04.25.07
Posted in Events, GHDC Blog at 5:00 pm by M Beauregard
FREE, 5-8:30pm, Houston Community College, Pinemont Campus, Lecture Hall, 1265 Pinemont @ Ella Blvd
5:00 Registration, Pinemont Lobby
5:20 Welcome and Call to Order, Dr. Lois Avery, Dean of Academics, HCC NE
5:30 “Recent Changes in the Attitudes of Houstonians towards the Immigrant Population”, Dr. Stephen Klineberg, Professor of Sociology, Rice University. Klineberg is the creator of the Annual Houston Area Survey, now in its 26th year. This survey monitors the changes in attitudes of Houston residents over the past three decades on numerous community and lifestyle issues. As the size of Harris County’s young Latino population overtakes its aging Anglos, the 2007 Houston Area Survey shows that anti-immigration sentiment is increasing among area residents while admiration for ethnic diversity diminishes. This change in findings on immigration, the value of ethnic diversity, and relations among ethnic groups should concern the leaders of a city that has proudly billed itself as a place where different cultures flourish. While most respondents this year continued to say that Houston’s multiethnic character would be an asset, the percentage holding that view dropped from 67% in 2005 to 62% in 2007. It’s a troubling trend because Houston’s future is a multiethnic future; its past was an Anglo past.
6:00 Introduction by Dr. Aaron Knight, Departmental Chairman, Social Sciences
“Overview of World Immigration Issues, the United Nations, and the Immigration Policy of the European Union,” Max Beauregard, HCC Northeast Faculty; Demographics, Public Administration; & GIS
As a demographer, Beauregard fully understands that the reasons for migration are usually to improve the quality of life for the participants and their families by seeking better jobs. This is both a human condition and a world phenomenon. Thus, when the larger context of how immigration is being addressed by other countries of the world, we can see that the problem is universal and that there are multiple ways to approach similar issues.
6:45 30 minute BREAK (Snacks provided)
7:15 Introduction by Dr. Hal Comello, Professor of Government
“The US /Mexico Immigration Debate: US Immigration Policy, Why We Have Undocumented Residents, and How Social Networks Support Undocumented Immigration”, Dr. Nadia Flores, Assistant Professor in Latin-American Demography, Department of Sociology, Texas A&M University
At the age of 16, Dr. Flores was already a teenage mother, a high-school dropout, and an immigrant from Mexico who spoke no English. Nadia Flores proudly claims that she is a graduate of Long Beach City College (California) where she received an Associate Arts degree; and the encouragement, support, and training to continue and persevere her educational goals. Her current accomplishments (in addition to her five children) now include a BA in social science from UC Irvine, an MS in Demography from U Penn, and a PhD from U Penn in Sociology. Clearly Dr. Flores understands the importance and benefit of the local community college to the development and nurturing of the lives of young Latinos! Hear her remarkable story first-hand as an immigrant who has triumphed by achieving the American dream.
8:00 “Re-engineering Programs of the YMCA to Respond to Changing Demographics and Community Needs”, Jose Rendon, Vice President Public Policy, YMCA of Greater Houston.
Throughout its 120 year history, the YMCA of the Greater Houston Area has been a place where people can find hope, fellowship and healing. The YMCA has always stayed true to its mission, values, and purpose of helping persons grow in spirit, mind, and body. For any organization to stand the test of time it must be able to keep up with the world around it. In the 1960’s, the main program of the Y was to provide hotel services for men traveling out-of-town, but it has since evolved to one of the largest community service and non-profit organizations in the area. The Y continues its mission to build strong kids, strong families and strong communities, but now with a new focus, an Urban Agenda, to target Hispanics and the neighborhoods where they live. These new programs will provide language skills, computer training, nutrition, home economics, and family management.
8:30 Conclusions & Adjournment
Questions are encouraged and will be entertained at the end of each presentation.
Introduction and Background
Immigration has become a volatile, confusing, and divisive issue in the US that has produced numerous, extreme proposals to “control” our borders. These ideas include deportation of an unconfirmed number of 12+ million undocumented workers, building a “wall” along the Mexican border to prevent unauthorized crossings, denying citizenship to children born in the US of undocumented residents, declaring English as the only official language (Nashville TN; Friendswood TX), local communities trying to assume responsibility for immigration enforcement when they feel the federal government has failed them, and prohibiting residency within some cities by restricting residential housing leases to US citizens-only (Hazelton PA; Farmers Branch TX). Thus, reform and consistent enforcement of US immigration policy is desperately needed, yet there is no identifiable timeline for such because Congress remains indecisive and divided across party lines.
Virtually all of the information available to the public through the media is limited to the US situation only, with no discussion or awareness of the changed and evolving situation for immigration, either in the European Union, or the rest of the world. Immigration is a massive, worldwide phenomenon that is affecting the labor force, demographics, and the economies of all countries, yet the policy responses by many countries to manage and accommodate immigration are amazingly different. Unknown to many Americans, the European Union policy on immigration is exactly the opposite of the US. Indeed the choice for Europe has been to dissolve its borders of checkpoints, passport control, and to ultimately create a single “space of mobility” for EU citizens to live, travel, work, and invest. This facilitates free movement amongst its 25 independent countries, thus making it the world’s largest economic confederation, boasting 20 official languages. This unprecedented social decision, which is being created incrementally over time, was begun in 1992 to insure that the EU remains economically competitive within the global marketplace. Some of the cooperative relationships leading to this confederation date back to 1951, and indeed the EU is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. This policy is not without controversy, “growing pains”, and even radical demonstrations as multiple labor forces, diverse languages, unique cultures, and dissimilar religions begin to merge and co-exist at unprecedented levels. Yet the EU is committed to making its “new” confederation work for the benefit of all its citizens and its own success in the global economy.
At the world scale as observed by the United Nations, immigration has historically been such a controversial issue that it simply was not discussed. However in September 2006, the first-ever, dialogue on immigration was convened amongst high-level UN ministers. Their report to the United Nations General Assembly documents the magnitude of world immigration and the importance of diplomacy in negotiating realistic immigration policies for neighboring countries. And since then, the Iraq War has created nearly 6 million refugees, yet the US refuses to allow any of them the courtesy of sanctuary within the US. These people have been displaced as a direct result of US intervention in their own country, yet they are denied a safe harbor to rebuild their lives. Thus, US Immigration policy needs serious reconsideration in light of ever-changing world affairs.
Join us at Houston Community College Northeast, Pinemont Campus, for this provocative and enlightening seminar on immigration.
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