FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana’s NewsCenter) – Saturday, Fort Wayne community members gathered at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fort Wayne to examine immigration and diversity through faith and politics.
Speakers from the Jewish and Christian faiths, refugees, immigrants and professors occupied classrooms at UUCFW sharing conversation and answering questions about their experiences in dealing with immigration here in Fort Wayne.
One of Saturday’s speakers, an English as a Second Language coordinator with the Fort Wayne Community Schools, Emily Schwartz Keirns, sees Fort Wayne’s diversity daily in the city’s classrooms.
“We have over 70 languages represented, over 70 countries, which a lot of people wouldn’t think for a midsize Midwestern town. So besides the international diversity, there’s just every type of diversity here you could imagine.”
The same could be said for those who attended Saturday’s symposium. Blacks and whites, Jews and Christians and immigrants and refugees sat side by side to better understand how their similarities and common histories could make life easier for incoming immigrants.
Babra Chakanyuka, a family support manger with Crime Victim Care of Allen County, says recognizing Fort Wayne’s diversity is more than recognizing an immigrant community.
“When we talk of diversity, we are not just talking about immigrants and refugees. I was really so pleased to see people coming from the Amish community because we have other communities whose needs are not recognized by the mainstream.”
Tackling those needs, according to Chakanyuka, can be accomplished if organizations outside those like social services step to the plate. Chakanyuka says social service organizations already understand what it takes to work with immigrant families. She says it is time more branches of government and more corporations showed up to events like these.
“If you don’t bring in big organizations, big companies and corporate organizations to understand the people that they’re going to be employing, it becomes a challenge.”
Other topics of discussion Saturday included Indiana’s I.D. Law, the DREAM Act and breaking down language barriers. Saturday’s speakers say it’s important for immigrants to not only learn English and understand American culture, but to retain the cultures of their homeland and the language they came with to the United States.
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