again community groups have told us they don’t hear from their media and they don’t know how to connect.

But it is difficult when you don’t have the time or staff to do so.

So here’s a solution.

Join us – the Community Media Workshop – for a free gathering with folks from the Chicago area’s non-profit community on June 4th

These are the people who provide the services that you report  and that the people whom your audiences care about. They are the ones who can tell you what’s going on, what’s good and what’s missing in your communities.

If you are not sure about it, talk to me – digame. steve@chicagoistheworld.org, office 312 369 6400

Here’s the info for the June 4th event

It is a reception following the workshop’s annual media conference.

They are coming from Central America in getting numbers because the despair is greater and the failed American dream for many on the road hasn’t snared them yet.

This is a story among the many to cover as we plunge ahead into deciphering the reality of immigration in the U.S.

That’s why you should consider the event this Friday, May 17, honoring Padre Alejandro Solalinde’s Caravan Hope – an effort that helps the thousands of Latino Americans who struggle and often fall on their way to the US. The event is from 3 to 4 pm at the DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson, De Paul University.

It is sponsored by the Council for a Parliament of World Religions, Coalicion Humanitaria Internacional Pro-Migrante and De Paul University.

here’s the link to the organization:

http://www.hermanosenelcamino.org/

steve@chicagoistheworld.org

By Stephen Franklin

Chicago is the world. But don’t take my word for it.

Explore the city and you will discover restaurants, social services, museums, and houses of worship that bind Chicago to places across the globe.

You may think you are tuning in on a short-wave radio if you visit some neighborhoods flourishing with newly arrived immigrants. Chicago’s public schools count over 100 foreign languages spoken by their students, with Spanish leading the pack by a wide margin.

What makes Chicago different?

In most major U.S. cities there are one or two immigrant corridors. In Chicago there are three major corridors with branches reaching out from them, along with a number of smaller communities reflecting other nationalities.

The heart of Latino Chicago is found in the Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods on the city’s Southwest Side. But smaller Latino neighborhoods sprawl across the city and region. Altogether Latinos account for nearly 30 percent of Chicago’s residents, with a total of over 1.8 million Latinos in Chicago and its suburbs. Mexicans make up the bulk of the area’s Latino population, followed by Central

On Chicago’s Northwest Side and spiraling north and south is the Eastern European corridor. Poles account for the vast majority of this community. It is said with pride that Chicago is second city only to Warsaw in the size of its Polish population.

If you visit the offices of Draugas, you will be setting into a shrine of ethnic and journalism pride. Draugas, which means friend in Lithuanian, has been continually published here since 1916. When Lithuania was under Soviet rule, it was the only independent voice in Lithuanian and it is the oldest continually published Lithuanian paper in the world. Here in Chicago it is published five days a week.

But there are also significant numbers of Serbs, Rumanians, Russians, Bulgarians, Slovenians, and Croats.

Visit the third corridor, Devon Avenue on Chicago’s North Side, and you will discover a bustling commercial street that stitches together a rapidly growing Indian, Pakistani and South Asian community. As is true for other immigrant communities, Devon Avenue has become the anchor – a place to shop and dine – while many South Asian immigrants are leapfrogging the city to plant their roots in nearby suburbs.

Narrowing your focus you will find a thriving Chinatown just below Chicago’s Loop and a second, newer Chinatown on Chicago’s North Side that includes a mixture of Vietnamese, Thai and other Asian communities.

Similarly, you will find Arab communities on the North and South Sides of the city. Lately African immigrants have begun to stake out their own place on Chicago’s North Side, but pockets exist on the South Side as well.

Why did they come here?

They came here because there was work and there were others like them. That was the pattern more than 100 years ago and it has not changed. But U.S. immigration law, which historically favored immigrants from Western Europe, changed in the 1960s, opening the nation’s doors to the entire world, and that has had an impact on Chicago.

This change explains the mushrooming Muslim population in the Chicago area, with over 200 large and small mosques where over 40 languages are spoken. “When we have meetings, it’s like a small UN,” said Ahlam Jabari of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago.

The quest for skilled professionals brought another shift. Immigrants reportedly account today for nearly one-third of the physicians in Chicago. Immigrants with high-tech skills found a welcome here, and that helped expand the South Asian population. Indeed, many Chicago-area companies have reaped great rewards from their foreign-born workers and leaders. One of these business leaders is Sanjay Jha, who was born in Bihar, India, and rose to become chairman and chief executive officer of Motorola Mobility.

Warfare and economic crises around the globe have also sent many here. They were welcomed by groups offering them haven or by kinsmen offering solace. A sanctuary movement, led by religious groups, sprang up to help immigrants fleeing upheaval in Central America in the 1970s and ’80s. Assyrians, who first settled here in the late 19th century, have welcomed waves of Iraqi Christian immigrants. Iraqis of all background who have fled their nation’s mayhem have found haven in a place where others care about their needs.

So, too, Bosnian refugees sought shelter among one of the largest Bosnian communities in the U.S. Chicago’s the first mosque was opened at the start of the 20^th century by Bosnian Muslims.

Newly arrived immigrants have repeatedly started new lives here with help from fellow countrymen. In a parallel effort, Mexican immigrants have looked homeward and set up mutual aid organizations to help the places they came from. This has inspired the Coalition of African, Arab, Asian, European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois, a group that represents many smaller immigrant communities, to urge other immigrants to do the same.

What has been their impact on Chicago?

Culturally, immigration has been powerful. On warm weekend nights, Chicago comes alive with various ethnic street fairs. But all year round, Chicago has a wide assortment of museums marking residents’ global roots. It has the nation’s only Mexican fine arts museum and the only Cambodian museum outside of Cambodia, says Rebecca Sanders, head of the Chicago Cultural Alliance. Her group, she adds, is like no other in the world. It represents 25 museums, most of which are immigrant-linked. They range from a vast building that celebrates Irish culture to a virtual museum that takes you on a tour of Chicago’s Indian community.

Immigrants add much economic vitality to the city, region, and state. Immigrant workers are replacing the aging native-born workforce, with immigrants filling substantial proportions of both high-skill and low-skill jobs. Immigrant purchasing power has grown tremendously in recent years – consumer spending by Latinos and Asians grew 350 percent, or over $66 billion, between 1990 and 2005, according to the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights – and is responsible for generating tens of thousands of jobs.

And immigrants build businesses that fuel growth, from corner stores to new engineering and technology companies.

Immigrants have had a powerful impact politically. When Mexican-Americans and others rose up in 2006 to call for reforms of the nation’s immigration policy, a 100,000-person rally in Chicago was the first of many across the nation. Chicago’s City Council in 2006 voted to bar police and city workers from asking immigrants about their legal status in the U.S., a step matched by other big cities responding to broadening federal arrests of immigrants illegally in the country.

In 2005 Illinois launched the nation’s first statewide effort to integrate immigrants. ICIRR administers the state’s New Americans Initiative, putting outreach workers in ethnic groups to help with citizenship applications and voter registration. The organization played a critical role in leading state lawmakers to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driving licenses.

In 2012, soon after Rahm Emanuel’s election as mayor, the city set up the Office of New Americans. “The mayor has set a goal of making Chicago the most immigrant friendly city in the world,” boasts Adolfo Hernandez, a Latino community activist who heads the office.

What does this tell us about immigrants in the United States?

There’s a theory that America is a melting pot for immigrants. As they find roots here, they shed their distinctions for a new identity. But that’s not exactly what’s happened here, and sociologist Anthony Orum says it’s not a problem.

“The ties to ethnic backgrounds for many immigrants are very important, and they are sustained,” he says.

But don’t take my word for it. Go see for yourself.

A few days ago I sat with an Iraqi journalist, a refugee starting over. He works two jobs, day and night. He survives. Just barely. And yes he dreams of the world he left behind. The career. The sense of being someone.

Does he want to go back, to go somewhere with lots of people from back home, to go someplace where surviving is not so hard?

No, he says and he says it very resolutely.

He is going to start over here and he’ll do it, he says. No doubt in his eyes.

And I know he will.

Chicago is the world. don’t you think so?

The author:

Steve Franklin is an award-winning journalist and former labor writer and foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. He currently manages the Ethnic Media Project at Community Media Workshop.

steve@chicagoistheworld.org

Further reading

Emily Blum, director of communications, Heartland Alliance. 312-660-1313 eblum@heartlandalliance.org

Rob Paral, author and researcher, Rob Paral Associates. Studies demographics, social and economic data with an emphasis on community development. 773-609-4510. contact@robparal.com

Anthony Orum, professor, Center for Urban Research and Learning Loyola University. Sociologist and author. 847-525-2721 (office). 847-864-9910 (home). amorum@uic.edu or anthonyorum@sbcglobal.net

Adolfo Hernandez, director of the Office of New Americans, City of Chicago. 312-744-5201. adolfo.hernandez@cityofchicago.org

Sources: Organizations

Latino Policy Forum. Links to research and Latino groups. Sara McElmurry, spokesperson. 312-376-1766 x229 (office). 312-351-3890 (mobile). smcelmurry@latinopolicyforum.org

Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. Coalition includes many ethnic groups and acts as a voice for immigrants and refugees. Fred Tsao, policy director. 312-332-7360 x213. ftsao@icirr.org

Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. Brings together a variety of local Muslim organizations.  312-506-0070.

Coalition of African, Arab, Asian, Europe and Latino immigrants of Illinois. Represents a number of immigrant groups and helps foster global and local connections. Dale Asis, executive director. 773-248-1019, dasis@caaaelii.org

Chicago Cultural Alliance. Ethnic museums and cultural centers. Rebeccah Sanders, executive director. 312-307-4717. rsanders@chicagoculturalalliance.org

Council on American-Islamic Relations, Chicago office. A research and advocacy group for Chicago area Muslims. Ahmed Rehab, executive director.

312-212-1520. director@cairchicago.org

source: WBEZ

Asian American Institute. Represents the city’s diverse Asian communities.Tuyet Le, executive director. 773-271-0899 x201. tuyet@aaichicago.org

The arrest and shuffling off of thousands.

What exactly is happening?

From excellent journalism by the Chicago Reporter, we learn that speedy deportations have consumed thousands from the Chicago area and across the nation.

“From October 2007 through September 2011, more than 460,000 deportations were carried out under re-instatements across the country, shows an analysis of U.S. Department of Homeland Security records by The Chicago Reporter. Like Monreal, these immigrants were deported without the opportunity to appear before an immigration judge.

More than 8,300 of these re-instatements came in the Chicago “area of responsibility,” overseen by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency of homeland security.

In recent years, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been deporting more and more immigrants by bypassing formal court proceedings, the Reporter found. Reinstatement is one of several legal strategies devised for this effort. Others are known as “administrative orders,” “expedited removals,” “stipulated order of removals,” “visa waiver removals” and “voluntary returns.” All of these procedures enable speedy deportations without a judicial hearing.’

http://www.chicagoreporter.com/news/2013/05/speedy-removal

We’ll be talking about how the US deals with the millions of undocumented and other issues key to understanding immigrants and immigration at our forum on Tuesday, May 7th.

We will meeting from 10 am to noon at room 101, 33 East Congress, Columbia, College,

Along with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, we’ve put together a gathering of more than a dozen groups and individuals involved in some aspect of understand immigration today.

We will be talking about:

How immigrants enrich our culture and our economy.

How immigrants have changed politics and what more changes are coming.

How immigrants face discrimination

How immigrants find new lives in Chicago and its suburbs

How the immigration reform efforts are likely to pan out, and how that will touch the thousands here – their families, the places they work, their communities, their links here and overseas.

From the Chicago Council on Global Affairs to the National Immigrant Justice Center, to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society to the Asian American Institute  and to the Polish Initiative to the Immigrant Youth Justice League to the Chicago Cultural Alliance and more, you will be able to talk about stories that matter today more than ever.

Our meetings are reporter friendly.  That means you will be able to talk separately with these individuals and groups, who will be staffing tables set around a large meeting room.

Why should you join us?

If you want to learn about the best sources and best community organizations and contacts to fill out your reporting, you’ll get that from our workshop.

What more will you get from the meeting?

If you are looking for immigrant voices, we’ll help you get them. In fact, if you let us know in advance, we’ll help you look for folks who can talk in the some of the languages of Chicago’s immigrants.

You won’t leave without a story in mind. Trust us.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is our partner at for this event.

If you want more information about our meeting on May 7^th, talk to me, Stevebey@live.com, office 312 369 6400, cell 773 595 8667

Also you can contact Monica Trevino at ICIRR at cell (773) 573-8667 mtrevino@icirr.org.

And after our gathering, you won’t want to miss the forum that the Chicago Reporter is presenting on Monday, May 13 at 5:30 pm

“Still in the Shadows?” A Community Forum on Immigration

Free community forum and town hall meeting, looking at the hot-button debate on immigration reform.

Special Guest:  U.S. Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, a national leader on immigration reform.
Location: Lincoln United Methodist Church, 2242 S. Damen Ave., Chicago

saludos, Steve

steve franklin – steve@chicagoistheworld.org, cell 773 595 8667

African Immigrants shape Chicago’s business landscape

Want parity in immigration reform

By La Risa Lynch

It’s lunch time and Ethiopian Diamond is jumping with customers even as construction crews hammer away doing renovations to the Edgewater restaurant.

Owner Almaz Yigizaw credits the restaurant’s success to recreating her grandmother’s recipes that she remembers growing up in Ethiopia.

“We really try to cook like home,” said Yigizaw who emigrated to Chicago at age 15.

She and an older brother fled Ethiopia when that East African country’s communist government cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators. Many youth were jailed, killed or tortured by the government, Yigizaw recalled.

“It was scary to leave because we never traveled five miles away from home. We had to walk all the way to the Sudan,” Yigizaw said, noting that people died of hunger and thirst along the way.

They crossed the desert with other youths to reach neighboring Sudan, traveling by night to avoid being shot by police. Six months in a Sudanese refugee camp, Yigizaw finally arrived in Chicago.

African Enterprise in Chicago

Her success as an African immigrant business woman is not lost on her. When she arrived in Chicago in 1982, she only had the shoes on her feet, two pairs of underwear and a bra. Adjusting to her new life was hard, but hard worked paid off.

“Here in the United States, you have a lot of choices,” said Yigizaw, who studied microbiology in college before opening the restaurant in 1996. She opened a second location in 2010 on Howard Street. “You can work. You can go to school. You just have to make good decisions.”

Yigizaw represents a growing African immigrant population, whose entrepreneurial spirit is adding to the vibrant mix that makes Chicago one of the most ethnically and cultural diverse cities.

African-owned businesses are transforming Chicago’s business landscape. Neighborhoods are dotted with African-owned restaurants, retail shops to hair braiding salons, and social service agencies that cater to their needs.

For Yigizaw, these businesses present an opportunity for people to learn more about Africa. She said most people still think of Africa as wild and war-torn.

“We are really changing the image of people in Chicago about Africa,” she said. “Africa has a lot to offer.”

Chicago is unique in its ethnic diversity. Of the 54 countries that make of the African continent 49 are represented in the city, an feat unheard of in other metropolitan cities, said Alie Kabba, executive director of the United African Organization, a nonpartisan coalition of African-community organizations.

Many African immigrants tap into that entrepreneurial spirit to achieve that American Dream and establish roots here. Kabba noted that nearly all African owned businesses — 9 out 10 — opened between 1995 to 2005. That decade, he said, saw unprecedented numbers of Africans migrating to the U.S.

Even African entrepreneurs are helping their homeland by opening up trade between the U.S. and the continent.  Kabba noted that seven of the 10 fastest growing economies are on the continent.

“We are seeing in many areas of life that African immigrants are contributing immensely to make this city a truly global city,” Kabba said.

The contributions Africans as well as other immigrant communities show the positive impact immigration policies have on the US, but that could be in jeopardy.

Immigration Reform and Africans: A Setback

A causality of the latest version of the Senate’s immigration reform bill was the diversity visa program, a vital option that allowed Africans to emigrate to the U.S. The Senate’s Gang of 8 eliminated the 55,000-slot program, a program where nearly half of all African immigrants use to come to this country. Last year, 24,000 Africans came here on the diversity visa program.

“It would definitely mean that Africa would negatively be impacted in terms of the number of people who can leave the continent and come to the U.S.  as immigrants, ”Kabba said.

The diversity visa program, he added, offered the best chance for Africans to come to the US since the continent has very few options for people to emigrate here.

Ending the program will throw the African immigrant population back to 1965 numbers where Africans in the U.S. “would be just like drops of rain in the desert,” Kabba said.

“Historically before 1965 Africans could not come to this country as immigrants,” he explained. “One of the great achievements of the Civil Rights Movement was the democratization of U.S. immigration to make it easier for Africans to come here.”

While most Africans come here through family reunification programs or seeking refugee or asylum status, there are a mall number of undocumented Africans. His group wants parity for these immigrants. He noted several African immigrants don’t have legal status because they overstayed their visas.

Many, Kabba said, come to this country for school or business but war or political strife prevented their return. Off the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US, four percent are Africans while seven percent are from the Caribbean. The process to gain legal status should be streamlined where from people from Africa have the same options as people from Ireland, he added.

“That is why we need a system that is fair to all regions of the world …,” Kabba said. “Nobody wants to come here and intentionally overstay their visa if there is a path for them to have permanent residency.”

That path will bring a lot of undocumented immigrants including Africans out of the shadows, says UAO board member Godfrey Chinomona. Chinomona, a native of Zimbabwe, gained his American citizenship in 2011 after a technology staffing firm sponsored his work visa in 2000.

He said many stay in the shadows for fear of being deported or the stigma of being an illegal immigrant. Immigration reform means a lot of people will come out of their “cocoons and start contributing,” said Chinomona, owner of AceXtic Consulting, an IT consulting and staffing company.

He said many Africans are highly educated but are stuck in medial jobs like home health care because they don’t have papers.

“Sometimes they are forced to change their expectations,” Chinomona said.

But he contends immigration reform is somewhat biased. He noted bills coming out of Congress favor Latinos and rarely considered other ethnic groups. Africans, he said, must be more organized to be part of dialogue on immigration reform.

“We have not had a lot of coming together to really push our interests,” he said. “A lot of people just come here to work and they isolate themselves. They don’t understand you have to mobilize your community and set an agenda.”

The United African Organization will hold its 7^th annual Chicago African Summit and Resource Fair, May 18th at 700 E. Oakwood Blvd. For more information: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5162669684#

This article was written for Chicago Is The World

It was published on Chocolate City

http://www.chocolatecity.cc/2013/05/04/african-immigrants-shape-chicagos-business-landscape-want-parity-in-immigration-reform/

We’ll be talking about this at our news gathering on Tuesday, May 7th in partnership with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and a number of groups that work with immigrants will be on hand. Our meeting is from 10 am to noon, room 101, 33 East Congress, Chicago.

Join us.

And here’s a story from one of our female bloggers exactly about living without papers. You are welcome to use it and welcome to let it inspire you. Talk to me. Steve Franklin, 312 369 6400, cell 773 595 8667.

source: the AP

By Anastacia Favela

Edna Arias has seen half of her dream come true.

It’s the other half she wonders about although she has hopes.

There are many like the 20-year-old from suburban Orland Park.

She came to the United States in 2006 from Torreon, Mexico, when she was 13 years old. Her father was the first to come to America in search for a job in engineering. And once the rest of her family came to America, they settled in the Chicago suburb.

As an undocumented citizen Arias did not struggle with citizenship, until she reached the age of 17. “It didn’t really affect me until I wanted to get a driver’s license,” said Arias.

That opened a new world for her, a world of obstacles and setbacks that haunt the millions of undocumented in the US. But with the drive for immigration reform, there’s hope that changes underway will set aside the heartbreaking obstacles the undocumented face.

The beginning of these changes came in 2001 when U.S. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Representative Howard Berman (D-CA) introduced the Dream Act. The act was meant to help undocumented immigrants living in the United States for at least 5 years, who were brought here undocumented under the age of 16 at no fault of their own, to be given a “conditional, lawful permanent resident status.”

The status is valid for 6 years in order to lawfully pursue a college degree, obtain employment, or join the military. “Under this policy people are able to be protected from deportation,” said Cindy Agustin, a leadership trainer at Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Reform (ICIRR). “This act gives young people a right to education.”

With the legislation stalled in Congress, President Barack Obama issued an executive order providing many of the benefits of the Dream Act last year. But the action provides only temporary relief and does not resolve the long-term issue. It prevents the deportation of millions, but is not a route to any permanent solution. Those who apply for it must also re-apply after two years.

The administration’s offer of relief to the many undocumented appeared link to the hope that the US Congress would be able to work out a solution.

Agustin is involved with ICIRR’s efforts with those directly affected by the struggles of being undocumented. “I work with youth. My goal is to get undocumented youth to get help legislatively, or help them get resources they need to know about for protection,” says Agustin.

The great advantage of the Dream Act, as Muriel Howard, President of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities recently wrote in the Huffingtonpost, is that it offers, “undocumented individuals the necessary access to federal loan and work study programs.”

Currently, students eligible for the Dream Act would not be eligible for federal educational grants or federal loans, only private loans. There are reportedly 2.1 million children and young adults in America, who are eligible for the Dream Act, according to Immigration Policy Center, which is located in Washington, D.C.

But only part of the Dream Act has taken effect, the so-called Deferred Action, which “allows undocumented citizens protection from deportation for two years”, said Elisa Rodriguez, an immigration and family attorney.

Deferred Action allows for students to be able to earn a degree but they are not able to serve in the armed forces, as opposed to the Dream Act. Deferred Action must be renewed every two years to stay under protection.

But the action provides only temporary relief and does not resolve the long-term issue. While it prevents the deportation of millions, it is not a route to any permanent solution, causing frustration among many immigrant and their supporters.

The administration’s offer of relief to the many undocumented appeared linked to the hope that the US Congress would be able to work out a solution.

Nonetheless, the deferred action has been a blessing for Arias.

She was able to get a job while in high school, but she was not able to drive a car. “My boss heard about [Deferred Action] on the radio and told me about,” said Arias. This past August, Arias applied for Deferred Action with help from Elisa Rodriguez, and was approved.

“With it I can be more at peace while driving, and I can get internships, not just internships but paid internships,” said Arias.

She now has a driver’s license, social security card, and two years of residency. Although she is able to earn an education, Arias is not able to receive federal loans, and grants. “I received the STEM scholarship at IIT, that helps, but it’s not enough,” said Arias. The STEM scholarship is a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics scholarship given to students who are academically talented in these areas of study. Besides this scholarship, Arias can only receive private loans, and private scholarships.

The only person in Arias family that currently has a clear path to citizenship is her sister because she married a citizen. Arias’ parents can receive help through her sister to gain citizenship, but Arias must find her own way to become a citizen

“Hopefully my company would be able to sponsor me the residency and later on the citizenship”, said Arias, “If an employer claims you and sponsors you, they can say to the government that she’s really good at her job and she’s the best in her field and we want her in the US for our company,” said Arias. If an employer communicates this to the government, it will cause them to evaluate the situation and decide whether to grant someone citizenship or not.

As a biomedical engineering major at IIT, Arias intends on renewing her Deferred Action residency after this first two year period. Arias dreams of becoming a biomedical engineer to help construct prostheses for people with amputations.

As I sat in an empty campus hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology campus, listening to Arias, I could sense her conviction to become a citizen through her hard work.

Anastacia, a Columbia College journalism student, wrote this for Chicago Is The World

Some are people like Juana.

“Juana, a lawful permanent resident, was in deportation proceedings for shoplifting. One shoplifting offense usually does not make someone deportable, but two offenses often trigger removability. Juana had her toddler with her more than a decade ago when she tried to steal a few clothing items from a store. Store security caught her and noticed that Juana’s toddler had grabbed a toy from another store and dropped it into her stroller. Juana was charged with two shoplifting offenses. A stuffed duck landed her in removal proceedings. She spent years fighting to remain in the United States with her citizen husband and three citizen daughters”

This story is from a blog by a National Immigrant Justice Center worker. http://www.immigrantjustice.org

It is one of the Chicago-area agencies whose work is closely tied to the most critical issues facing immigrants. And they will be one of the organizations taking part in the May 7th news event sponsored by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the Community Media Workshop.

The meeting is at Room 101, 33 East Congress (Congress and Wabash) Columbia College, Chicago. We’re easily reached by the CTA. Public parking is nearby

There will be folks from a number of immigrant advocacy, support, or immigrant-research related organizations.

Our meetings are reporter friendly.  That means you will be able to talk separately with these individuals and groups, who will be staffing tables set around a large meeting room.

How important are immigrants for Chicago?

Ask Adolfo Hernandez and he will tell you how they are critical to Chicago’s future – financially, culturally, and population-wise.

He speaks with some authority as the head of Chicago’s Office of New Americans.

What difference exactly do immigrants make for the Chicago area economy?

Juliana Kerr Viohl will roll out of the numbers that will show how much our local economy relies on immigrants.

She is from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and immigrants are one reason why we are a global city.

You say you also want to know how the immigration reform proposals in Congress might affect Chicago’s immigrant community.

Fred Tsao will tell you what the hundreds of pages of legislation in Washington can mean for Chicago’s more than 80 immigrant communities.

It’s his job to know this. He’s policy director for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR)

Fred, Juliana and Adolfo and others from will be on hand at the meeting we are holding from 10 am to noon on Tuesday, May 7^th to explain why journalists need to pay attention to immigrant issues today.

Why should you join us?

If you want to learn about the best sources and best community organizations and contacts to fill out your reporting, you’ll get that from our workshop.

What more will you get from the meeting?

If you are looking for immigrant voices, we’ll help you get them. In fact, if you let us know in advance, we’ll help you look for folks who can talk in the some of the languages of Chicago’s immigrants.

You won’t leave without a story in mind. Trust us.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is our partner at for this event.

If you want more information about our meeting on May 7^th, talk to me.Stevebey@live.com, office 312 369 6400, cell 773 595 8667

Also you can contact Monica Trevino at ICIRR at cell (773) 573-8667  or mtrevino@icirr.org

We were talking in the telephone store the other day about Guatemala, the incredible scenery, the magical culture and the haunting music – the music that he heard growing up here and which links him to his father’s home.

Did he know any other music? No. Did he dance? No. But he knew that music.

That’s the mixture taking place for millions – the children of immigrants whose cultural souls now stretch back and forward and who will shape, again, the nation’s cultural DNA.

I thought of this upon hearing Maria Hinojosa’s show on NPR about the creative mixture going on for second and third generation Latinos. I think this is the story for all immigrants

Here’s the link to her program:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/04/28/179277601/for-some-young-latinos-donkey-jaws-and-latino-roots

And it’s another good reason to join with us on May 7th for our news workshop on immigrants.

How important are immigrants for Chicago?

Ask Adolfo Hernandez and he will tell you how they are critical to Chicago’s future – financially, culturally, and population-wise.

He speaks with some authority as the head of Chicago’s Office of New Americans.

What difference exactly do immigrants make for the Chicago area economy?

Juliana Kerr Viohl will roll out of the numbers that will show how much our local economy relies on immigrants.

She is from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and immigrants are one reason why we are a global city.

You say you also want to know how the immigration reform proposals in Congress might affect Chicago’s immigrant community.

Fred Tsao will tell you what the hundreds of pages of legislation in Washington can mean for Chicago’s more than 80 immigrant communities.

It’s his job to know this. He’s policy director for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR)

Fred, Juliana and Adolfo and others from will be on hand at the meeting we are holding from 10 am to noon on Tuesday, May 7th to explain why journalists need to pay attention to immigrant issues today.

The meeting is at Room 101, 33 East Congress (Congress and Wabash) Columbia College, Chicago. We’re easily reached by the CTA. Public parking is nearby

There will be folks from over a number of immigrant advocacy, support, or immigrant-research related organizations.

Our meetings are reporter friendly.  That means you will be able to talk separately with these individuals and groups, who will be staffing tables set around a large meeting room.

Why should you join us?

If you want to learn about the best sources and best community organizations and contacts to fill out your reporting, you’ll get that from our workshop.

What more will you get from the meeting?

If you are looking for immigrant voices, we’ll help you get them. In fact, if you let us know in advance, we’ll help you look for folks who can talk in the some of the languages of Chicago’s immigrants.

You won’t leave without a story in mind. Trust us.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is our partner at for this event.

If you want more information about our meeting on May 7th, talk to me.Stevebey@live.com, office 312 369 6400, cell 773 595 8667

Also you can contact Monica Trevino at ICIRR at cell (773) 573-8667 ormtrevino@icirr.org.