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My first exposure to immigrant services in public libraries was when I read a case study on free English as a Second Language tutelage for adult learners in Michigan. I was touched then, reading about how great it was for the people involved and the community at large. I saw this NYLA program, Libraries Pave the Road to Citizenship, as a chance for me to learn more about that subject.

I was surprised to learn that I would hear not only about libraries participating in teaching adult immigrants the English language, but also that there are libraries participating in aiding patrons with the naturalization process. The panelists were:

• Homa Naficy, Manager of Multicultural Education and Outreach, The American Place, Hartford Public Library
• Elaine Giardino, Civics for Immigrants Project Manager, Literacy Volunteers of Westchester and Rockland Counties
• Norma V. Menard, Executive Director, Literacy Volunteers of Clinton County

Homa Naficy, introduced as someone who was born in Iran, studied in the U.K. and France, and naturalized, explained The American Place (TAP) which she has managed since its creation in 2000 at Hartford Public Library. TAP was created to help immigrants and refugees with adjusting to life in America and gaining citizenship. Some of the services they offer are:

• U.S. citizenship classes
• Visa lottery assistance
• Immigration forums to keep immigrants up to date on various immigration topics
• Help with retrieving immigration application forms and setting up an email account
• English language classes
• Professional development

As Ms. Naficy explained during the program, the U.S. Citizenship process is harder than ever. Immigrants have to read, write, and speak English at a third grade level, fill out countless forms, know U.S. history and government, and “have good moral character” (whatever they mean by that). She also explained that now immigrants cannot simply go to the immigration office; they need to go online to make an appointment. So that means that they also need to be technologically literate… Or know a library nearby that offers that kind of help. (Ms. Naficy also explained that they were lucky in a way at the Hartford Public Library because they are right across the street from the local immigration office. Immigrants were sent to the library to use their computers, and the library wanted to provide them with more services than that.)

Elaine Giardino illustrated the role that her organization plays in aiding immigrant services at the library in Westchester and Rockland Counties. Civics for Immigrants helps train library volunteers and staff on tutoring the English language to immigrants and helping them learn the U.S. history and government information they will be tested on during the naturalization process. The organization provides the trainers and the curriculum on which to base the tutelage, and the trainees take an extensive 2 day course.

Like Ms. Naficy, Norma V. Menard was also born abroad and experienced the naturalization process. Ms. Menard was born in the Philippines, earned a degree in social work, and met her future husband in the Peace Corps. Eventually, they got married and moved to Clinton County, New York, as Ms. Menard described, “3 miles from the Canadian border” (by Montreal). When she was looking into becoming a naturalized citizen, she explained that a librarian in her local library played a large part in easing the process for her. Now she is the Executive Director of Literacy Volunteers of Clinton County, and helps immigrants in the library that helped her.

Ms. Menard’s experience was interesting, especially in contrast to Ms. Naficy’s. Ms. Naficy’s library is located in a highly populated part of Connecticut, whereas Ms. Menard’s is in rural New York. Therefore, the services that they offer in Clinton County are more tutor-based than program-based. The patrons taking advantage of the service Clinton County libraries offer do it on a one-on-one basis.

The presenters in this program were fascinating, despite the fact that the latter two were on such short notice. The original co-speaker (besides Ms. Naficy), Carlos Munoz-Acevedo from the Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services, was unable to come because he was called to Washington D.C. by the president. In his stead he left enough Civics and Citizenship Toolkits for everyone who attended. I must admit: I love swag.

I hope more libraries provide more services to aid immigrants in their communities. It’s important to provide services to that part of the population, to ease the process that seems designed for people to fail, and to make the community a better place.

Tags: adult services, citizenship, conference, immigration, naturalization, NYLA 2008, public libraries, services, United States Government

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 8th, 2008 at 10:06 pm and is filed under conference, NYLA 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.