This is a summary of an event on July 15 in La Crosse, Wisconsin attended by Lida and Jen.
Sponsored by the Coulee Region Immigration Task Force, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration Affiliation Office, the Franciscan Spirituality Center, and Kino Border Initiative, the summit featured a panel of people who shared personal stories of the journey to the United States; of new opportunities and personal goals; of fellowship and hospitality; of business ownership and employment.
We met Jenny, a DACA recipient working to achieve translation certification and raising her family in fear of deportation. Sandy, a Wisconsin resident sponsoring people — guests in her home while they await asylum — was also a panelist. Alvaro, a man who was sponsored and hosted by Sandy, sat with them and shared both his experience of life on the move, of gratitude for new job opportunities.
Joining these panelists was Gary, a Wisconsin dairy farmer. Gary relies heavily on his employees, many who have experienced migration, who pay taxes and who work to milk 700 cows, three times a day. And we also heard from a representative of Voces De La Frontera, an organization with the vision to “create a world where everyone lives free from poverty and discrimination, has access to decent and secure work, quality education, and health insurance; where immigrants can cross borders with dignity; and where human and labor rights are respected; where government is truly ‘of the people,’ and all families thrive.”
Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration Eileen McKenzie of Kino Border Initiative, on the panel said, “We need to be conscious of how we speak,” about migration. The stories we typically hear and see are dehumanizing, and repeating them only reinforces negative perceptions. Instead society should be listening to their personal stories about life, lifting up the resiliency and faith of people experiencing forced migration with their children, their parents, their family members.
And as stories about people in migration are told, “images matter. We need to focus on faith and happiness. About what’s working with migration,” said Sister Eileen. “Jesus was a migrant. As faith communities, we talk about solidarity. We have to bring back the values we share.”
At the summit, we learned to rewrite the story of migration. People in migration are not merely “others” — foreigners on the run, escaping unimaginable humanitarian crisis, with no similarities to those in the audience — but people on the move who have traditions and families and histories — just like event attendees. People in migration are people with dignity.