{"id":2814,"date":"2024-03-12T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/ric\/?p=2814"},"modified":"2024-03-13T15:12:29","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T19:12:29","slug":"panel-discussion-on-organizing-migrants-held-in-washington-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/ric\/2024\/03\/12\/panel-discussion-on-organizing-migrants-held-in-washington-dc\/","title":{"rendered":"Panel Discussion on Organizing Migrants Held in Washington, DC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Ga Eun Cho, Political Science, PhD Student<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Friday, the Chloe Center for the Critical Study of Racism, Immigration, and Colonialism hosted a roundtable discussion<\/a> about how various communities in the D.C. area have experienced\u2014and are organizing against\u2014different yet resonant forms of transnational and local displacement. The discussion was titled “Organizing D.C.\u2019s Migrant Communities in the Wake of Displacement.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The public roundtable, held in the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington D.C., hosted representatives from three migrant communities: Haddy Gassama, National Director of Policy and Advocacy, UndocuBlack Network<\/a>; Yesenia Portillo, Program Director, Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador<\/a> or CISPES; and Evelyn Yuen, Research Volunteer for the Viet Place Collective<\/a>. The discussion was moderated by Professors Stuart Schrader and H. Yumi Kim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenges Migrants Face<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During the two-hour discussion and reception, the representatives shared their organizations\u2019 histories and emphasized their commitment to empowering migrant communities. Displacement for the panelists represents both the factors that push people to leave their home countries and journey toward the United States, as well as the ongoing churn of urban development that threatens gentrification and dissolution of longstanding local bonds in Northern Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three guest speakers emphasized the challenges migrants face in accessing accurate information about immigration policy, healthcare, and local politics. The key to tackling information disparity is increasing visibility through community organization, stressed Yuen, as migrant communities can collectively reach out to city council members, for instance, and show that \u201cwe are here and there is a community to preserve.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Audience