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Immigration: Somerville. How an Illegal Community in Our Host City Can Shed Light on the National Debate

December 7, 2007

by Samuel W. duPont

Sitting around the table at Thanksgiving dinner, you might have discussed the courage of the Pilgrims, sailing to an unknown land, and making a new home in a foreign, inhospitable environment. With the turkey still sitting heavily in your stomach, it might be interesting to reconsider Myles Standish, William Bradford, and the other brave Puritans, in the context of a hot-button contemporary political issue; it doesn’t take much of a leap to think of them as the first immigrants to Massachusetts—landing at Plymouth rock in 1620, they settled down just a decade before the first settlers (immigrants, if you will) moved into what is today Somerville.

Three-hundred-seventy-seven years later, the immigration issue is more contentious than ever. Despite the fact that we are nearly all descended from immigrants to America, discussion of the subject raises the hackles of many. Some fear the subversion of American culture, others fear the loss of jobs, still others fear the undermining effect of illegal immigration on American rule of law. Somerville, where nearly 30 percent of the population is foreign-born, and 35 percent of households speak a language other than English, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, is a microcosm of many of the issues surrounding immigration on a national level. And the issues aren’t going away—the fraction of immigrants in the Massachusetts labor force nearly doubled between 1980 and 2004, from 8.8% to 17%. Just in the first three years of this decade, 118,000 new immigrants arrived in Massachusetts, many of them settling right here in Somerville.

Somerville’s Immigrants

Our home city has a long history of immigration. Since the first Europeans showed up in Somerville, wearing belt buckles on their hats in 1630, the demographics of the city have changed greatly. By the early 1900s, Somerville was already richly diverse, with an array of Europeans, particularly from Ireland, Scotland and Germany. After World War I, immigration to Somerville increased, coming particularly from Italy and Portugal, with a smorgasbord of other nationalities represented—Russians, Greeks, Canadians, and more.

Currently on display at the Somerville Museum is an exhibit called “Immigrant City, Then and Now.” The show examines Somerville’s colorful history of immigration. Looking at the exhibit, museum caretaker Tom Batinelli remembered his own immigration experience. “I came here when I was five years old from Italy… We had to leave because Mussolini and the fascists were coming to power there.” Then, as now, getting a job was the first big hurdle for new immigrants “Here, my father worked as a sausage maker down on Gore Street, and that was great. Back in Italy he would only have had some factory job.” But even then, immigrants faced problems, particularly racism and discrimination. “It was hard, because we [Italians] were a minority. There were so many fights. In middle school, people called us dagos, wops, guineas. It was bad.”

The immigrant population in Massachusetts peaked in 1920, and then dropped by half, to 495,000 by 1970. Through the 1970s and 80s, a new surge in immigration began, with people beginning to arrive from Asia and Latin America. Today, more immigrants in Somerville have come from El Salvador than any other country, though the fastest growing group is Brazilian. Now, as ever, most people leave their home countries for economic reasons, seeking a better life for themselves and their children in America. It is no coincidence that a spike in Brazilian immigration coincided with an economic dip in Brazil at the beginning of this decade.

One Brazilian immigrant, who requested to remain anonymous to protect his identity, has a story that reflects Batinelli’s from years earlier. “My neighbor, he lives up the street. I don’t really know him, we don’t talk very often. One time [my status as an undocumented immigrant] came up, and he got really pissed off, started talking about ‘you’re all on welfare, all have millions of kids, don’t go to school.’ I’ve never applied for welfare. None of that is true.” While the immigrants have changed, problems of discrimination have remained.

Immigrants choose Somerville for a variety of reasons. For all, the relative affordability of the city makes it appealing. The large Portuguese population, had established a language community into which the Brazilians could assimilate more easily. In many cases, people move to where their friends and family have moved before them, a phenomenon that has led to many of Somerville’s immigrants hailing from the same region, or even town in their native country.

Mayor Joe Curtatone is a child of Italian immigrants himself. His family, like many in Somerville, came from the Italian city of Gaeta. A year ago, Curtatone formalized this bond, by making Gaeta a “sister city” to Somerville, an initiative meant to strengthen cultural and economic ties. Curtatone is planning to establish similar relations with Yucuaiquín, a city in El Salvador that is the birthplace of many newer Somerville residents.

Massachusetts has also been the willing host of many international refugees, resettled in the United States. Some have found their way to Somerville, adding still more diversity to the city’s population. Sediq Omar and his family fled Taliban rule in Afghanistan in 2000, before the American invasion. After four years as refugees in Pakistan, the five of them successfully applied for resettlement through the United Nations Refugee agency.

They were placed in East Boston, and last July moved into Somerville. “Here [in Somerville] we are in a housing project. We have much better housing here. Before, we were in one small room with a kitchen in East Boston.” Omar is a proud man, mustachioed, and defiantly explains that he has found work in the same field that he practiced in Afghanistan. “The job I have been doing in my country is oriental rugs. Over 30 years I am doing this business… Here I am working with Mohr & McPherson [Cambridge-based importer and seller of Asian furniture and carpets].”

Hubbley Affonso is a Brazilian-American, who has lived in Somerville for over twenty years, working in real estate, and as an editor at a newspaper publishing service, Hubble Communications. He offers his own take on the wide range of nationalities represented in the city: “If you get in a cab, it’s a big black guy. He’s Hatian. Indian people run all the stores, the 7-11s. Go into a gas station: Arabic. Restaurants are all run by Brazilians.” True or not, he gives a slice of the diversity packed into this immigrant city.

A Climate of Fear

Maria Elena Letona is the Executive Director of Centro Presente, an organization that struggles for immigrant rights and social justice. Operated and led by people primarily from Central America, the organization is based in Cambridge and operates throughout Massachusetts. In Letona’s view, the issues faced by immigrants in Somerville are representative of the national struggle. “The biggest challenge is the environment—the way that we are talked about—the whole rhetoric around immigrants is poisoned. The rhetoric about ‘illegals,’ ‘lawbreakers,’ makes it very difficult for even good-hearted people to understand the real problems immigrants face.”

Letona is, of course, referencing the national debate on illegal immigration that has dominated all discussion of immigration in America for some time. One group in this debate, perhaps best characterized by CNN pundit Lou Dobbs, views the large influx of undocumented Latino immigrants as an “invasion.” People on this side of the debate tend to oppose any governmental action that would legitimize the residency of the undocumented immigrants, and support the deportation of all who cannot prove their citizenship. Others, to varying degrees, are more sympathetic with the immigrants themselves, and see room for policies that would give undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship, and make the social environment in the U.S. more hospitable to them in the meanwhile.

In Letona’s view, the rhetoric of the former group creates an inhospitable environment for all immigrants—legal and undocumented alike. “We talk about immigrant rights, and people say: ‘Aren’t they illegal? Do they have rights?’ If people have no rights, than getting anything done becomes very difficult… [Colorado Congressman Tom] Tancredo, Lou Dobbs—they’re at the heart of the problem. By their rhetoric, really terrible treatment of humans is justified.”

Luiz is a Brazilian immigrant, who works at a restaurant in Somerville (his name has been changed to protect his identity). He, like nearly half of all undocumented immigrants in the United States came here legally, and has stayed past the limit of his visa. He explains some of the psychology of fear that haunts undocumented immigrants. “Every day you think about it, you could be gone tomorrow. At the beginning you don’t care much, because you just got here, and you don’t have so much to leave behind. After time, you care about people, they care about you, and it’s weird, you think: tomorrow, maybe I won’t see you again.”

The climate has developed to the point that fear dominates all sides of the debate. Warren Goldstein-Gelb is the director of the Welcome Project, a community initiative that for 20 years has worked to support new immigrants in the city. He agrees with Letona: “The biggest issue for immigrants in Somerville is a general fear, an anti-immigrant climate—it is a national climate. Undocumented or not, people feel at risk from our institutions, be it raids or police.” Despite the fact that 75% of immigrants in America are here legally, nearly all face this fear to some degree.

While immigrants fear discrimination and deportation, the immigrant-skeptics have fears—some very real—that immigration will undermine American culture, society and the economy. Jennifer Burtner, a professor in the Anthropology department at Tufts, argues that throughout American history, economic instability has always yielded a more hostile environment towards immigration. “Immigrants have always been scapegoats in wartime.” Speaking of the working class in the U.S., she says “There is a fear of becoming impoverished.”

The most frequently heard claim against immigrants is that they steal jobs from Americans, by their willingness to work for lower pay. There is some truth to these charges, as a study published by the Pew Hispanic Center explained. One third of the new construction jobs in the past three years has gone to an immigrant, and these immigrants are likely to be undocumented, because it has been difficult to legally enter the U.S.. Contractors can pay them less than half the prevailing wage, and this money, often paid in cash, usually goes untaxed. A recent report by WBUR, Boston’s National Public Radio news station, explained that some industries, particularly construction, are now “addicted” to the labor of undocumented immigrants, because, to stay competitive, they can’t afford to pay their workers at union wages. The immigrants who work these jobs are frequently filling the role of union members, who are left out of work.

Things get even more complicated when an undocumented immigrant gets injured while on the job. “When people get hurt while they’re working, they’re afraid to say they’re working,” says Hubbley Afonso. “They’re afraid they’ll get their employer in trouble, and get deported. They say they did it at home, and they get no compensation.” Being undocumented, the immigrants rarely have any health insurance, and their medical fees are often socialized—paid for by the state taxpayers.

Luiz points out that for many immigrants—even undocumented immigrants—defy this stereotype. “We get blamed for everything… Really, a lot of people here work really hard and pay a lot of taxes—I’ve been paying them since the first day I was here, all along.”

The Politics of Immigration

Undocumented immigrants face a number of political issues, beyond struggles of discrimination and racism, a new language and culture, and the constant fear of deportation. In America, says Goldstein-Gelb, education is still the gateway to success. But undocumented immigrants in Somerville face a serious barrier to college education—they do not qualify for in-state tuition at Massachusetts state schools. “People who have been going to Somerville schools since they were two, and then find out tuition is 2 or 3 times as much as non-immigrants—that’s really big.”

For many, the biggest hassle on a day-to-day basis is the inability to get a driver’s license. “Not getting a license, that’s the number one problem,” says Afonso. “People don’t care about being illegal, they just want to drive. If you live in Somerville, and you don’t have a car, how do you work in Framingham, or anywhere? The buses stop running at night, it’s very hard.” The answer for many undocumented immigrants is to fake documents, or to drive without a license. “And when they get pulled over,” he continues, “The police aren’t supposed to call immigration, but sometimes they do.”

Eliot Spitzer, governor of New York, recently put forward a plan to allow undocumented immigrants to be issued driver’s licenses. The purpose of the initiative was to make the roads safer, acknowledging that hundreds of thousands of immigrants without licenses were driving in the state already, but without insurance. Massive public opposition, led by Lou Dobbs and other outspoken opponents of illegal immigration, forced Spitzer to withdraw his proposal in November. Elena Letona believed Spitzer’s initiative was a good idea, both for the immigrants themselves, and for the other residents of the state. “The governor of New York actually did the right thing—that took a lot of courage, for a politician to actually do the right thing. And there was such a campaign against the government, he had to rescind.” The whole episode, she argues, is an example of the racism that runs rampant against immigrants throughout the country.

Luiz got his license when he arrived in 2000. “Things were a lot easier before September 11th,” he says. “Now people are treated like criminals.” Indeed, much of the outcry against Spitzer’s plan suggested that allowing undocumented immigrants to get drivers’ licenses would make it easier for terrorists to assimilate within our society. “But all of the hijackers on 9/11 were legal immigrants!” says Luiz. “They all had all their papers.”

According to Luiz, having a license would make any undocumented immigrant’s life much more comfortable. “If you have a license, and you run on the right side of the law, you have nothing really to be afraid of.” Until recently, this was overwhelmingly true—immigrants who successfully entered the United States illegally were very unlikely to be caught and deported.

In March of this year, however, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted a raid on a leather goods factory in nearby New Bedford. 361 undocumented immigrants, mostly born in Guatamala or El Salvador, were detained following the raid, and nearly all have been deported, or are awaiting deportation. Many are currently detained, without any due process of law, separated from their families. According to the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition, between 100 and 200 children have been separated from their parents as a result of the raid. This raid, and others like it, put a new fear into undocumented immigrants around the country.

Tufts Engages, Actively

Perhaps not surprisingly, considering the huge local immigrant population, and the university’s inclination towards community and global active citizenship, Tufts undergraduates have been very engaged with the Somerville immigrant community in a number of ways. Through the Leonard Carmichael Society, through National Student Partnerships, a volunteer service organzation, and through other community organizations, students teach English to immigrants, lobby for immigrant rights, and work for community development.

“Immigrant City: Then and Now,” the exhibit on display at the Somerville Museum, was largely a product of the work of Tufts students. In the past few months, it has been put together as a collaboration between the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, an anthropology class taught by Professor Burtner, the Welcome Project, the Somerville Museum, and other individuals.

Over the summer, Elizabeth Herman, a Tufts sophomore, worked with the Tisch College’s Active Citizenship Summer program, which helped her take on an internship at The Welcome Project. She spent her summer teaching photography and interviewing skills to a group of young immigrants in the Somerville school system, to help them tell their families’ stories of immigration. “Before this summer I knew very little about the incredibly diverse immigrant populations that comprise Somerville, or what an important gateway this city has been to so many people,” Says Herman. “Now, I feel much more connected and dedicated to the area and its community.”

Professor Burtner’s class, Urban Borderlands, is designed to give students real, applicable experience working with non-profit organizations. “By the time they’re juniors or seniors, we know they can take an exam or write a paper. So it’s time they learned new skills. Data gathering, working with a database—these are things that NGOs need, that the corporate world expects, and that the public sector needs to expand.” A major component of the class is the opportunity for the students to work with the Welcome Project on fundraising, education initiatives, and the curation of the exhibit at the Somerville Museum. They build on the work done by Herman and her students over the summer and incorporated the artwork of several local immigrant artists, including Tufts students Enzo Moscarella and Diego Guzman. Says Burtner, “The exhibit was the first step in giving back to the community. Now, the students are working with local public school teachers to incorporate it into their curricula.”

The students have also staged several events at the museum to mark the opening of the show. “Celebrating the Next Generation” took place on the 15th of November. It brought the middle schoolers back to the museum with their families to see their photographs and interviews exhibited. They talked about their experiences over the summer. “My mother had endless things to say,” says Peter Gutierrez, one of the students. His parents are Brazilian. “She started off with no friends, she couldn’t speak English. But then Somerville’s program to help immigrants speak English helped her a lot.” Edward Chen also interviewed his mother. “She immigrated from Beijing, China. She had to raise livestock and take care of her brothers and sisters [in China], and learning about that was very memorable.”

At one point, a cell phone ring interrupted the students. A tinny salsa beat cut through the air, and the father of Marlene Vargas hurried from the room to answer the call, in Spanish. Afterward, Marlene talked about her experience as the child of an immigrant. “My dad only finished 11th grade in El Salvador, and then he had to start working, so he pushes me extra hard. They want me to succeed in school, and go to college. My dad works in Boston at Priscilla, cutting dresses; my mom cleans houses. I want to be a psychologist, or maybe work with kids.”

It’s always hard to leave home, and immigrants have never had it easy—Somerville is no exception in this regard. For so many immigrants, the reason they take on this burden is to give a better life to their children. This next generation is decidedly American, in the way they talk, dress, and act. The hardship and labor of their parents has earned them the rights, privileges, and freedoms that all Americans enjoy.