Capewide Forum Explores Growing Challenges For Immigrants

Susan Rohrbach, a community leader from Centerville, moderated the panel, which was followed by a question-and-answer period.

The panelists were Dr. Munir Ahmed and Fozia Ahmed, Pakistani natives; Carlos Barbosa, a Brazilian native; Victor Correa, a Colombian native; Elva Spencer, a Jamaican native; Collin Mickle, coordinator of the Immigration Resource Center of the Community Action Committee of the Cape and Islands; and Liza Ryan, a Canadian native and organizing director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

Mr. Mickle, an attorney who started the immigrant resource center in September, said that about 15 percent of Cape Cod residents were born outside the United States and that the region is becoming more diverse each day.

“It’s not an easy time to be an immigrant, to be different, to stand out from the crowd,” he said. “The challenges immigrants face on the Cape and islands are the challenges that we all face: lack of jobs and affordable housing, transportation issues, access to benefits.”

In addition to these shared challenges, he said, immigrants, those with or without documents, also face “a wider culture they may feel is hostile to them.”

He stressed that despite “a lot of misinformation and fearmongering,” undocumented immigrants have the same “inalienable” constitutional rights as American citizens, including the right to due process under the law.

“They are not parasites, they are not trying to get away with anything,” he said of undocumented immigrants. “They are people, our friends and neighbors, and their rights must be respected, protected and educated about.”

The immigrant experience on Cape Cod, he said, is “very much the same as the American, the human experience on Cape Cod. The difference lies in the depth of opportunity and the perception of mistrust and disrespect” of recent immigrants.

Mr. Barbosa, a vice president of the board of the Community Action Committee who immigrated to Barnstable from Brazil in 1987, said immigrants often work two or three jobs and pay taxes on their income, some of which they send to their families in their native countries. But immigrants also, he said, invest in their new communities on the Cape.

“Throw out 15 percent of our community, and you get a hole in the local economy,” he said. “Immigration is not a problem in the US; immigration is a solution.”

Mr. Correa, a West Yarmouth subcontractor and father of three who immigrated from Colombia in 1999, said his initial challenges when arriving in the US were learning English and getting to and from work without a driver’s license. With the help of the Spanish-language and Catholic communities on the Cape, he was able to take English-language classes and progress in his building career.

Mrs. Haye, who immigrated to Centerville from Jamaica in 1992, said she started as a housekeeper in the hotel industry and eventually “climbed the ladder of success” at Cape Cod Hospital where she now works in the emergency department.

“Cape Cod is my home away from home, and it gives me opportunities I wouldn’t have had in Jamaica,” she said. “The sky’s the limit here.”

Bullying of children of color in schools continues to be a problem, the mother of three daughters said.

“Acceptance is something we have to keep working on,” she said.

Dr. Munir Ahmed and his wife, Fozia Ahmed, Pakistani natives who work for Emerald Physicians, said they have seen evidence of discrimination, especially with children in schools, against Muslim residents and immigrants on the Cape.

“Some people have said, ‘Go back to your country’,” Dr. Ahmed said. “Which country? This is our country.”

“We are part of America, this is who we are,” Ms. Ahmed said of immigrants of all nations and faiths. “We’ve always been here and we’re not going away. We’re hoping that people can acknowledge that and can understand that this is what makes America beautiful.”

Ms. Ryan concluded the panel by talking about the efforts of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition to protect undocumented immigrants against crimes such as wage theft (employers refusing to pay undocumented employees for completed work) and to encourage Massachusetts residents to contact their state representatives in support of the “Safe Communities Act.”

The bill, named S.1305 in the state Senate and H.3269 in the House of Representatives, is intended “to protect the civil rights of all state residents by making sure our tax dollars are not used to help the Trump Administration deport immigrant families or create a Muslim registry,” a statement from Ms. Ryan’s organization said.

“This is not a political situation; it’s a people situation that speaks to our values,” Ms. Ryan said. “There is real fear [of possible deportation by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] among already vulnerable children and adults.”