NWA editorial: A place for knowledge

Immigration resource centers will bolster state

It had to be simply excruciating.

The new and improved -- i.e., construction done -- Fayetteville High School opened for a new year, the same year the school system implemented a grade shift at all levels that moved incoming ninth-graders to the 543,792-square-foot high school facility. On Monday, both ninth- and 10th-graders got their first tastes of high school life in a building that can give even grown-ups that lost look.

What’s the point?

Two nonprofit groups plan for five immigration resource centers across the state is a vital outreach for a state that must deal with the reality of a significant, and growing, immigrant population.

The excruciating part? The school system opened school with a half-day for the newcomers only -- and their parents. Ugh! They actually sat in the same classrooms and walked the halls at the same time their kids did. More than one kid undoubtedly sat their praying his mom's cell phone wouldn't go off, revealing the "Kool and the Gang" ringtone. Who wants to crawl under a desk on Day One?

In reality, the move was brilliant. It recognized the uncertainty that comes with new and unfamiliar surroundings. It was based on the value of knowledge and its power in smoothing a transition from the familiar to the less known. It made a period of change less stressful, and set a foundation to increase the potential for success under new circumstances.

It reminds us a lot of what two nonprofit groups are trying to do as they open five immigrant resource centers statewide within the next month. At these centers -- in Springdale, Little Rock, Fort Smith, De Queen and McGehee -- immigrants can find guidance to help them find legal services, leadership development opportunities and support for their civic involvement.

Springdale's center, a project of the Arkansas United Community Coalition and Catholic Charities Immigration Services, is open. It's naturally a place where Northwest Arkansas' Hispanic population can seek out answers in understanding the way things are done in the United States, but the center will also serve Marshallese, Hmong, Indian and other communities of people who have migrated to the area.

The U.S. Census Bureau says the state's foreign-born population increased from 1.1 percent in 1990 to 4.5 percent, or 133,888 immigrants. The Hispanic or Latino population in 2013 was 6.9 percent statewide.

Northwest Arkansas' Hispanic population grew from 1.4 percent in 1990 to 16 percent in 2013.

The opening of the Springdale center is good news for immigration groups, but for the community as a whole.

The project could -- and no doubt has in some arenas -- spark a robust discussion about illegal immigration, with some challenging the idea that anything should be done to make life easier for those who are not legally here. While immigration policy is worthy of a discussion, just as it's getting amid all the presidential politics these days, it would be shortsighted to decry these nonprofits' efforts to educate and facilitate for immigrants.

Mayor Doug Sprouse attended the recent celebration in Springdale, putting the issue into perspective. Leave all the talk of birthright baby bans, walls on the border and deportation to the presidential debates. In Arkansas, communities have to deal with what comes.

"Cities deal with the realities on the ground," Sprouse said. "I think resources like this that help new residents assimilate is a plus for Springdale and all of Northwest Arkansas."

Locally, the mistake too many people make is in assuming all immigrants are illegal. They're not. The folks who are legally here will be well served by this organized effort to empower them with knowledge. And Sprouse is right: People who are here illegally make up a portion of Northwest Arkansas' population. As long as they're here, it will be useful to have a place that helps them become familiar with local customs and practices. Good, well-informed neighbors of all sorts are preferred over people who feel just as much like strangers a year later as the day they arrived.

Such efforts should remind critics that immigrants are not here to take over our country, but to join it. Certainly we need a legal immigration system that works and controls the flow into our country, but let's not forget the nation's outstanding history of immigration and how new arrivals, over time, assimilated into our nation's culture and brought with them new threads for the national tapestry.

Ensuring immigrants have a place to seek out information is a positive step for Springdale and the entire state of Arkansas.

Commentary on 08/23/2015

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