The arrival of people seeking protection in the United States over the last two years in combination with the lack of policies that meet the most basic needs of current residents has fueled a rise in anti-immigrant sentiments. Alianza Americas set out to influence the course of the national discourse on migrants and migration with the webinar series entitled Contextualizing the Migrant Crisis Narrative. The series was led by a group of organizations in the Chicagoland area as an effort to contextualize the current wave of migrants arriving in the United States.
In the first two conversations, we discussed the various factors that drive people to flee their homes; the responses, or lack thereof, from governments at all levels to address the needs of our most vulnerable populations, and the resulting gaps that key civil society organizations are working diligently to fill. The series ended with a discussion on how to harmonize the struggles of historically marginalized communities and build on this moment as an opportunity for unity. While our webinar series has come to an end, our work to continue shifting narratives about migrants and migration continues.
We thank those who were able to join the series of dialogues. If you missed the conversations, we invite you to watch the recordings below.
A special thanks to our partners and collaborators on this webinar series, The Latino Policy Forum, Center for Immigrant Progress, National Immigrant Justice Center, and The Resurrection Project. See below a robust list of resources that were shared throughout the three webinars:
Welcome to IL (The Latino Policy Forum & The Resurrection Project)
National Immigrant Justice Center
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights