By Katie EuphratThe Daily Northwestern
An immigrant worker washes dishes in scalding hot water for 16 hours a day without a break. He is driven home in the wee hours of the night to an apartment with a clogged toilet and no hot water, which he shares with at least a dozen other immigrants. In the morning, he is told he no longer has a job, and when he asks for his paycheck, he is beaten and arrested.
This story was one of many that Sister Barbara Pfarr told at a meeting Tuesday evening about a yearlong immigration study sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Illinois. The meeting, titled “The Face of Immigration in Illinois” was held at St. Nicholas Church, 806 Ridge Ave., and is the first step in a three-phase project involving all 53 local leagues.
The League of Women Voters of Evanston is a non-partisan political organization with about 200 members.
Pfarr was one of the two guest speakers who shared their immigration research and experiences with more than 50 community members at the meeting. A Catholic nun, Pfarr has worked with immigrants for the past 21 years.
“The problem is not immigrants but their marginalized status,” Pfarr said. “It can take up to 20 years to get a visa.”
Her organization is pushing for humane border policies and workers’ rights.
“Who in their right mind would choose to come here, to be exploited?” Pfarr said. “The way that we love our neighbor is to make sure they have access to good jobs, and our current immigrant policy doesn’t have an outlet for this.”
The immigration discussion was organized by Toni Gilpin, the local program chairwoman for the Evanston league. Gilpin, 47, found the speakers in a Chicago Tribune article about the necessity for immigrant labor in the food industry.
“Immigrants have always been a controversial issue, but they’re the ones doing the hard work in the country, and they’re good for the economy,” Gilpin said. “It’s important to understand that and build the policy from there, instead of just shutting down the borders.”
The other speaker, Prof. John Koval, teaches sociology at DePaul University and co-authored “The New Chicago.” A self-proclaimed second-generation immigrant hillbilly, Koval focused on Chicago’s immigrant worker base and avoiding generalizations about immigrants.
“Anytime you hear anyone generalize about immigrants, nine times out of 10 the information they have is useless,” he said. “It’s important to recognize that any immigrant group here is not a random sample from the country from which they came. By 2030, in metropolitan Chicago, traditional white Anglos will be the minority. Chicago is truly becoming an international city.”
Koval’s research and graphs covered a variety of statistics. He reported that 84 to 86 percent of Dunkin’ Donuts franchises are owned by Indians or Pakistanis and that 75 percent of immigrant workers in Chicago are undocumented.
The League of Women Voters of Illinois wants answers to questions about immigration, which include legal driving status of immigrants, the availability of funding to offset undocumented immigrant use of public education and health care, and undocumented workers’ right to vote, according a pamphlet distributed by the group.
Tuesday’s informational meeting will be followed by the second phase of the statewide project: a meeting on Feb. 10 to reach a consensus to be sent to the Illinois league. From there, the consolidation of local agreements will become the Illinois league’s official position on immigration policy. Group lobbyists will then try to get the policy on county and state governments’ agendas.
The league’s members include Patrick Keenan-Devlin, last year’s Associated Student Government president, who joined the League after he graduated in 2006.
Keenan-Devlin said he was enthused by the chance for political action.
“Tonight’s meeting was very informative,” he said. “You got two very important pieces of information. You got the statistics, and you got the emotional piece, and in order to do any type of lobbying you need both.”
Reach Katie Euphrat at [email protected].
