I recently attended an event called Community Reading Project Contextual Conversation. The event was organized at Grand Valley State University and it focused on the topic of immigration and how West Michigan can be a more welcoming community. There was a short presentation, two short videos, and a panel discussion. The panel discussion featured Susan Im, Kemal Hamulic, and Grand Rapids Mayor George Hartwell. All three panelists did a great job of answering questions about immigration, perception, and reality. Mayor Hartwell offered very positive point of views about how immigration affects our communities and Kemal and Susan focused on how communities can be more welcoming to immigrants. I would like to share the following three points that stood out to me from the panelists:
- When asked a question about what to say or how to respond to an individual that has a very negative view on immigrants, Kamel Hamulic advised the following: “Ask them why. Then ask them why again.” Kemal continued to explain that continuing to ask the “why?” question will uncover the fact that these individuals are basing their beliefs not on fact but rather on emotion.
- Susan Im also had a very good outlook on how to have a conversation with people that are against immigration. She stated: “Challenge people’s perception of what an undocumented person looks like.” Susan went on to talk about her sit down conversations with a Deferred Action student that had a great story about how they were brought to the United States when they were very young. They did not make the decision to come to the United States and have been studying and working in the United States as Americans. Susan continued her point by stating, “challenging the perception of what an immigrant looks like becomes extremely important.”
- When asked how to be a more welcoming community, Kemal Hamulic came up with perhaps the most simple, yet powerful response: “Food. Invite them over to eat food. They will not return the favor. They will retaliate and invite you to eat as much food as you can handle.”
How can you make your community more welcoming? Invite them to your home for lunch or dinner. Let’s put down our phones and quit texting for a while. Let’s talk to someone from a different culture or background and attempt to get to know them by sitting down for a meal. Some things don’t have to be complicated. Let’s indulge, grow, eat.
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