Welcoming Haitian Migrants and Their Contributions

Yesterday, during a break at our SCI AmeriCorps training, I saw a terrible story out of Haiti pop into my newsfeed. At least 70 were killed, and thousands had to flee their homes. A searing reminder why most of the recent Haitian immigrants referenced in election season rhetoric are here legally, with Temporary Protected Status.

I hesitated about sharing the story with my colleague, a Haitian immigrant who has been working tirelessly to support migrant families staying in local hotels. We decided to share the news, so that she could reach out to family and friends. It didn’t take long for her to connect with a friend in Haiti who had been impacted, reporting many deaths in her neighborhood.

Haiti had already been on my mind that day, as I was sharing some positive stories from our work with migrants staying in local hotels. I'm proud of this work for its own sake. But also sharing true, positive stories is one way to counter some of the malicious false stories circulating this election season.

Summer opportunities for migrant youth

Earlier yesterday morning, I’d been sharing some positive stories about how SCI Social Capital Inc. , led by Vitalie Memeus, is helping Haitian families become a part of their new communities here. That includes this article on the SCI website about how Vitalie helped 18 Haitian youth access the high quality summer camp programs offered by our partners, James L. McKeown Boys & Girls Club of Woburn and YMCA of Greater Boston 's Woburn branch.

Aubrie Jones, who led the ACE program at the Boys & Girls Club, reported about the positive results of the teens’ participation in the summer program.?

“ Most of the migrant children from this summer have returned to the Club for our Drop-In program and attend almost every day! They walk or ride bikes together after school almost every day, have started to receive academic assistance and homework help, and are looking forward to joining our basketball leagues later on this fall.”

Great to hear that important connections were formed over the summer! Valuable relationships with each other, and with a community asset like the Club that can provide them with opportunities for support and enrichment activities.

Get curious

My friend and fellow social entrepreneur Eric Schwarz recently wrote an excellent article, Overcoming Fear: America's Love & Hate Relationship with Immigrants providing perspective from his time reporting on the growing diversity in Quincy, Massachusetts. One of his key points about how to embrace increasing diversity is to “get curious” about the backgrounds and traditions of our new neighbors.

Encouraging people to get curious about other cultures has certainly been a theme with many SCI programs over the years. I am thinking about projects such as our WorldFest and Cultural Connections cooking classes that were popular before the pandemic.

More recently, the Inclusive Eats program supported by the SCI Youth Grants Pitch Contest hosted its second cultural cooking class, this one featuring Haitian cuisine led by Andrins Renaudin . Great to see community leaders get curious and come cook a Haitian meal together! Luke and Noah Sheldon and their fellow young social entrepreneurs are definitely centering cultural curiosity in their work to make food systems more responsive to the culinary traditions of recent immigrants in our communities.

Contributing to our communities

Sometimes when we start paying more attention to something, all of a sudden it seems like that thing keeps popping up into our experience and our social feeds. Haiti was clearly on my mind yesterday.

Over on Threads, Dennis Fischman shared this Boston Globe article I had missed, “Our Future Workforce ”, about how 41 Haitian immigrants are helping to solve a local nonprofit’s staffing shortage.

This piece serves as a reminder that given U.S. demographic trends, we are definitely going to need immigration to meet the needs of our labor market. This is particularly true in caring professions. If we only rely on U.S. born workers, we definitely aren’t going to have enough help to take care of the aging population in hospitals and senior care programs.?

Last fall, we had a great turnout of 60 local Haitian migrants who volunteered along with other residents to rake leaves for local Woburn seniors in need. I was glad to see this positive story generated some media coverage - here is the clip from WHDH 7 News Boston .

We continue to create opportunities for our new Haitian neighbors to participate in and contribute to community life.They have been eager to get involved, and I’ve been pleased to see so many of our community members welcome them. Many still do remember that we are a nation of immigrants, and draw much of our vitality from this constant renewal of the “we” that makes up our country.

Conclusion

I opened with a recent story of violence that is unfortunately just a recent example of the frequent violence that has caused so many to flee in search of a safe place to raise families. On top of the violence, the country has also struggled with catastrophic earthquakes that would be difficult for any country to handle.?

While the current violence is being perpetrated by Haitian gang members, we must remember the long history of the U.S. and other Western countries' contribution to the unstable political conditions. There is the legacy of colonialism and slavery, and more recent meddling in the country’s affairs.

I have heard from Haitian immigrant neighbors here about their passion for their country - its people, culture and natural beauty. I hope that soon effective political leadership will emerge there and create safe conditions for people to enjoy their lives in Haiti.

Until then, let’s welcome Haitian immigrants with empathy and humanity. They are ready to contribute to our communities and are already doing so, as some of the examples I’ve shared demonstrate.?

Undoubtedly, the large numbers of migrants fleeing incredibly difficult conditions do stress our resources. We need bipartisan immigration policies to address the short and longer term needs. Meanwhile, fortunately there are many caring individuals and institutions that are welcoming our new Haitian neighbors into our community life and providing them with opportunities to participate and contribute.