Immigration advocates fight against tough talk

Updated: 2015-12-18 12:45

By Paul Welitzkin in New York(China Daily USA)

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Despite harsh commentary on immigration in the presidential race, some US cities are embracing immigrants by developing programs and services to help them assimilate according to David Lubell, executive director of Welcoming America.

"This is part of what I call a welcoming wave tied to immigration, despite the heated rhetoric on the national level," Lubell said. "It was already strong in New York and San Francisco, but is now evident in new gateway cities like Nashville and Atlanta and in older cities like Pittsburgh."

He was speaking at a forum sponsored by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas in New York on Dec 15 titled: Local Action, National Change: City-Level Efforts to Welcome Immigrants.

Serving as the foundation for the forum was a report on how some cities in the US are encouraging immigration by establishing offices that help immigrants integrate into society. The report was prepared by the University of Southern California Center for the Study of Immigration and backed by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Knight Foundation.

Lubell noted how prevalent immigration is in the US now. "In 1965, one in 20 in the US was foreign born. Now, one in seven is foreign born, so immigration is much more prevalent," he said.

New York has long been identified as a city that not only welcomes immigrants but takes pride in its historical ties to immigration. Nisha Agarwal is the current commissioner of the New York City Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs.

Immigration advocates fight against tough talk

"We are one of the oldest offices in existence in the US," she told the forum. "By being within the mayor's office, it helps us to develop and coordinate meaningful programs that will help immigrants adjust."

Lubell started Welcoming America in 2009 which was modeled on his successful Welcoming Tennessee program that helped make Nashville into an attractive magnet for corporate immigration.

"When we started Welcoming America there were eight communities. Now we have over 100 communities," he said.

Pittsburgh is an example of a city that one wouldn't necessarily associate with immigration despite its historical ties to immigrants, noted Betty Cruz, manager for special initiatives for the office of Mayor Bill Peduto.

"After the steel industry left Pittsburgh, no one wanted to be in Pittsburgh except immigrants," Cruz said. "Mayor Peduto, who said his family came from Italy to the Pittsburgh area manyw years ago, saw the immigrants as a way to help rebuild the city's economy."

"Mayor Peduto said immigration had been good for Pittsburgh in the past and would also be good for the city in the future," Cruz said.

paulwelitzkin@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 12/18/2015 page2)

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