To the Editor: Fourth of July, a day to celebrate independence and freedom in America. Also a good day to honor the work of the Colonial patriots of 1776, who migrated from Europe, and the work of generations of other immigrants who followed in their footsteps. Working hard generation after generation, they helped make our country the economically strong country we live in today.
Today our American economy still needs immigrant workers to provide an adequate workforce. Many of our NH retail stores, healthcare services & hospitality businesses are currently unable to find adequate staff to serve the public need. According to the US Chamber of Commerce website, NH is listed on their Worker Shortage Index as one of the most severe in our country.
And all this is happening while asylum seekers at our borders are seeking safety for their families and jobs to support those families. Instead they are being prevented from doing so. So they wait and wait at our borders when they could be working, supporting their families, and paying income taxes. That makes no sense!
I am writing to ask our US Congress members to update our very outdated Immigration laws immediately. Bills such as Lifting Immigrant Families Through Benefits Access Restoration Act (LIFT the BAR Act) and the Asylum Seeker Worker Authorization Act of 2023 will not only benefit DACA recipients and Green Card Holders but will boost our local economies and businesses.
Time for all Congresspersons to put constituents before party affiliation or elite donors!
HR 1325, The Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act, reduces the waiting period for asylum-seekers to obtain work permits in the U.S. to 30 days from 6 months. Asylum seekers now often wait from 8 to 15 months to get a work permit, leading to more economic crises for them and heavier burdens on U.S. taxpayers and municipalities.
The bill has bipartisan support and is currently in the House Judiciary Committee. Clickhereto see if your House Representative has sponsored the bill, and ask them to co-sponsor it if they haven’t. If your House Rep. is on the Judiciary Committee, ask them to advocate bringing it up for a vote.
Check out the Spring 2023 Newsletter from Welcoming NH.
Immigrants face every issue affecting every other group in NH, the Elderly, the Young, Education, Voting Rights, Healthcare, including mental healthcare, employment and more.
As well as our Website and Newsletter Welcoming NH also facilitates a bimonthly table for those who work with and support immigrants in NH. If you aren’t on our email list for our newsletter or you’d like to attend our bi-monthly Table please email welcomingnh@miracoalition.org.
There are efforts in motion to improve Digital Equality in New Hampshire and we need to be sure the right people are at the table! Join us to learn about the grants and how we can affect the work to make sure it is what it needs to be in NH. Join us to learn about what is happening and what will happen in NH and how to influence the outcome.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2023 AT 9 AM – 11 AM, VIA ZOOM
The National Collaborative for Digital Equity’s (NCDE) aim is to support sustained efforts to eliminate the digital divide as a barrier to economic and educational opportunity. As a federally tax-exempt nonprofit, NCDE provides free dissemination and policy education as well as comprehensive, fee-based consulting services, in support of digital equity for economic and educational inclusion.
Their commitment is to “field building” — generating a sustained national infrastructure to support evidence-based practices in eliminating the digital divide as the crushing barrier it presents to the nation’s low- and moderate-income earners and communities.
The Department of Commerce’s use of Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal Funding to help Close the digital divide specifically, $2.75 billion to fund Digital Equity. We know that digital exclusion carries a high societal and economic cost; reduces economic opportunity, educational achievement, positive health outcomes, social inclusion, and civic engagement; and exacerbates existing wealth and income gaps. The Digital Equity Act, which was included as a part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal provides NTIA with funding for three grant programs to promote digital inclusion and equity for communities that lack the skills, technologies and support needed to take advantage of broadband connections. NTIA will provide states with digital equity planning grants. NTIA will also implement a formula-based state grant program and a competitive grant program with funds available to accelerate the adoption of broadband through digital literacy training, workforce development, devices access programs, and other digital inclusion measures.
Welcoming New Hampshire is looking for a Program Coordinator! If you are passionate about immigration, immigrant issues, and building inclusive communities, please consider applying.
Somersworth – On Wednesday, January 25th, Amy Bassett, the NH district director of the U.S. Small Business Administration announced the signing of a Strategic Alliance Memorandum (SAM) with Ms. Raude Raychel, Founder and President of Indonesia Community Connect Inc. (ICC) in Somersworth, NH.
The purpose of the SAM is to develop and foster a mutual understanding and a working relationship between the SBA and Indonesia Community Connect Inc. ICC and SBA will work together to connect the Indonesian community to business resources. The mission of the SBA is to provide aid, counseling, business development assistance, SBA financing, government contracting, and access to workshops and events.
“We are excited to formalize our connection with ICC and affirm our commitment to provide its community members greater access to SBA’s many resources for new entrepreneurs and emerging businesses. SBA is dedicated to ensuring that our programs and services are widely accessible to all entrepreneurs, and we remain steadfast in reaching underserved communities. Our new partnership with the Indonesian community affirms our pledge to addressing barriers that diverse business owners face,” stated Amy Bassett, NH SBA district director.
“This is such an historical moment for ICC. This partnership highlights the hard work of the team as we work together with a U.S. Federal Agency. The SBA will work hand in hand with ICC providing critical small business resources to Indonesian and NH communities. This opens doors for many, as we establish direct access to information resources, facilitate mutual understanding among different cultures and values, and promote the richness of the Indonesian cultural diversity. ICC will be a platform and channel to many local and Indonesian entrepreneurs with interests in small business startups and trade of import/export with Indonesia.
All in all, we are building the momentum toward a longer vision of an economic and cultural hub, the world’s first Little Indonesia in New Hampshire,” stated Raude Raychel, Founder and President of Indonesia Community Connect Inc.
The Indonesia Community Connect Inc. is a non-profit organization based in NH with the focus to connect the Indonesian community with the surrounding area through community support services. It serves as the hub of resources for its stakeholders involved with the people in its immediate community, the local government and valued collaborators in Indonesia to facilitate mutual understanding among different cultures and values.
Raude Raychel has a clear — and bold — vision. She, along with a team of dedicated volunteers, public officials and international diplomats, are on the way to making it a reality.
Raychel is the executive director and founder of the nonprofit Indonesia Community Connects in Somersworth. Her vision: To create, in a revitalized economic center of downtown, the country’s only Little Indonesia district — drawing business and tourism, while driving community strength and connection. It will include a welcoming archway and urban park, businesses, a food hall, a museum of Indonesia, outdoor stage and a cultural center.
The current Little Indonesia Center, where ICC is now housed, already provides a hub for people to gather, enjoy events and access community resources — plus purchase an array of goods imported from Indonesia.
Somersworth is already being billed as having “The only Little Indonesia in the United States.”
“It’s all about putting Somersworth on the map. This benefits the whole community,” Raychel said.
The combination of community connection and business and tourism development is already proving powerful for this small city on New Hampshire’s Seacoast.
“From my perspective, it’s extraordinary,” said Robin Comstock, the city’s economic development manager. The Little Indonesia project, she said, demonstrates Somersworth’s desire to welcome people and helps promote the city to businesses. “It brings state, regional and national attention to the city, provides educational experiences and is perceived as an advantage and an attribute,” she said.
Somersworth has been home to an Indonesian community for decades. Expressed as a percentage, this small city has the largest Indonesian population in the country, with 17 percent of Somersworth’s 12,000 people identifying as Indonesian.
Raychel’s dad was the first Indonesian pastor in the Seacoast area, arriving to minister to a small group of Indonesian families in the 1990s. By the time Raychel was 10, she was acting as a language interpreter for her family and community, helping people navigate the systems and structures of their new homeland.
Raychel left New Hampshire to study business tourism at NYU and then earn a master’s in business management with a focus on growth strategy at Harvard. She studied Chinatown neighborhoods and their effect on economic development, tourism and community connection. Then she brought all that education and expertise back to serve her hometown. (She still works as a business consultant while serving in her role at ICC as a volunteer.)
“You can have greater impact by creating something in a smaller space,” Raychel said. “This vision is about how much we care about the city.”
The annual Somersworth Indonesian Festival — featuring food, performances and activities — draws people from all over New England. This year’s festival featured the regent of Mimika of the Indonesian province of Papua.
Indonesian government leaders and diplomats, including the Indonesian vice ambassador to the U.S., have visited and are promoting Little Indonesia. When the Indonesian flag was raised in Somersworth to celebrate Indonesian Independence Day, the event made the news in Indonesia.
Each ICC event builds toward a larger goal. The Little Indonesia Café and the Indonesian Night Market, held at the Indonesian Community Center, provide a venue for local caterers to promote their delicacies, test products and build a following. At the same time, Raychel has connected these local entrepreneurs with the Small Business Development Center, so that when the Little Indonesia Food Court eventually opens, they will be ready to set up shop.
And the nonprofit provides an array of services to meet the needs of the Somersworth community. ICC held a Covid vaccine clinic open to the entire community soon after vaccines became available, provides space that is open for members of Congress to hold open hours for constituents, and hosts job fairs to connect local people with employment opportunities.
The organization is plugged into the specific needs of the region’s Indonesian residents, providing a range of community supports, including interpretation and translation, immigration support, connection to health care resources, workforce and business development, acting as a liaison with law enforcement and more. During the height of the pandemic, Raychel learned that emergency food supplies that were being made available were sometimes going to waste — particularly because Indonesian elders were not accustomed to cooking with things like milk and cheese. So ICC created a partnership with Gather, a hunger-relief nonprofit in Portsmouth, to offer culturally appropriate food that would go to better use in the community.
Raychel hopes the full Little Indonesia district will be developed by 2026.
“I want more people to really see what this vision is all about,” Raychel said, “and how we can grow together and thrive together in the community.”
NASHUA — Welcoming America, a national nonprofit organization, announced Monday that five U.S. cities and counties achieved or were redesignated as Certified Welcoming places. Nashua, NH was among the designees and is the first city in New Hampshire to attain it, and one of the first in the Northeast.
“We are pleased to announce a new round of leaders in the growing movement to create communities where everyone — including people who migrate — can belong and prosper,” said Rachel Perić, executive director of Welcoming America. “Today, we recognize the cities of Portland, Maine and Nashua, New Hampshire as newly Certified Welcoming, as well as redesignate the City of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Louisville Metro Government; and Salt Lake County as Certified Welcoming. These local governments are leading the way, and showing how cities and towns can partner with Welcoming America to put their welcoming values into action.”
Nashua, New Hampshire and Portland, Maine are the first two cities in the New England region to become Certified Welcoming.
Said Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess: “The City of Nashua, New Hampshire, is so pleased to officially receive this designation. In practice, we have always strived to be a welcoming city to all; having this recognition helps us reinforce the assertion that we are passionately dedicated to ensuring that everyone feels safe and supported here in Nashua. Our cultural diversity is what makes our city the vibrant, exciting place it is, and we are happy to share this wonderful certification news with our community.”
For cities or counties to become Certified Welcoming, they first undergo a rigorous audit that evaluates existing policies and programs for how well they meet the Welcoming Standard, a set of framework areas that define what welcoming communities should be, particularly in how effectively they include immigrants. Based on the audit, the city or county may receive an action plan to resolve any gaps and work toward full compliance of the Welcoming Standard to achieve the designation. For example, the City of Nashua has continually invested in language access services to ensure that all of its community members can receive government services and information.
There are now 18 Certified Welcoming cities and counties across the United States, with nine in progress to achieve the designation. By 2026, Welcoming America aims to see 50 communities become Certified Welcoming places.
An official roll-out event is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 12, from noon-2 pm. Adult Learning Center at 4 Lake Street has graciously agreed to host the City of Nashua for this celebration. There will refreshments and the Mayor will speak on the Welcoming City designation. More information will be announced at a later date.
About Certified Welcoming
Certified Welcoming is a formal designation for cities and counties that have created policies and programs reflecting their values and commitment to immigrant inclusion and met the high bar set by the Welcoming Standard. This innovative program assesses city and county governments on their efforts to include and welcome immigrants in all areas of civic, social, and economic life in their communities. Learn more at certifiedwelcoming.org
About Welcoming America
Welcoming America is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that supports communities building a welcoming society where every person, including immigrants, can fully contribute and shape our shared prosperity. Through the Welcoming Network of 300+ local governments and nonprofits, we work to help communities develop the roadmap they need to create welcoming policies and share new approaches to inclusion that create an environment where everyone can truly thrive. Learn more at welcomingamerica.org
