Class helps immigrants bridge cultural divides
| While ordinances in many townships are being drafted to crack down on an ever-increasing undocumented immigrant population, officials and local volunteers in Keyport are looking for ways to better the lives of their town’s immigrant community. “It all started about two years ago,” said Margie Fischer, a Keyport Central School English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher and co-founder of the Keyport Cultural Harmony Program (KCHP). |  |
“We planned a big community meeting at the El Mesias Church,” she said. “We put up fliers and advertised that we had food. Mayor [John] Merla came down, and we were planning to present the city officials to try and make people more familiar with some of the laws in town to make them better citizens, but only about 10 people showed up.”
She said many undocumented residents were afraid of flaunting their illegal status in front of elected officials, for fear of being arrested or deported. Mitchell organized basketball games for some of the immigrant boys, and she and her husband canvassed the neighborhood on foot, walking the borough streets and back alleyways, knocking on doors and passing out over 200 fliers to try and get people to another meeting.
search for : English as a Second Language, ESL
