Ruby Takanishi, president and chief executive officer of Foundation
for Child Development, recently co-edited a new book titled,
Immigration, Diversity and Education, with Elena L. Grigorenko. She
spoke with New America Media Education Editor Carolyn Ji Jong Goossen
about the current challenges facing immigrant children in the United
States and the reforms needed to support their future health,
wellbeing, and academic success.

Do you feel like the new administration has adequately addressed immigrant children’s issues thus far?

No. The fact of the matter is that immigrant children are not on
anybody’s agenda, except in a negative way. First of all, there has
already been a decision to exclude many immigrant children and their
families from public health insurance access. There is also very little
discussion in the education initiatives being presented, including the
“Race To The Top” funds, the stimulus funds, and even the No Child Left
Behind policy. The opportunities for doing positive social policy is
not evident.

I would say that in terms of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement
tactics, it does seem to be that the shift from going after employees
to going after employers would be less traumatic to children.That’s not
to say that undocumented workers won’t still lose their jobs, but at
least their parents won’t disappear. I understand that they are trying
to change some of their practices of detaining families in detention
facilities, so that’s certainly encouraging. But overall, I personally
have been very disappointed that the administration had opportunities
to do positive things for children of immigrants, but hasn’t done
anything so far.

Do you think the stimulus money has the potential to make an impact
on access and quality of preschool and elementary school for immigrant
children?

I’m not sure that it will have those effects because the stimulus money
right now, in terms of pre-k, child care, et cetera, is really trying
not to expand, but just sustain or make up for the lack of state
funding.

What are the education reforms you would like to see under this
administration, to help ensure academic success and health of immigrant
children?

I am a very strong supporter of dual language programs. Research would
indicate that it’s very important for young children to have a solid
foundation in their home language as they develop a second language. If
done well, dual language programs are a win-win situation. If immigrant
children are with students whose first language is English, they can
also learn another language at an early age. We may be one of the few
countries in the economically advanced world that is monolingual. And
dual or multi-language capacity is essential in a global economy.

The second thing that’s really important is for immigrant children to
have equal access to high quality pre-K programs. The reasons why not
everyone does include the availability of programs in their
communities, the availability of programs that parents feel are
supportive of their cultural values, and the cost. Because we have a
largely private system, families shoulder costs. So if you don’t have
much income, you cannot spend money on pre-K programs even if you would
like to. Pre-K helps with acquisition of second language, and an early
and good start to education.

Two of the essays in your book conclude that parental participation
is a strong enhancing factor in academic growth for immigrant children.
Why does it make such a difference in early education?

What is most crucial is that parents communicate to their children the
value and importance of engaging and investing in the hard work of
education. Different immigrant groups do this in different ways,
depending on whether they are educated and affluent, or whether they
come poorly educated or not educated at a high level.

There are parents who can do things like buying and reading books,
taking music lessons, going to museums, and going to second language
class. Even so, there are ways they can let their children know that
education is important, and hook them up with individuals and
organizations that could be helpful to them.

Different immigrant groups have different amounts of social capital.
Some immigrant groups are very well organized to do this, others are
not. In the groups that don’t have enough social capital, it’s an
opportunity for other immigrant serving organizations to step in and
fill that gap.

What’s the best way that immigrant parents can effectively advocate for their children in pre-K and elementary school?

In the best of worlds, you want every parent to be an advocate for
their child. Different immigrant groups have different ideas with
respect to that role. Some groups have a cultural experience that says,
“I bring the child to school and the school will educate the child.”
But in American society, especially in low-income areas, that may not
be a good position to have. So how do you assist families that don’t
have a tradition of advocacy for their children?

One of the things I saw in Chicago is that community organizations work
with parents to engage them in the schools in a number of different
ways. This includes training parents to work in the classrooms so they
have a better sense of what is going on in the schools, and then using
those experiences to network with and organize parents to advocate for
change in the schools.

The discussion about immigrant children is often framed as “problem”
they pose for American society; yet, some of the book disputes this
idea. What are the strengths that immigrant children bring to the U.S.?

Some people decry the fact that immigrant students are described in a
way that says they are facing so many dificulties. And others describe
the “immigrant paradox,” where immigrant parents have low education and
low socio-economic status, but their children become valedictions and
are healthier than other children.

What is important when you just look at the basic demographics of the
child immigrant population is that it’s extremely diverse in terms of
countries of origin, and the human, social and economic capital that
immigrant families bring in to the United States.

What the demographic work is showing is that to think of immigrant
children as a monolith is wrong. And it’s important to think of the
rapidity of social change. So on the one hand, we do know that
immigrant children, particularly Latino children, are more likely to be
born healthier, even more healthy than native-born children. On the
other hand, one of the chapters in the book talks about the really
alarming rates of obesity among Latino children, even before they reach
kindergarten, which have lifelong consequences.

On the one hand, Latino immigrant families were celebrated for the fact
that they were more likely to have two-parent households, more than
native, but that is eroding fast. The number of single parent Latina
families is growing. So one can talk about assets, but it has to be
connected with the particular group at a particular point in time.

Another asset is that it’s really hard to find any immigrant family
that doesn’t have extremely high aspirations for the education and
future of their children. It doesn’t matter if they are getting a
Ph.D., or if they have less than a fifth grade education. There is an
enormous faith and belief in education that may be an important
selection factor for the groups that come to the United States instead
of going to another country.

LOS ANGELES – Aside from pregnant women and children, such high risk
communities as African American, Hispanic and Native American should
get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus because many of them suffer from
chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems, said a federal
health official.

“Even though we’ll be offering the vaccine to everyone who wants to get
vaccinated, we’ll give priority to the most vulnerable people,” said
Felipe Lobelo, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), at a New America Media-organized ethnic media
briefing on Oct. 13.

Nearly 20 journalists, representing the Chinese, Korean, African
American and Hispanic communities, attended the event at St. Anne’s, a
social services agency.

“We’re excited to be able to reach all these communities through you,” Lobelo remarked.

A highly contagious form of influenza, H1N1, also known as the swine
flu, was first detected in the United States this past April. Since
then, the nation has seen a number of cases in nearly every state.
Nearly 1 million people have so far been infected, and 600 people,
including 76 children, have died from it. Around 6,000 people have so
far been hospitalized.

“Our priority group (for the vaccine) will be those between 6 months and 24 years,” Lobelo said.

Even though the benefits of the swine flu vaccine greatly exceed the
risks, and even though the CDC is making every effort to publicize
this, Lobelo said he expects that around the same number of people who
die each year in the United States from the seasonal flu — 36,000 —
will die from swine flu.

He stressed that the flu shot would have what health officials call a
“cocoon effect,” that is, it will protect not only the person getting
vaccinated but all they come in contact with, as well.

For this reason, Lobelo also advised healthcare workers to get vaccinated.

The virus strikes hardest in children and young adults who have none of
the immunity to the strain that older people have perhaps because they
have had previous exposure to strains akin to influenza, he said.

So far, the pandemic has been moderate in severity, with the symptoms
resembling the seasonal flu – fever, body ache, cough and cold, Lobelo
said. But he sounded a note of warning: Sometimes, the symptoms go away
and return more intensely.

Children, 9 years and younger will need to get two shots, 21 days
apart, because their immune response from the vaccine is different from
that of older people, who need only one shot, Lobelo said.

The vaccine could be administered as a shot or in the form of a nasal
spray, which is approved for healthy persons between ages 2 and 49
years, who are not pregnant and who do not have underlying medical
conditions.

Alan Janssen, health communications specialist with the CDC’s National
Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, noted that his agency
is “trying to share the vaccine as fairly as we can.” That means,
communities with larger populations will get larger number of doses of
the vaccine, he said.

“That’s why it’s important to get an accurate Census count,” observed NAM Executive Director Sandy Close.

The undocumented should also get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus when
the vaccine rollout program begins in Los Angeles County on October 23,
said Michelle T. Parra, who directs the county’s immunization program.
No questions will be asked about anyone’s legal status, she asserted.

She said her agency would be working with the city, which has already
identified several venues where people can get vaccinated. The city
will embark on an intensive outreach program.

The United States expects 200 million doses of swine flu vaccine by the
end of the year, as pharmaceutical companies are churning it out at
“unprecedented speed,” but not at the expense of compromising its
safety, health officials say.

“The H1N1 vaccine has been created the same way as we create the
seasonal flu vaccine, with the same safety and rigor,” Lobelo said.
“The only difference is the combination of strains in the H1N1 vaccine.”

Some media members at the briefing said they were not sure they were
going to get vaccinated, even though they were warned how dangerous the
flu could be. Melanie Polk, publisher of the L.A. Watts Times, for one.

Polk questioned the panel of speakers on why Los Angeles County had
chosen to begin the vaccine rollout program in Encino and Culver City,
two affluent neighborhoods, instead of some of the poorer communities.

Parra tried to reassure her that every effort would be made to ensure that all parts of the county get the vaccine.

A flu fact sheet will be handed out to all who get vaccinated, she said.

Lobelo said more information on the flu could be found on the CDC
website at www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu or www.cdc.flu.gov, or by calling
1-800-CDC-INFO.

A tribute to Tanzanian-born journalist
Swallehe Msuya.

On Sept. 23, a health care worker found Tanzanian-born journalist Swallehe Msuya dead in his Minneapolis apartment. Swallehe had failed to show up for a kidney dialysis appointment scheduled the day before. He was 61.

I first met Swallehe when I moved to Minneapolis in July 2007 to be the editor in chief of Mshale, a newspaper for African immigrants.

The first thing I did as the editor was schedule a meeting with writers.  Because of its small size, Mshale heavily relied on freelancers. Most of them had full-time jobs and only wrote because they were passionate about covering the African immigrant community. Their jobs meant that I could not get the dozen or so writers in a single editorial meeting, so I had to meet them individually.

Tom Gitaa, the publisher, had told me that Swallehe was nearly 30 years older than me. That made me nervous, because in our culture it can be awkward to manage someone older. Back in my warehouse days I worked with two older African men, a Kenyan and a Nigerian, who refused to learn anything from me because I was “too young.”

Swallehe walked into the newsroom dressed – as he always was – in traditional Tanzanian attire.

“Welcome to Minnesota, young man,” he said in Kiswahili.

As I was trying to figure our how to start asking a man old enough to be my father questions, Swallehe saved me the agony and began to interview me instead. Why would a highly educated young man come to such a small newspaper? How old are you? Are you married? Why not? You are not religious? Why not? He tells me I am going to have hard time finding a woman because most Kenyans here are religious.

I answered all his questions, careful not to get into any details that might extend my time on the hot seat. When he was satisfied, he began to tell me about himself. He came from Tanzania in 2003 for treatment for a kidney ailment. He was a devout Muslim. He liked the idea of a newspaper for African immigrants. He proposed a monthly column in addition to his reporting.

That column came two months later. He named it “African Prestige.” In his articles, Swallehe repeatedly called on Africans to discover their intellect and unite for a better continent.  He described himself as “as a committed son of the soil, who sees Africa’s future success emerging only from the formation of continental unity and economic integration.”

On global warming he urged Africans to join “the global coalitions addressing this important issue, as it is our planet and our lives that are at stake.

What did Swallehe think about the exit of British Prime Minister Tony Blair? “Although I won’t miss Tony Blair’s policies toward Africa,” he commented, “I shall forever miss the witty verbal heavyweight bullfighter, whose debates generated great drama and excitement in the House of Commons.”

Swallehe also loved to make his readers laugh. He was “as old as the state of Israel.” And my favorite: “Next time you are asked who discovered the mighty Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, tell them that [Swallehe’s] great-great grandfather, Kimborido Kasei Righiria, born and raised at the foot of the mountain, lived with it before any white explorer set eyes on it. Give him credit for that!”

Editing Swallehe’s column often left me wondering how a man who knew his health was deteriorating could be so full of hope for Afriaca.

“Even as he underwent treatment he continued to selflessly give, and would be among the first ones to avail himself for an assignment,” Tom Gitaa, the publisher of Mshale, wrote in a statement.  “Sometimes he would get mad at me that I did not call him for assignments out my consideration for his dialysis schedule.  ‘Do not assume. You call me first and I will tell you myself if I cannot go,’ he would shout over the phone always in a good-natured way.”

That was the Swallehe I knew.

What I didn’t know, though, was that he lived alone. When I think about him dying alone, I’m reminded of the “cultural erosion” he often wrote about. (“Those African names with historical meanings, and our languages that define who we are or where we come from will slowly disappear.”)

But this “cultural erosion” is nothing we Africans are in control of. We are in America, where the needs of the individual trump those of community. America will give you a better life than you led in the old country, but take away the best of you. 

It is even harder if you are aging and sick, as Swallehe was. It is true that – relative to Tanzania – Swallehe received better medical care here.  But the “cultural erosion” in what Swallehe once called “this great nation” stripped him of the dignity Tanzania might have accorded him. Living in America meant that he had no one there to monitor his health and perhaps get him to the hospital sooner. And it meant that Swallehe had no one present to hear his last words of wisdom.