New American Media Covers Bin Panel on Engaging African Immigrants
New American Media Covers Black Immigration Network Panel on Engaging African Immigrants
On April 22, The Black Immigration Network partnered with University of Southern California’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration to present a panel on the sharp increase of African immigrants migrating to California and what this means for engaging these communities in migrant rights, racial justice and other key causes. BIN Steering Committee member Nunu Kidane worked for several years to make this very important event happen. Amaha Kassa, Executive Director of African Communities Together presented demographic analysis and BIN Natioanl Coordinator Tia Oso shared key insights into how to best engage African immigrants and how important BIN is as a space for connecting African immigrants with other Black immigrants and African-Americans. Many BIN member organizations participated as attendees including Priority Africa Network, African Communities Public Health Coalition, African Advocacy Alliance and many individual members from the Southern California region.
New American Media covered the event in “Growing National Alliance: African Diaspora and Immigrant Rights Groups”: “BAJI’s founders “believed that blacks and immigration rights activists should be working together to fight racism and support immigration reform and they wondered, ‘Where are the black voices?’” said Gerald Lenoir, the first BAJI executive director, in an interview with New America Media.Those voices are now being heard in cities throughout the country as BAJI and some civil rights groups representing African immigrants join with immigration rights advocates. They are calling for a broader social justice movement and – more recently – speaking out on issues related to police violence in black communities.
Some leading members of this emerging coalition met last week at Engagement and Mobilization of African Immigrants, a forum hosted by the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration at the University of Southern California.”