In order to educate others, stay atop of current events, and give a voice to those affected by immigration issues, we involved ourselves in many different activities. We attended panel discussions, visited immigrant businesses, interviewed many immigrants and created a blog. Our interviews are posted on the home page and in the Interviews section of our site. Businesses we visited are pictured in our Looking Around the Community section. Below we have pasted a review of issues discussed at the panel discussion we attended and also various blog posts. Our blog became increasing popular, receiving an average of 20 hits per day. We were proud to see the discussions increasing, as it allowed a place for us to post current immigration issues and hear different perspectives.

Blog

Panel Discussion Notes

On March 3, 2008 Natalie went to a panel discussion on immigration. The talk was called "Struggling with Immigration: Who, Wants, What, & Why?" There were three speakers: Dr. Monica Schneider, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Miami University, Brooke Menschel, Assistant Legislative Director with AJC in Washington D.C., and Amy Nice immigration attorney in Washington D.C. Each person talked about different aspects related to current immigration policies.  Some of the issues addressed were:

• Should workers be allowed to hire illegal immigrants?
• Should the United States offer more visas to illegal and legal immigrants?
• What were the changing views on immigration after September 11, 2001?
• Mexico is the number one source for immigrants, so should the borders be guarded more?
• Are undocumented immigrants’ wages too low, should they be raised?
• There are currently 12m undocumented immigrants, how would the government go about finding them all?       

At the end, guests were allowed to ask questions of the speakers.  Natalie got to talk with Dr. Schneider; and got a lot of information and some graphs from her presentation that we are sharing with you through this website.  Talking with people with the same interests can give you a lot of new information and new ideas.

After the immigration talk on March 3, 2008 at the Wise Temple, Natalie also met a man whose dad came to America from Russia in the early 1900’s. He shared some of his family’s history with me.  His dad was nine years old at the time and they had to walk to what is now present day Poland. From there they traveled by train and boat to America. They had to carry everything they had in their arms or on their backs including his youngest sister who was four! It would be like moving half way across the world and not ever knowing if you would return to see your home again.  This man’s dad never did return to Russia.  Their family grew and prospered here in America.