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  1. #1
    Senior Member HAPPY2BME's Avatar
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    Migrant workers note new dynamic

    Migrant workers note new dynamic

    By AMY STANSBURY The Evening Sun

    Posted: 11/24/2012 08:46:09 PM EST

    David Guiterrez, 14, of York Springs, left, sits on the floor after playing soccer in the gymnasium at LIU's after school program at the Gettysburg YWCA while Brian Diaz, 14, right, watches other students get snacks. The students are part of a federal program called 21st Century Community Learning. As the Hispanic community grows there has been a need to expand the services offered by LIU. (THE EVENING SUN -- SHANE DUNLAP)

    Gorditas, it means little fat ones. Maria Alejandra shared the meaning behind these fluffy cinnamon flavored cookies with her guests, guiding the plate around the room, urging everyone to take more.

    Take - tome in Spanish. Eat - come.

    She bounced her 13-month-old daughter, Cielo, on her knee as she told her story. Born in Mexico, Alejandra first moved to the United States with her husband five years ago, after he got a full-time job at a potato chip factory. He had been migrating back and forth from Mexico to the United States as a farmworker since he was a teenager, but now that he has a more stable job, the family lives year-round at their home in York Springs.

    "My husband knew that the jobs here were better," Alejandra said, but someday when they have enough money, Alejandra hopes to build a house in Mexico and move back home, where her parents and relatives still live.

    "The trouble is our kids were born here," Alejandra said. "They go to school here. We don't know if they will like Mexico."

    Her son, Luis Angel, speaks English and attends public school. Unlike his parents, his home is in Pennsylvania.

    Alejandra and her family are not unlike many other Hispanic families living in Adams County. The area, home to many fruit orchards and food processing centers, has long attracted migrant workers who traditionally have arrived in June and left by October with the end of the harvest season. And while many Hispanic families still do migrate to and from Pennsylvania, many more are looking for full-time work and establishing permanent residence within the state.

    "Harsher immigration laws in the South have made it more difficult to move across the country," said Brenda Reyes, of the Lincoln Intermediate Unit No. 12, which in addition to its other courses offers education programs for migrant workers and their families. "They can't travel back and forth as much, which is good and bad in a way."

    In response to the changing dynamic of the migrant worker and Hispanic populations in Adams County, several community organizations, including the LIU and Gettysburg College's Center for Public Service, have adapted and created new programs to better serve a population no longer looking for just food and shelter, but for education and opportunity.

    The children

    "I want to be a fashion designer."

    "A professional soccer player."

    "I want to teach preschool."

    In a crowded gymnasium, Alexandra Nunez, Elizabeth Torez, and Luz Nieto outlined their career plans, dodging soccer balls and shouting to be heard over the din of students gathered at the LIU's afterschool program. All three girls are high-school students, who were born in the United States to Spanish-speaking families. They all speak flawless English, dress in the latest American fashions and with the help of the LIU, hope to go to college someday.

    But none of them belong to migrant-worker families.

    "The population has changed a lot," Reyes said. "A lot of families are staying here year-round and not receiving the same aid, but they still have a strong need."

    In order to qualify for the Pennsylvania state-funded migrant education program, a child has to have moved within the last 36 months as their parents search for seasonal or temporary work. Students who qualify have access to ESL classes and tutors, which are also provided by the LIU, but with more Hispanics abandoning their migratory status, the LIU has expanded these services to a larger group. A federal grant program, 21st Century Community Learning, now funds an afterschool program for current migrant children, former migrant children, and students who speak English as a second language. The program provides seventh- to 12th-grade students with tutors, access to the YWCA in Gettysburg, SAT prep, college admissions help, and a free meal.

    Even though many of these second-generation Hispanic students can speak English and attend good public schools, applying to and paying for college can present unique challenges.

    "The biggest thing is informing families about the possibilities," said Jose Reyes-Lua, a student support specialist assistant with the LIU. "Coming from Mexico, they do not understand. They think that it is beyond their means, or maybe that their kids aren't smart enough."

    Nationwide, 55 percent of Hispanic immigrants attending college have parents without a post-secondary degree, according to the U.S Department of Education, and this can have a significant impact on Hispanic students.

    "We get the kids out to the campuses, so that they feel more comfortable with the idea," Reyes-Lua said. The LIU offers these field trips to high-school students involved in the 21st Century program. "This way it is not such an alien world for them."

    The longer that Hispanic immigrant families stay in the United States, the less alien the college world becomes. According to the most recent information gathered by the Migration Policy Institute, in 2009 only 14 percent of Hispanic women and 6 percent of Hispanic men who came to the United States after they turned 16 years old were enrolled in a post-secondary educational institution. However, among second generation Hispanics, those numbers spiked to 46 percent for women and 37 percent for men.

    Despite high enrollment rates, graduation continues to present challenges as only 33 percent of second-generation Hispanic women and 20 percent of second generation Hispanic men were found to have an associate's degree or higher by age 25 in 2009, according to the Migration Policy Institute. In its report the institute explained that these lower graduation rates are partially attributable to the lower-incomes of many minority students, which forces them to juggle work and school or even drop out of college if it becomes too expensive. Because of this, Reyes-Lua works one-on-one with students and admissions officers to make sure that students have the opportunity not only to get into school, but more importantly, to afford it.

    "I go to the admissions officers and explain the situation to them," Reyes-Lua said. "Some of these kids' education was interrupted, which affected their grades and standardized tests are often very difficult for them. So, I go and explain that."

    For students whose parents haven't yet settled down and are still migrating, Reyes-Lua also lobbies to get them admitted into the College Assistant Migrant Program at Penn State. The program is built around the unique needs of former migrant students by offering financial, moral, cultural and community support. Each year, 30 students are accepted into the program, five of whom came from Adams County last year. Students all live in the same dorm and celebrate Latin cultural events together and are even provided free transportation home to see their families twice a semester.

    The biggest struggle for Reyes-Lua is helping undocumented students to receive financial aid for college.

    "Citizenship doesn't matter much for admissions, but if students are undocumented they can't receive federal or state aid, which is a big issue," Reyes-Lua said.

    Undocumented students have to look for private scholarships, grants, and funding options instead, which are sometimes available, but only for the very brightest students, Reyes-Lua said.

    The parents

    "Right now I'm thinking like a mom," said Evelia Arredondo Castillo, holding her newborn baby girl in her arms as her two sons ran around her house playing with toy trucks and hitting each other with Socker Boppers. A mother of three who first came to the United States when she was 14 years old, Castillo recognizes the opportunities available for her children in the United States and is now trying to make more opportunities for herself as well.

    "There is better education for the kids here. They were born here," Castillo said of her children. "I want them to know the language and go to school here."

    When Castillo herself first moved to the United States, she suffered from the language barrier and never finished high school. Wanting a more stable life for her children, Castillo decided to remain in the United States. Her husband managed to get a year-round job installing insulation in houses in Adams County. She recently got her GED with the help of El Centro Espanol in Hanover and takes ESL classes with the LIU. And despite the fact that her English is a bit rusty, Castillo said that she feels at home in Pennsylvania.

    "I feel normal," Castillo said. "Sometimes people say that other people look at you bad, but I haven't felt anything like that. I am treated like everyone else."

    A growing sense of comfort with life in the United States, as well as a desire to do better for their children has led many Hispanics not only to establish permanent residences in the area, but like Castillo, to go back to school themselves.

    "Imagine how hard it is to get a note home from your child's school and not be able to read it, or not be able to help your child with their homework," said Matt Lowenthal, an English teacher with the LIU. "That is the main reason they are all here - to help their kids."

    Lowenthal runs an ESL class for Spanish-speaking adults every Tuesday and Thursday evening in partnership with Gettysburg College and the LIU. Many of Lowenthal's students take the class so that they can interact in their children's English-speaking world by talking to their teachers, doctors, and friends' parents.

    The longer immigrants stay in the United States, the more their children become acclimated to the culture and language of the country. By attending public school, the children are quicker to learn English and to call the United States home. According to the Migration Policy Institute, 84 percent of first generation Hispanic immigrants have very limited English speaking skills, as opposed to just 7 percent of second generation Hispanics.

    This creates a situation in which the children know English but the adults do not. Lowenthal's classes are designed with this reality in mind, so students are taught ready-to-use English phrases that are simple and easy to pick up on quickly.

    "We take topics that everybody needs," said Mauricio Novoa, an English teacher with the program, "and we give them easy to remember templates, like things you should say at a doctor's appointment, or when you get pulled over, or are at the grocery store."

    Last Thursday, the group practiced their English language skills with a Thanksgiving dinner celebration at the South Central Community Action Programs building in Gettysburg.

    "Eat. Eat or they will never trust you," Lowenthal said to newcomers as he unwrapped platters of food and spread them out across a long plastic table. Rows of hungry people lined up to serve themselves, gripping paper plates as they eyed the selection. The mixed aroma of mashed potatoes, turkey, gravy, tortillas, chipotle-seasoned chicken, and stuffing wafted into the air as everyone took their seats.

    "Let's try some vocab," Lowenthal said. "Does anyone know what cornucopia means? It means a lot, like I just ate a cornucopia of food."

    He stuck out his stomach and rubbed it, sure to get his point across. "A lot of food," Lowenthal said again.

    "Can anyone say cornucopia?" Lowenthal asked.

    "Cornucopia," the class responded eagerly, in only slightly broken English.



    Migrant workers note new dynamic - Evening Sun
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  2. #2
    Senior Member vistalad's Avatar
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    The "New Dynamic" seems to be Undercut Americans for jobs, drop Anchor Babies, receive social services which should be going to American citizens and legal residents. Seems more like "same old, same old."

  3. #3
    Senior Member ReggieMay's Avatar
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    My husband knew that the jobs here were better," Alejandra said, but someday when they have enough money, Alejandra hopes to build a house in Mexico and move back home, where her parents and relatives still live.
    Hmm, they're here for the money? Imagine that!

    "Citizenship doesn't matter much for admissions, but if students are undocumented they can't receive federal or state aid, which is a big issue," Reyes-Lua said.
    Then why is our government pushing for citizenship. They don't want it - just the money.
    "A Nation of sheep will beget a government of Wolves" -Edward R. Murrow

    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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