For Margie McHugh, immigration is the white hot issue she faces each and every single day as director of the Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Policy in Washington, D.C.
“You have no idea how little conversation happens about some really significant issues,” in regard to immigration and integration, McHugh said.
Other countries address immigration and integration in a holistic approach that is not replicated in the U.S., she said.
“I am very worried about refugee resettlement programs right now. Not only with the Syrians and the sorts of things Donald Trump has been saying. The truth is the refugee program has been in trouble for a number of years.”
McHugh made her points at an event sponsored by Neighbors Link Network, which works to integrate immigrants into the community and into society.
Among the issues fueling immigrant backlash, she said, is that the traditional handful of immigrant gateway states ”“ including California, New York and Florida ”“ now have company in the form of states with little immigrant and immigrant integration histories, but with cheaper housing than in Los Angeles, New York City or Miami. “This used to be a five-state issue,” she said. “Now it’s a 25-state issue.
The Migration Policy Institute bills itself as a hub for insights and information “for leaders in government, community affairs, business and academia.”
McHugh spoke for 45 minutes without notes, telling the assembled, who had earlier lunched in the center’s 75 Selleck St., Stamford, classroom spaces, “Every great issue is a problem of balancing.”
She said the Migration Policy Institute employed “wonderful Ph.D. demographers to help make an impact on policy issues.” The institute ”“ she termed it a think tank ”“ works globally with senior policymakers. Importantly, she said, “When we work, we include integration policy.”
The goal, she said, is “to make one society of everyone who’s here.”
But “red-state governors are angry, saying they have no voice,” she said. “There has been a terrible backlash in some places with no history of immigrants or of immigrant acceptance. What we’re seeing is not a debate, but a conflagration, picking the scab off a difficult issue.”
That was only one battlefront. Another in the Northeast is the fight for services originally intended for African-Americans as part of the Civil Rights effort that are now finding the immigrant community. McHugh, who began her career in New York City government, said, “My friends in New York tell me the ground war is still going on.”
McHugh used the word “crisis” to describe the national immigration scene, but said the moment also provides opportunity. “The federal government has its fingers in its ears regarding local impacts,” she said. “But more of us are trying to get a true fix, to use this moment of crisis to plot a new positive path.”
The address was in Neighbors Link Stamford”™s cavernous main room, now dominated by a mural, painted with volunteer help, by Darien artist Maria Esther Magallanes, based on the idea of Executive Director Catalina Samper-Horak and supervised by Associate Executive Director Michelle Saldivar.
Semper-Horak and Neighbors Link Northern Westchester Executive Director Carola Bracco spoke to their respective 5- and 15-year advocacy track records and to the greater world situation. Bracco cited the work of integrating whole immigrant communities even as the mood toward immigrants was “becoming divisive even hateful.”
Samper-Horak said it was now important to gather data so as to provide credible information to policymakers. “The work we do is so incredibly relevant,” she said.
Much of McHugh’s presentation focused on education ”“ “something that can never be taken away from you” ”“ particularly as it related to English proficiency in grade school.
“What could feel good about the school experience without language skills?” she asked. She said studies have shown grade schools were failing in this department, a point of statistical bewilderment because, “It’s supposed to be the high schools that are bad and everybody loves their grade school. It was the grade schools that were failing.”
Saldivar said Neighbors Link Stamford’s efforts include English as a second language ”“ actively educating 1,002 ”“ and vocational English, which might focus on the culinary or construction industry. Neighbors Link data show 70 percent of immigrants who speak English “very well ” have paying jobs vs. 37 percent who do not.
