By Arnold J. Gordon from the RMA
The weekly presentation of the Retired Men’s Association of Greenwich on January 26 featured Gerald Pollack introducing Anka Badurina, PhD, the Executive Director of the non-profit Stamford organization Building One Community – Center for Immigrant Opportunity (B1C) that is dedicated to advancing the successful integration of immigrants and their families.
Since its inception, B1C has served over 13,100 immigrants from 112 different countries, providing free services that educate, employ, empower, and engage immigrants and the broader community.
Dr. Badurina has an undergraduate degree in modern languages, an MA in Commerce, and a PhD in cultural anthropology from Kyoto University. During her presentation Dr. Badurina addressed the following aspects of immigration: myths vs. facts: why migrants flee their home countries, the immigrant situation in Connecticut and Fairfield County, and the local reality. The immigration issues Dr. Badurina addressed were:
- Our parents and grandparents came to the U.S. legally
- Immigrants steal jobs from Americans
- They are a burden on our public benefits system
- They do not pay taxes
According to the B1C, legal immigration is limited to those with approved work visas, family reunification, or to asylum seekers. For the vast majority of those wishing to immigrate into the U.S., there is no easy legal pathway to enter and stay in the U.S. or to legalize their status when they are here.
An example she gave is the 640,000 people here under the well-known DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). She said that in all there are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. who in 2016 contributed 6.2 billion dollars to the economy. In 2018, 26% of the self-employed were immigrants, contributing to innovation and entrepreneurship in America. In Connecticut, undocumented immigrants contribute more than 120 million dollars in taxes annually. While the proportion of foreign-born people in CT is 14%, it is 27% in Fairfield County, and In Greenwich and Stamford the proportions are 27.5% and 35%, respectively.
Dr. Badurina described immigrants fleeing their home countries for the U.S. mainly because of violence, lack of job opportunities, poverty, and food insecurity. She said that smugglers who help people enter the U.S. illegally charge as much as $10,000 per person. She estimated that up to eight out of ten women crossing the border are raped.
In Fairfield County, where she said that one-half of Connecticut’s undocumented people live, service jobs are available. For example, she said, in 2021, 15% of nurses were foreign born; the proportion for home health aides and other healthcare workers was 30%. As expected, there are many opportunities for landscape and gardening work in Fairfield County. Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil and Ecuador are the places of birth for most of the immigrants.
B1C, according to Dr. Badurina, tries to help immigrants through the many challenges they face: language barrier, low literacy and education, families with members of mixed immigration status with the fear of deportation, often children or other family members left behind, lack of access to healthcare, need for legal representation, workplace abuses including unpaid wages, and lack of access to affordable housing. Covid-19 has also had a disproportional effect on immigrants with higher infection and hospitalization rates than other groups, partly due to overcrowded housing and many are among essential workers.
As Dr. Badurina ended her presentation, she mentioned that B1C will be holding its ninth annual benefit breakfast on May 19, 2022. She also welcomes volunteers. The privately funded organization currently has about 450 active volunteers. For more information about B1C, see https://building1community.org/.
To stream Dr. Badurina’s presentation, visit here https://greenwichrma.org
The RMA’s upcoming presentation “The Mission of a Lifetime: Lessons from the Men Who Went to the Moon” by Basil Hero, an award winning former investigative reporter with NBC News, will occur at 11 AM on Wednesday, February 9. In his presentation Basil will share stirring reflections from nine of the 12 surviving astronauts, out of 24 in all, who walked on or orbited the moon.
RMA speaker presentations are presented as a community service at no cost to in-person or Zoom attendees. The RMA urges all eligible individuals to consider becoming a member of its great organization, and thereby enjoy all the available fellowship, volunteer and community service opportunities that the RMA offers to its members. For further information, contact Michael Ambrosino (mailto:brooklynoil@yahoo.com) or Peter Stern (mailto:pmstern@optonline.net).
