Welcome Dayton wants to build on city’s diversity[A1]
Website, jobs event and staffing for immigrant program in place soon.
Continuing coverage Immigration
- BYLINE: Jeremy P. Kelley Staff Writer
- DATE: December 18, 2011
- PUBLICATION: Dayton Daily News (OH)
- SECTION: Local
- PAGE: B1
DAYTON — The Welcome Dayton plan to become an immigrant-friendly city is considered revolutionary by some, given the anti-immigration laws passed recently in other states. But Tom Wahlrab, on[A2]e of the coordinators of the plan, said the city has spent the past 10 weeks trying not to reinvent the wheel. Instead, a task force of city employees and plan authors is doing a best-practices inventory [A3]of what businesses and community groups are already doing to help integrate immigrants.
“This is not new … so we want to ask all the banks what they’re doing. Ask the hospitals, the churches, all the educational institutions,” said Wahlrab, chairman of the city’s Human Relations Council[A4]. “And let’s create the catalogue, the map of what’s currently being done, and put it out on [A5]the Internet, so … we can all learn from each other.” [A6]
Wahlrab said the task force has already heard back from a variety of different groups, including representatives from the Dayton Metro Library, Miami Valley Career Technology Center, Diabetes Day-ton and the Ahiska Turkish American Community Center.
[A7]
Involving so many different groups is important because different industries may face different challenges in helping immigrants. For banks the hurdle could be documents, for schools it could be language, for churches it could be culture.
“They all have their piece of it,[A8] and it all needs to make up a whole so these people do feel comfortable and part of the citizenry,” Wahlrab said.
Courtroom 5 at Dayton’s federal building was filled with people becoming U.S. citizens on Thursday, as 52 immigrants from 19 countries took the oath of citizenship.
As immigrants from nearly every corner of the world — Cambodia, Canada, Venezuela, Germany, Sudan — stood and introduced themselves, Judge Thomas Rose told each one, “Welcome.”
When Ukraine native and Centerville resident Valery Martinov was asked what helped him adjust to the United States when he first arrived 10 years ago, he said the key was friendly, welcoming people.
Martinov, who became a citizen Thursday along with his wife, Alla, said the adjustment was difficult at first because of big differences between Russia and the United States. But he thought Dayton’s welcoming policy could draw more people from his home country.
Dieudonne Nsabimana became a U.S. citizen Thursday, but he’s already been helping fellow immigrants from his homeland of Burundi adjust to this country. He’s president of the local Burundian Cultural and Education Association, and said he had heard of the Welcome Dayton plan.
Nsabimana of Kettering said his cultural adjustment to the United States was easier because his wife is American. But other hurdles remain. Like many Americans, he has found work, but not jobs to match his degree in business management.
“Anybody who is new here has to get help,” he said. “We’re trying to get involved in the community … but I know other immigrants who come here and the biggest trouble they have is speaking the language so they can get a job.”
That type of concern leads to some of the more concrete ideas of the Welcome Dayton plan.
Wahlrab said the city hopes to partner with the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce on a job-match event.
Chamber Vice President Chris Kershner said his organization already has a minority business partnership effort that works with both employers and the local work force.
“If we can leverage the region’s talents to help this immigrant-friendly policy, we’d love to do that,” Kershner said.
Other tangible steps of Welcome Dayton include plans to hire a part-time staffer and a social work intern by January to coordinate city efforts. Wahlrab said a Welcome Dayton website should be launched by Jan. 1. He had hoped to have the city ordinance creating a Welcome Dayton committee prepared by this month, but now says City Commission may see that in January.
LaShea Smith, Dayton’s director of recreation and youth services, has been tasked with creating a local soccer tournament for next fall, with teams representing their respective home nations. She said the American Friends Service Committee had a somewhat similar event, and the city will try to build on it.
Wahlrab said the task force is researching things like what languages to include on Welcome Day-ton signage for the airport and how to proceed with any type of municipal ID card.
The group is cataloguing agencies that teach English as a second language, but he said Welcome Day-ton’s call for better translation services might even be helped by technology, given the translation applications on new smart phones and tablets.
“We’ve gotten the publicity and we have an extremely detailed and interesting plan, but we’ve got to show substance and a lot of heart,” Wahlrab said. “I think we’re doing that. … The city has to maintain its momentum in implementing the aspects of the plan. They need to maintain focus on it and they’ve got to show some progress.”
Let’s discuss: Welcoming immigrants
LOOKING FOR SOLUTIONSAssociate Editor
- BYLINE: Ron Rollins
- DATE: December 11, 2011
- PUBLICATION: Dayton Daily News (OH)
- SECTION: Ideas & Voices
- PAGE: A18
Everyone’s invited. That’s the word the city of Dayton is putting out to the nation, and the world, in a new program that’s getting considerable media attention. The “Welcome Dayton” plan adopted in October attempts to create an immigrant-friendly image and atmosphere that will make people want to move in and settle. The plan goes against the grain of much immigrant policy in the United States these days, even to the point of directing police officers to ask about or check immigration status only for people suspected of serious crimes.[A9] Contrast that to the latest headlines from Alabama and Arizona. The goal is simple: Reverse the city’s population decline. If it works, it could have an impact far beyond the city line; not only could the immediate suburbs be affected, but it’s easy to anticipate impacts on surrounding counties as well.
So — will it work? Obviously, that will depend not just on how well the city spreads word of the new policy, but upon whether it can make immigrants believe that if they come here, they will be able to lead [A10]a hassle-free life that allows them to thrive. That will take time.
And, more important, the plan must be sustainable in the long term. If I invite you to my house for dinner, you won’t come back if you don’t have a good time. City agencies, county government, the social-service network, churches, businesses and regular citizens will have to get involved and play a part [A11]in this for the “Welcome” to succeed.
Our Ideas & Voices team recently invited nearly a dozen local people who helped write the Welcome Day-ton plan to talk about their goals. They see Dayton as a progressive, forward-thinking place that could become a mecca for creative, energetic people who don’t feel they fit in elsewhere.
Imagine the possibilities, if they’re right. Could Dayton really transform itself into a bustling, colorful cosmopolitan melting pot on the population upswing? And could it really happen one family at a time?
Well, we’re about to find out.
City opening the door to newcomers
COMMUNITY DISCUSSION
- DATE: December 11, 2011
- PUBLICATION: Dayton Daily News (OH)
- SECTION: Ideas & Voices
- PAGE: A18
Q: How did the plan come together? Tom Wahlrab: We started working on it in late February and ended in May. We gave ourselves 90 days to write the plan, and when we had these conversations, nobody stood at the head of the table — everybody had the chance to talk as much as they wanted to. You had the same voice as everybody else. This was equally embraced by city government, the business community and other parts of the community, and so what you have in there ... has that flavor to it.
Q: The plan seems to build upon other recent efforts to make Dayton a better place — Dayton-CREATE, the Greater Downtown Dayton Plan by the Downtown Dayton Partnership, the various city of peace efforts, such as the Friendship Force, the Peace Museum and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; was that intentional?
Tim Riordan: Yes, all those groups were also at the table; we consciously involved them in the process.
Mike Ervin: When we were working on the Greater Downtown Dayton Plan, we found in our research that one of the common keys to success in a city is diversity; young professionals and people coming up really celebrate diversity and want to live in diverse places that are cool and not cookie-cutter. The Welcome Dayton plan helps with a lot of things we’re already doing. It would be great if Dayton becomes known as a progressive, good city with good people who want to do the right thing; that would also attract a lot of people who aren’t immigrants, but who just want live in that kind of place.
Phil Parker: I like that word Mike used: “Progressive.”
Nozipo Glenn: Dayton has always has a positive history — as far back as the 1970s. When I moved here then from South Africa, the city welcomed the fact I was running from apartheid, and passed a resolution supporting me. In the ’90s, Dayton had the peace accords — talking peace at the base? I wondered what happened! Remember (former Dayton congressman) Tony Hall? He did a lot of his hunger work here, and helped lots of people in the world. Dayton is progressive — this is nothing new. Dayton is always reaching out to other parts of the world.
Cheryl Scroggins: When we were having our talks, I realized there are so many people in the community who need to know more about what is going on in the center city. I had the privilege recently of going to my first swearing-in ceremony for new U.S. citizens, with a friend from Brazil, and I was amazed at the number of people there, all from different countries, places, languages. People need to understand and learn all these different cultures! This is an opportune time to pull resources from our community and reach out to help the people who need help. It’s a wonderful plan.
Colleen Saxen: There are people here who are dependent on others for their livelihoods, and this creates a plan for them to become contributors, and a way for people — from the gifts they have already — to go from being invisible to being active, contributing parts of the community.
Monica Schultz: The beauty of the plan is that it lets us capitalize on what we already have here now. We have immigrants who have lived here forever, who have invested here for a long time; they will be able to benefit from this. Maybe Native Americans can, too. While it’s written with a focus on immigration, it’s for everybody else, as well.
Wahlrab: That is the message we need to get out there — that people have value and worth, and that we will do all we can to get out there and help them.
Q: So, if the plan works, what does Dayton look like five or 10 years from now?
Riordan: What I see is a lot of institutions and organizations being able to deal even better with immigrants; I see us growing in population; I see us demonstrating that we are friendly, defined as an immigrant-friendly community. I think we also will experience more entrepreneurs on a retail and larger-scale level, and attract more international investment. We will attract people from the refugee level to the international-investor level, a broad spectrum.
Parker: We all know it’s a global economy, and getting more so each day, and we can mirror that in this community ... and all understand each other better in terms of language, culture, religion. Some may shy away from that, but it should be a strength, not a weakness. We have people here who travel all over the globe to do business; we also have people living here who could help them with that, and to connect. It will take a while; this is a work in progress that doesn’t end in five years. Change is happening; we’ve got to be willing to address and embrace that.
Schultz: This can return us to being a community. I want to see children playing soccer in the park, and helping the elderly with their groceries. I want people to buy up old houses and make them nice again. I want to bring that sense of community back to my neighborhood.
Riordan: I love to hear comments like that. If people here believe that, and tell people around the country and world, we really should have to spend zero dollars marketing this.
Ervin: You know, a while ago I went to Oklahoma City to talk to the developers of their downtown riverfront, and when I got there they said, “Wow, we’re hearing all these great things about Day-ton!” They had just heard the NPR piece about the immigrant-friendly city, and seen USA Today. That’s pretty neat — I went down there to see and learn about their stuff, and they’re talking about how great Dayton is.
Q: That begs the question: Why do you think the plan has gotten the amount of national attention it has?
Ervin: It counters a lot of things happening around the country, like Alabama and Arizona. This has become an international news story. Tim Riordan got a letter from somebody in China wanting to move here. I have a university friend who’s Latino whose mom was retiring and she moved here; she has eight kids, and could’ve lived anywhere. We’ve become an island in a sea of craziness.
Schultz: It’s catching on because it’s so different. A lot of cities have lost jobs and population and they’re all trying to attract big companies. We are saying we just want to attract people who want to live here and make it a nice city. That’s a head-scratcher, and some people are seeing it as an alternative, asking, I wonder what that’s like?
Glenn: I hope it has a rippling effect, that other cities and states say, Why don’t we try that? Lots of states are very anti-immigrant, and I hope this would counter that and they would join us. The U.S. as a whole needs that. My friend in South Africa said, “You mean, wow, America is getting friendly now?” And I was just talking about Dayton. I hope this changes the perception of how people perceive America; that would help us in the fight against terrorism. I see it growing into something bigger than us.
Francisco Pelaez-Diaz: Myself, as an immigrant, I feel more comfortable here now. Every single immigrant brings skills, talents, something to share. … It is a totally different environment we experience here; my perception is that more people will feel value, and that their talents, experiences, knowledge, whatever, will be more valued. That is huge in terms of the human richness here, especially compared to other parts of the country. I get people staring at me because I’m brown; in every single restaurant I go into, I get looked at. But I feel more comfortable here lately, and that is crucial.
Wahlrab: This country is the standard for immigration; we don’t always do it well, and right now we are in a down cycle for how well we are doing it. But we still, by and large, do it better than others. And Dayton is saying, we have learned the lessons; let’s reap the benefits of these people’s experience.
Q: You don’t have to look too far to see politicians talking about electric fences on the borders — have you heard any pushback on this?
Glenn: I’ve been here so long, people forget I’m an immigrant, and I have heard some people on the bus, “I don’t want the government to give money to those foreigners when I don’t have a job.
” …
Alvaro Maurice: Where you see some of the pushback is in national interviews the mayor has done in the media and the questioning turns negative. I believe that setting the example and empowering immigrants needs to be done. This is a country founded by immigrants. It’s in our DNA, and it has turned us into a superpower. We can’t change or stop that, and we need to have a willingness to accept people of all faiths and colors, and in Dayton to remind people of that.
Parker: Well, I’ve heard from people at the base who retired here because they saw us a friendly community to begin with, and this plan elevates that. I’ve heard from business folks who are glad we’re having this conversation, because the world is changing — by 2050, the minority population will be the majority population — and they realize we need to embrace that. It’s who we are in America. But there are also some people who are afraid of it, and that’s a shame. I have had some people come to me who have misconstrued the plan and said, “Phil, are we talking about illegals?” My response has been that we aren’t promoting anything illegal, but we are trying to help solid, legal immigrants find a place to call home.