Immigrant Senior Centers

How do aging immigrants fill their days when they don't speak English well and their kids and grandkids are busy with work and school? We take a look at the growing number of senior centers for immigrants across the United States.

What do you do if you’re a working immigrant and a member of the sandwich generation?  That is, you have children in school who need tutoring and shuttling about to music lessons or sports practice, but you also have aging parents who may not speak English well.

Luckily, there is a growing movement of senior centers who cater to the elderly immigrant population.  Take, for example, the Multicultural Senior Center of Snohomish, WA.  It holds regular meetings and activities for many of the area’s senior newcomers.  Korean seniors meet twice a week to enjoy karaoke in their native language, to play a familiar board game called janggi, or to savor a hearty bowl of a national beef dish called bulgogi.

Experience has shown that immigrants who uproot later in life, especially those who follow working children to a new land, have a hard time adapting to the new culture and new language.  These centers give them a chance to interact in their native language and support each other while their busy children and grandchildren engage in their daily routines.

The Center currently sponsors events for five language communities: Filipino, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, and Chinese.

While the seniors can come to play games or socialize, they can also access professional services from social workers or talk to counselors regarding health or housing issues.

And it turns out the Snohomish center is inspiring more than the immigrant community it serves.  Center coordinator Connie Hallgarth remarked on how much respect immigrants show for their elderly.  That is something, she says, we can all aspire to.

Immigrant Entrepreneur Training

Michigan Launches Program to Help Immigrant Entrepreneurs

In a difficult economic period, there is good news coming out of Detroit.

A Dearborn-based organization is now helping entrepreneurial newcomers through classes, business coaching, and access to business incubators and financial services.

The organization, called ACCESS, recently held a graduation ceremony for the first class of its Immigrant Entrepreneur Development Program, an effort to encourage immigrant- and refugee-based organizations in the metro-Detroit area.

One success story is Dijana Bucalo, a Bosnian refugee who settled in the Detroit suburb of Hamtramck. She came to the United States with no English but with experience as a fashion designer.  The program’s classes and coaching helped her track her cash-flow and build her confidence.

Bucalo has goals to hire a couple of employees with sewing and fashion experience, which is precisely the purpose of the program: to foster entrepreneurs who will then create jobs and strengthen the region.  So, today’s salute goes to the people at ACCESS and the intrepid entrepreneurs they graduate!

Your Status If You’re Not “From Here”

During our conversation with Tigers catcher Brayan Peña, we learned about his 1999 defection to the United States to pursue his dream of playing Major League Baseball.  It turns out, many others have had this dream over the years since Cuba became a closed society.

Since Fidel Castro took power in 1959 in Cuba, dozens of professional baseball players have defected to the U.S.  Currently, 17 Cubans play baseball for the MLB, including two who defected just this year.  For professional ballplayers, the allure of defecting is to play a sport they love at the highest level—and for the potential of huge salaries.  Coming from a poor country like Cuba, this is a huge incentive.  The downside, as mentioned by Brayan in our interview is the risk of arrest, punishment, and losing all chances to play again.  A bigger risk is the possible harm to their families, or never seeing them again, if they stay behind. So America still remains a symbol of freedom to many, even though we continue on our journey toward a more perfect union. 

One question many of my students ask from this story is: “What is a defector?”  Let’s take a simple look at the ways internationals might come to the United States.

One-way ticket:                    Round-trip ticket:

Defector                                             Expatriate worker

Refugee/Asylee                               Migrant worker

Immigrant

Defectors, asylees, and refugees all move to another country because they are running away from something.  Refugees are escaping life-threatening events like war or famine.  Asylees (people seeking asylum) are escaping persecution because of their political or religious beliefs.  Defectors are escaping a country whose government is trying to keep its citizens locked up inside the country.  

Refugees fleeing Kibati, Democratic Republic of Congo (source: Julien Harneis)

Immigrants choose to move to another country for reasons of work, opportunity, or family.

Expatriates move to another country temporarily—for a few years—because of job training or education. 

source: fotolia.com

 Migrant workers move in and out of an area with regularity, often following seasonal work, with less opportunity to put down roots.