Welcoming Communities Invest in Family Reunification
On May 8th, BDCC’s Welcoming Communities Manager, Alex Beck, moderated “From Areas of Conflict to Vermont”. This event was hosted and organized by the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC). The event featured volunteers and local content experts who shared about the conflict and instability our New Vermonters are fleeing from in Yemen, Eritrea, and Guatemala, but more importantly, it featured the experiences and voices of our new community members themselves.
Jorge from Guatemala shared how grateful he was after finding peace when he first arrived at the SIT Campus, and how supportive and reassuring his co-sponsor team has been. Johannes from Eritrea shared how isolating it can be having family in his home country; the Eritrean dictatorship makes basic communication, from messages to phone calls, nearly impossible. Mustafa shared his work as a legal aid at ECDC, and the complexities and obscurities of the legal immigration system.
What all individuals shared, despite their vastly different experiences, was that the health and safety of themselves and their families are of the utmost thought and priority, regardless of where they currently are. A common them was that for New Vermonters to truly make our community their home, there must be a way for family members outside of the United States to join them here.
Family reunification, and the legal capacity and infrastructure that supports it, is a central and non-negotiable part of becoming a welcoming community to first- and second-generation immigrants. Regardless of how an individual originally finds themselves in Southern Vermont, the ability to be close to or living with family is often what determines someone’s long-term residence.
Unfortunately, there are no immigration lawyers in Southern Vermont. For this reason, the southern Vermont Working Communities Challenge will be exploring how to create, facilitate, and/or support increased access to legal aid for New Vermonters, particularly for family reunification and status adjustment support.
Working Communities Core Team partners at the Community Asylum-Seekers project are already leading the way in establishing the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, a collaborative project between the State’s asylum support nonprofits, Vermont Law School’s Immigrant Assistance Clinic, and local attorneys. It aims to address the shortage of pro bono asylum support and promote the rights of immigrant communities in Vermont.
As we welcome more and more New Vermonters with varying statuses and with varying needs, we’ll be working to ensure they can access the necessary legal services and resources here in Windham County.
