A recording of the Community Conversation can be watched on the Dayton Daily News Facebook page or on our website.
This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.
What does a welcoming community look like to you?
Ross McGregor: Over the past 18 months, we’ve been hiring a number of Haitians that are now relocated into the Springfield community. And I’ve often thought about how would it feel if all of a sudden I were in a totally unfamiliar environment, knowing nothing of the culture that I’m in, and they knowing nothing of the culture from where I came. One of the things that we’ve tried to do here at Pentaflex more, I think is something that should be replicated on a community basis is when you have a population that has established itself in your community, outreach is needed to understand where it is that they’ve come from and what are the conditions that they had been living in that made them want to relocate to the Miami Valley. Understanding where someone’s coming from goes a long way to helping interact with them and helping them get up to speed on what they need to do to be successful.
I think that a welcoming community also anticipates that there will be certain needs that these new immigrants are going to have to have access to certainly understanding how the healthcare system works, helping them with any technical immigration issues that they may need, etc. And certainly the language barrier is something that has to be overcome and some sort of means to help give them at least the rudimentary knowledge of how to interact here in in Ohio and America.
Interestingly, I have found that some of the folks that are working for us are degreed individuals that I never would have known because of the language barrier. And now that I understand that I understand better what they’re actually capable of.
Cady Landa: I can add a little bit from my areas of expertise with schools and also my experience on the the Board of the City of Dayton’s Human Relations Council. I feel that it’s it’s very important that schools provide competent systems information to parents who didn’t grow up in the United States about how schools work, and all those special programs for students that they have and how to access them. Schools must have trained language interpreters and translators to facilitate communication between school staff and and children’s parents, whose first language is not English. And I think schools must support student learning and assessment in students’ first languages as well as in English. Schools should really strive to be multilingual, and that the curriculum for children and youth should include supports that help them accept difference and allow students to explore the histories and cultures of all the nations and groups that inform their experience.
In terms of what I’ve learned from being on the board of a Human Relations Council, I think it’s really important for cities to have human rights organizations that mix paid facilitators, city residents and workers to work together to identify unmet civic and social and economic needs, discrimination, and advocate for more equitable and inclusive policies.
How does immigration affect the local economy? The New American Economy report on this topic was released earlier this month. Can you talk a little bit about the benefits and are there any concern?
Cady Landa: This report was recently completed by the New American Economy, American Immigration Council, and it’s kind of stunning in that it really stresses the demographic and economic contributions that immigrants have made to the county. When people think about immigrants, they’re often worried that they are coming here and taking jobs and resources from people who were born here, but what the report shows is that immigrants are really making huge contributions to the economy that make life better for everyone.
The report shows that there are 25,400 New Americans in Montgomery County, a little less than 5% of the population. And one of the important things that they’ve done is that there is a population decline in the area. But the immigrant population has increased by 25%, so that has really slowed the population decline significantly. They made huge contributions to taxes, including property sales and excise taxes levied by state and local governments and federal income taxes added to the Medicare and Social Security programs.
From Montgomery county, they contributed $75.1 million to state and local taxes $144.4 million to federal taxes $74.4 million to Social Security and $19.8 million to the Medicare program. And they contributed $1.9 billion to the county’s GDP. They also have a significant spending power that can benefit the local economy, estimated to be $562.4 million.
That is a huge contribution that’s been made that goes unnoticed. Keep in mind that there are barriers to their eligibility for a lot of the programs that their tax revenues are paying for.
How has the Afghan refugee resettlement process gone so far?
Laura Roesch: The resettlement of refugees from Afghanistan, even though we’ve been in this work for over 60 years, was a very unique experience. We all saw it happen live on TV, the evacuation from Afghanistan that occurred back in August. That first evacuation saw the arrival of over 75,000 people from Afghanistan and the first point of arrival in the United States was to military bases across the country.
After leaving the military bases, they arrived in communities across our country, including Dayton. So having the Afghans be displaced twice in such an urgent and abrupt manner and in a crisis was a unique experience, we’ve ever seen anything like that. We had over 130 Afghans arrive in a very short period of time. At that point that we started the the reception and placement activities
Affordable housing continues to be a challenge, not just in Dayton but across our country, the access to safe, affordable housing for people who are on modest incomes to start. It’s one that we all recognize in the resettlement world as something that requires additional focus and resources and partnership. The need for community partnerships incredibly important to mention, to complement the work of a resettlement organization like Catholic Social Services. We do rely on community partners across all the systems, faith-based community partners in healthcare and education and in law enforcement. We require volunteers to complement the efforts of the staff to assure services are met.
I think it’s important to mention too, that this is just the start of a brand new life here in Dayton, Ohio. True resettlement takes many, many years.
I would also share that many of the resettlement organizations across the country are piloting a new model called “co-sponsorship,” where organizations are working together in a collaborative manner with trained volunteers, who then take on many of the traditional resettlement activities that that would have been completed by staff members that volunteers trained and background checked volunteers working together to again work in concert to ensure that the full resettlement experience is is successful for the family. And so we are we’re learning we’re following we’re studying the co sponsorship model. We don’t have that here in Dayton at this time. But we are learning from that experience and looking forward to thinking together with our community partners about something that would whether the co sponsorship model would be an enhancement to the resettlement work here in our region.
A reader asks what she can do as a friend to an immigrant who was just denied asylum. She’s very concerned about keeping to the law, but is at a loss as to how to handle the friendship.
Jean De Dieu Mukunzi: More than 60% of people who submit their application as asylum seekers, they do not get approval right away. So what is happening to the person is normal. So I think it’s not the end of the world. There is a way we can help that person because he can find a lawyer and then go to the court to try to get asylum.
Swapna Purandare: It’s important to remember that it’s nobody’s fault when a person doesn’t get asylum so don’t get disheartened. Get legal help for the second time you apply, know what the steps are to apply for a second time. This happens to a lot of people.
I was contacted by Youssef Elzein who is concerned that Arab-Americans are undercounted in the report. Can you comment on that?
Cady Landa: That concern is a very important one. The information in the report, most of it comes from the American Community Survey that’s administered by the US Census Bureau and it comes from the 2014 and 2019 surveys. And this survey is known to undercount immigrants, so the counts may not be accurate. So this affects the three kinds of data in the report. One is the distribution of nations of origin that new Americans may area come from, the other is the languages that they speak and then the third is the economic contribution. It’s important to view the report as the first step to lay the groundwork for a community-based strategic planning process that we’re hoping will happen so we don’t have to rely totally on the Census Bureau data. We want to be able to collect data locally to get a better picture.
What’s really interesting in terms of the economic data is that the Census Bureau tends to undercount immigrants. Those fabulous estimates of economic contributions that new Americans have made are conservative estimates.
What are some lesser-known local resources for immigrants that you feel deserve more attention?
Swapna Purandare: Everybody should check out the Welcome Dayton website. I think some of the resources that are not very popular are specific to cultures like the resources for Burundian culture and education. There are resources specifically for Hispanic Catholic ministries, there are resources for Islamic Society of Greater Dayton. There are also resources that are developed for Hindu immigrants by the Hindu temple. Those are a few resources that people should be aware of. o
A lot of people are not aware that higher education in the greater Dayton area focuses on international education. Sinclair Community College and University of Dayton, Wright State University, all of these have international education offices that can give you information about getting higher education. I know a lot of immigrants have higher education degrees in their countries that do not directly transfer to the United States and they need help with taking a few courses. So reach out to the international education offices.
Jean De Dieu Mukunzi: My organization, Ebenezer Healthcare Access, has multilingual staff to help people navigate healthcare and community resources. For example, if you need to schedule a medical appointment, you can call and say “I need to see a dentist” and someone will come to you in French, in Swahili, etc. to help make that appointment. If you have some kind of discharge instructions when you go to the hospital, they often give you that information in English. We will also help with that, or if you do not understand your medication. We have nurse practitioners to help you to do medication reviews in the language you do understand and we also provide computer literacy instruction.
A reader asks why should resources and effort be directed to immigrants when we already have so many issues with our existing population? Why not spend the money on those already here?
Ross McGregor: As a former member of the legislature, I’m very aware of the resources that are made available to native born Ohioans. I’ve seen a lot of those go underutilized. So, thinking as an employer, if I have a immigrant population that is now here and they’re looking to be employed, I want to see them be successful and make sure that they feel that this is a place where they can sit down roots and find a good living. To address the reader’s question, I don’t believe it’s mutually exclusive. We will always continue to provide incredible resources for Ohioans, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t also have resources to help new immigrant Ohioans get on their feet and be successful.
Cady Landa: The evidence from the newly released report on new Americans in Montgomery County show the huge contributions new Americans are making to our tax bases that fund these programs. They it’s only fair that they’d be able to utilize these services as needed that way we we all do.
What can someone in the Dayton region do to help refugees and immigrants?
Niels Winther: I came in on a visa I became a green hold a green card holder and eventually a citizen. And so what can we as individuals, I think, understand that we are not all the same understand that there are different cultures. Understand that people from other places in the world, understand what they do so they can also therefore understand what what we do. Integration is easier that way. I would highly encourage if you see somebody that that is new, reach out to them. And let them let them know that you can help with contacts for an interview or you can help them with education contacts, if they are looking for that. There are so many places where you can volunteer and and then that gets to know more people and therefore develop a network.
Laura Roesch: Bruner Literacy Center is a wonderful tutoring organization that provides one-on-one tutoring and around any kind of language issue whether it has to do with prepping for a GED or learning to read and write better. Bruner Literacy Center relies on volunteers. I served a couple of terms on the board of directors and can assure that they’re quite committed to be able to a being able to complement the work of the other organizations in our community who support immigrant populations.
Cady Landa: The committee that worked with New American Economy to produce the report is also trying to get a strategic planning process for immigrant integration going for a county-level immigrants integration initiative. So if anyone is interested in in joining in that effort, you can either send an email to me, cadylanda@gmail.com.
What are some of the immediate needs of immigrants and refugees when they arrive in the Dayton region?
Jean De Dieu Mukunzi: I think when you get to here as an immigrant what you need really is a to get orientation of the American culture. Here in America, to be successful, there are three things I think you need. First of all, you talked about learning English. Yes, you need to know English, to be able to communicate. Also you need to to drive, so you need to have a driver’s license. You need to have some skills on the computer.
Jean De Dieu, do you mind sharing a little of your own experience?
Jean De Dieu Mukunzi: When I came here in 2008, I was living in a homeless shelter in downtown Dayton. Dayton did a lot for me to come from a shelter to where I am today. When I came I was a 95% French speaker. My English was very poor. I was going to the public library, another resources we can share with immigrants, to get CDs and DVDs to learn English. After six months, I was able to hear people because I came here I was able to hear the British accent but the American accent was very hard to to hear. And then I applied as an asylum seeker and got my asylum and was given Medicaid for the first time. Guess what? I was not able to use the Medicaid. Do you know why? Because here in America, when you need to see a doctor, you need to call in English. Many immigrants, when they want to see a doctor, they call 911 because it’s too hard for them to schedule any medical appointments. I was doing that and that’s the reason why I left Ohio State’s Medical Center to come back to work with immigrants.
Many people in Dayton were able to help me. So I want to say: “Thank you.” Thank you for opening the schools to us. Many immigrants are going to celebrate our community. After you emigrate, the first two or three years after that, you do require support. But after that, they will start to show their contribution to the community.
Can we imagine how many truck drivers are immigrants? How many medical doctors from India, from Rwanda, from Latin America? How many immigrants were able to buy houses? How much they pay in taxes?
My passion, my moral obligation brought to me back here so that I can work with you. I can partner with you to serve the underserved population here in Dayton.
Should the Dayton area expect an influx of Ukrainian refugees?
Laura Roesch: Over four million people have fled Ukraine primarily to neighboring countries like Poland. For most people who have fled turmoil and violence and war, their desire is to go back home safely, if they can. So the stabilization of Ukraine would be the goal of the majority of the people or secondarily, to stay in neighboring country where they would have easy access to language and loved ones and maybe a common culture with the hope of someday reuniting with loved ones.
So a formal resettlement experience for the people of Ukraine would be a third third option. A special program for the Ukrainian refugees has not been created yet. The there was some elevation of the issue as Governor DeWine convened a Ukrainian summit last month in Parma, a community where there’s a large Ukrainian population.
A formal program has not been created yet, but if that should happen, Catholic Social Services, as primary resettlement organization of the Dayton region, will assess our organizational capacity. We’ll reach out to our community partners to assure that we can provide a comprehensive welcome that, as we’ve all talked about, is so nuanced and requires so many different systems to work together.
So we’ll assess the organizational capacity, community capacity and make a decision at that time about whether to participate. I would share with you that Catholic Social Services and so many people, volunteers, concerned citizens, organizations and companies are going to want to say yes. Stay tuned.
Credit: Courtesy
Credit: Courtesy
