Philadelphia community members from various backgrounds came together on Tuesday evening, Aug. 20, to discuss one of the most politically charged subjects of recent years, immigration, as part of WHYY’s Bridging Blocks neighborhood discussion series.
The session was titled “Navigating Borders: Exploring the Issues of Immigration” and the community conversation, a partnership between The Free Library of Philadelphia and WHYY, was held at the Parkway Central Library on Vine Street.
The discussion was aimed at “fostering understanding and empathy for our new neighbors, while seeking to provide a comprehensive view of immigration’s complexities and its effects on individuals and communities.”
The 16 Philadelphians in attendance — many of them listeners or readers of WHYY News — came from different backgrounds, age groups, races and political leanings. They also came with varied levels of familiarity with immigration and the varied problems, resources and solutions surrounding it.
“I’ve never talked about [immigration], but it’s in the news constantly,” said Brenda Harris, a lifelong Philadelphian, “so I thought I would come and just talk with others and get more information.”
Setting the scene for discussion
After listening to a snippet of an episode of “Fresh Air” where host Terry Gross spoke with New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer, the participants were given questions by WHYY’s Community and Engagement Manager Eric Marsh, Sr., and other members of WHYY’s community team, and split into two groups to facilitate discussion.
The questions were:
- Why did you want to participate in this discussion? What is your personal experience with or connection to immigration?
- What groups or issues are commonly left out of this discussion?
- What are the biggest challenges related to immigration?
- What do people with opposing views often get wrong about immigration?
- What do you want elected officials to change, update or improve regarding immigration laws or processes?
After the two groups had some time to introduce themselves and go through the questions, Marsh brought everyone back together to recap the highlights of their discussions.
Heather Robinson is an ESL teacher for adults, typically working with immigrants who just arrived to Philadelphia as refugees and asylum seekers. Her work experience helped her serve as a resource for others in her group discussion. While she said it felt a little overwhelming, she said it was nice to talk about a subject she was nervous discussing with a more varied group of people than she usually does.
“It was nice to have that conversation with other groups of people that live in Philadelphia,” she said.
Robinson, who was adopted from Peru as a child, said that her perspective as a teacher was that the city’s resources were tapped out by the influx of new immigrants, and many were not finding the help they needed.
“Some of the perspectives that were shared at our table were really eye-opening and enlightening, things I hadn’t thought about,” said Eileen Dohrman, who was at Robinson’s table.
Dohrman came to the event to “learn more about the myths, lies and truths of immigration … that are so pervasive today in our news media today, and our elections.”
Since 2016, former President Donald J. Trump, who is running to return to the presidency, have repeatedly portrayed immigrants as criminals, as voting illegally and illicitly accessing Medicaid and other government resources.
Vidlain Rios-Perez, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was at the discussion.
“It was great to hear what people view as immigration, and I came to understand better [how] my whole circumstance came to be,” he said. “It wasn’t just because one person said I can’t be here. It was a bunch of factors.”
Rios-Perez, who is attending a community college in Philadelphia, said the discussion of this charged topic helped him to feel more open-minded and empathetic of different perspectives.
“I got to learn and understand, to put faces to the people that don’t want me in this country or faces to the people that are very conflicted about me being in this country,” he said.
Along with the questions, Marsh and the WHYY team also provided research resources that community members could access after the two-hour discussion,
Beyond the many problems, misconceptions and concerns raised by the group, there were also suggestions made for solutions. Among those were a common agreement to expand housing and infrastructure to accommodate both people already here who are struggling and people newly arriving in the region.
Join the discussion
This was Leith Kusmider’s second Bridging Blocks event. The first that he attended covered homelessness and housing. He suggested that more housing, whether affordable or unaffordable, was one way to lessen the stress of immigrants arriving in Philadelphia. The idea was among those discussed and debated among the group.
“It feels good to talk about some of these ideas that had been ruminating in my head, just about immigration,” he said. “Because immigration is so tied with housing and with all of the other social services that we have.”
Bridging Blocks’ next discussion, on the same topic, is on Tuesday, Aug. 27, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Queen Memorial Library in Point Breeze. Registration is free on WHYY’s website.
