Council study: Immigrants need help to assimilate
By Patti Zarling • pzarling@greenbaypressgazette.com • September 18, 2009

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People who move to Brown County from other countries play a vital role in the economy, but they often need help learning English and assimilating, advocates said Thursday.



A study by the Bay Area Community Councilincluded interviews with more than 20 service providers working with immigrants and highlighted two key needs.

It found that help was needed to teach immigrants English as quickly as possible and that adults needed information about how to effectively navigate within the local culture.

The Bay Area Community Council is an organization that works to bring together business leaders, government, educators and nonprofit groups to act on community issues.

"The lack of English language skills is a major barrier faced by most immigrants and refugees who come to live and work in our community," Tori Rader, executive director of Literacy Green Bay, said Thursday at a news conference at the Volunteer Center of Brown County.

"It's difficult to navigate within the greater Green Bay area without English."

Immigrants who learn English tend to find better paying jobs, become more productive employees and adapt to changing needs in the workplace, achieve independence without relying on welfare, lead healthier lives and exercise their rights as citizens, Rader said.

"When many of our neighbors lack the ability to do these things, our society as a whole suffers through decreased productivity, increased health-care costs, higher incidences of welfare dependency and increased pressure on schools when children come to class ill-prepared for learning," she said.

The community needs immigrants, said Phil Hauck,study facilitator and community council member. They provide a work force base, often doing work no one else wants to do, he said. Some first-generation and many second-generation immigrants create the major innovation waves and creativity waves the country experiences, he said.

"They have been critical to America's competitiveness in virtually every generation," he said.

But to help them succeed, agencies rely on volunteers.

The Literacy Council has a waiting list for volunteer tutors. It aims to recruit 80 to 100 committed volunteers each year to work with adult learners on a one-on-one basis, Rader said.

Among other needs, the Volunteer Center is looking for 10 to 15 families willing to mentor immigrant families, Volunteer Center executive director Christine Danielson said.

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So we just have wave after wave of uneducated people coming here to do the jobs we supposedly won`t do , how is it going to make this a better place for our children and their children ???