draft invite: Immigration/Refugee community

[Dave]

Please review this invite and forward any comments:

You are invited to get involved in a unique outcome-oriented meeting
to refine plans for an initiative called

Buffalo Invites the World
What can Buffalo do to become one of America’s most inviting cities
for immigrants and refugees? How can Buffalo become a center for
cultural tourism?

WHAT:

You are invited to join others in a series of working sessions to
share your existing efforts and potentially create new ones together
to help make Buffalo one of the country’s friendliest places for
immigrants and refugees. Historically Buffalo is home to a broad array
of ethnic, cultural, and religious groups. The open arms that welcomed
the Polish, Irish, Italian, African Americans and many others are now
attracting new communities from places as faraway as Burma, Somalia,
and Vietnam. These emerging communities are helping reinvigorate the
social and economic life of Buffalo.

The series of working sessions will bring together in one place, for
probably the first time, dozens of the people and organizations whose
work touches upon the lives of Buffalo’s emerging refugee and
immigrant populations. At its heart are community dialogues that will
help identify problems, propose collaborative solutions, and commit to
your choice of strategies to bring Buffalo to the forefront of
welcoming communities in America.

WHEN:

We hope you can come to all three sessions, but if not, try to come to
the first session on Wednesday, X/X/2009.

1. Date 6:30 – 9:00 PM
2. Date 6:30 – 9:00 PM
3. Date 6:30 – 9:00 PM

Light refreshments will be served.

WHERE:

Lafayette High School
370 Lafayette Avenue

WHAT:

How can we grow the local benefits of a resurgent immigrant and
refugee population?

What can Buffalo do now to better capitalize on its historic and
growing ethnic and cultural diversities?

How can we promote the role of cultural tourism in Buffalo’s economy?

How can we collaborate to enhance the immigrant and refugee experience
in Buffalo?

[Deutschman, Marian]

I think it's a good idea to do an OST session on this issue but I think
you need to address some of the issues that this immigrant/refugee
population faces such as education, housing, employment, and adjustment
to the cultural differences. Your focus seems to stress the cultural
benefits to the city and tourism almost to the exclusion of the real
problems.
Marian Deutschman
Interim Director
College and Community Partnerships
Cleveland Hall 211A
Buffalo State College
1300 Elmwood Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14222-1095
deut...@buffalostate.edu
716-878-4132
buffalostate.edu/partnerships

1. Date 6:30 - 9:00 PM
2. Date 6:30 - 9:00 PM
3. Date 6:30 - 9:00 PM

Light refreshments will be served.

WHERE:

Lafayette High School
370 Lafayette Avenue

WHAT:

How can we grow the local benefits of a resurgent immigrant and
refugee population?

What can Buffalo do now to better capitalize on its historic and
growing ethnic and cultural diversities?

How can we promote the role of cultural tourism in Buffalo's economy?

How can we collaborate to enhance the immigrant and refugee experience
in Buffalo?

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Inviting Buffalo" group.
To post to this group, send email to invitin...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/invitingbuffalo?hl=.

[Valencia Sease]

Good morning, I am in agreement with Marian. I think recognizing and helping to find solutions to some of the issues she mentions is critical. Valencia Sease --- On Wed, 11/18/09, Dave <dgran...@city-buffalo.com> wrote:

1.    Date            6:30 – 9:00 PM 2.    Date            6:30 – 9:00 PM 3.    Date            6:30 – 9:00 PM

[lbr...@bnriverkeeper.org]

Friends,

I am struggling to understand how this will benefit the community. I'm seeing nothing but downside.

First, a little personal background: I am second-generation American, my grandparents having immigrated. I know how this sounds but...many of my friends are immigrants--from Brazil, Greece, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, etc. My uncle married a Japanese war bride. So do not misconstrue my comments.

Through a Roman Catholic ministry I volunteer for--St. Vincent De Paul--I see, every week, people in Buffalo who live in poverty. Some of these clients are immigrants. I know this is anecdotal but I am 100% certain that our community cannot now meet all the needs of the people living in poverty who live in Western New York. St. Vincent De Paul is referred clients who can no longer be helped by Erie County's DSS and by Catholic Chairities and other organizations. And our resources are inadequate.

The majority of the immigrants and refugees who come to WNY now need help of one kind or more. there are exceptions of course, such as almost all of my friends that I mention above but these people needed no special invitation/accomodations from our community to come--they are teachers, professionals, or self-employed who, in most cases, married a WNY native. Please consider this against the backdrop of the third-poorest city in the country. We cannot help all our residents now. why bring in more people who need help?

Your invite mentions Buffalo's history vis-a-vis immigrant contributions but society and the economy were different then. My Dad worked with 'DPs' in the fluor mills who had no high school education and couldn't speak English very well. you could show up at the gates of steel mills or fluor mills and get a job that day. That's not gonna work in today's economy. And America was growing then. It is not now. It's not like we need workers--the situation is that workers already here need work. Currently there are 48,700 unemployed adults in WNY, a rate of 8.37%. Why would we want to attract more people looking for jobs?

And then there's the issue of anti-immigrant sentiment. I don't know about your social networks but in mine there are a lot of unemployed/underemployed who resent the government programs to help immigrants and aliens. I have family in California, one of them of Mexican descent, who are very opposed to more immigration. And it's not xenophobia or racism; it's a shrinking economy and that makes job opportunities and demands for social services more competitive.

The problem in WNY is that people are leaving. We have a higher birth rate than death rate and still our population declines. We don't need replacements from the outside, we need to keep the naitves here. i think that should be the priority.

Larry Brooks

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: draft invite: Immigration/Refugee community
From: Dave <dgran...@city-buffalo.com>
Date: Wed, November 18, 2009 6:33 am
To: Inviting Buffalo <invitin...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: bre...@city-buffalo.com, brianr...@gmail.com