Detroit public radio WDET today aired a piece by Feet In 2 Worlds reporter Martina Guzmán on the plight of Hispanic autoworkers and business owners who are suffering the crisis in the auto industry.

From the webpage of Detroit Today, hosted by Craig Fahle:

For decades Latino immigrants have achieved the American dream through the U.S. Auto Industry. At roughly 12 percent of the total U.S. manufacturing work force, Latinos acquired wealth and stability through good salaries, health benefits, union membership and a way to send the next generation to college. Now, all of that is in jeopardy with the Big 3 near collapse. As part of our occasional series, Feet in Two Worlds, WDET’s Martina Guzman reports on what Hispanic autoworkers are experiencing in the wake of the automotive crisis.

You can hear the story by pressing Play below:

And you can read Martina’s post on the same subject from earlier this week here.

To begin the New Year, Feet in Two Worlds invited ethnic media journalists to write about the most significant challenges they see facing the communities they cover, and their expectations for the Obama administration and the new Congress. The following article was written by Sharon Toomer, Managing Editor of BlackandBrownNews.com (BBN).

The Black and Latino communities share the same challenges as the greater society – the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, healthcare, and so on. But these communities also face some unique challenges.

BBN is concerned – deeply so – about the education achievement gap, immigration, and the incessant violence in the Black and Latino communities. That 48% of Black males (Latinos are not too far behind) don’t graduate high school on time is a civil rights failure. Poorly educated or uneducated citizens cannot progress economically, socially or politically.

We are equally concerned about the issue of immigration, in particular the nasty anti-Latino immigrant rhetoric that we believe has directly led immigrants of Mexico and Central America to be the target of vicious hate crimes and other forms of prejudice.

People in the Black and Latino communities endure an inordinate amount of violence that is unacceptable in a civil society. It is inconceivable that any human being can be expected to live a quality of life and progress when they are constantly either a victim of or witness to the degree of violence these two communities are subject to.

Generally, I believe an Obama administration will restore the country’s faith and confidence in our government. America has been profoundly wounded by the Bush administration’s disregard for laws and the Constitution by lying, misleading and irresponsible stewardship. This absence and abuse of leadership has damaged America and left us with a degree of distrust that is domestically and globally dangerous.

(more…)

By Macollvie Jean-François

In the aftermath of the devastation four major storms wrought on Haiti’s already fragile ecosystem and precarious daily life a few months ago, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced it would stop deporting Haitians, temporarily. The news brought on such euphoria among some, it was as though the U.S. government had finally granted Haitians the long-sought, ever-elusive Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and at-long-last tangibly recognized Haiti’s volatility. When ICE revoked that measure 10 weeks later (see a Sun-Sentinel story reposted here), it was like throwing a bucket of water on advocates and families impacted.

But the hope — a popular word these days — is that an Obama Administration may be more receptive to granting Haitians TPS. It’s one example of aspirations many Haitian-Americans hope will fare better than they did under George Bush.

No one expects substantial change in Haiti or Haitian enclaves overnight, though many experienced an immediate boost in pride at the President-elect’s achievements. People understand that the recession, the wars, health care, education and energy take precedence over immigration-related issues.

Haitian-Americans and friends of Haiti are quick to throw out these maxims in conversation about U.S.-Haiti relations: “When it rains in the U.S., it pours in Haiti”; “If the U.S. sneezes, Haiti catches a cold.” The sayings speak to the connection between the two countries – a mere 2-hour flight from each other — and how heavily Haiti relies on the U.S. for aid, whether from the U.S. government or remittances sent home by Haitian -Americans. It’s the reason thousands of naturalized U.S. citizens stood on those snaking lines across South Florida to vote early, some standing for several hours. Their ballots, firmly cast, helped deliver Florida to Obama, early and decisively. (more…)

The crisis in the U.S. auto industry is among the many serious challenges facing Michigan’s economy. People are moving out of Michigan at a higher rate than any state in the nation, and at 8.5 percent Michigan has the highest average annual unemployment rate in the U.S.  Despite these trends, business in the state’s Hispanic community is flourishing.

Feet In Two Worlds‘ Martina Guzman reported on Detroit’s thriving Latino businesses in a piece that aired on WDET, Detroit Public Radio.

Guzman compared some Motown neighborhoods where “buildings designed by world famous architects” are “now abandoned” to the city’s Mexicantown where “historic buildings have been renovated. There are ethnic grocery stores, bakeries, restaurants, shops and a bustling main street.”

She added,

As the national economic crisis deepens and the state faces the loss of thousands more manufacturing jobs, Metro Detroit’s Latino business community may be a ray of hope on Michigan’s bleak economic landscape.

You can hear Martina’s piece by pressing play or you can visit WDET’s page here.

Election Day, November 4, 2008. (Photo: FlickrCC/Sergiocapitano)

On Election Day, the Feet In 2 Worlds team spread out to polling places in immigrant and ethnic neighborhoods across the U.S. to report on how foreign-born voters experienced this historic day.

Our contributors covered voting in battleground states Florida and New Hampshire, as well as Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New York:

• Macollvie Jean-Francois reported on Haitian-Americans and other voters in South Florida. She talked to those who voted before Tuesday and then covered polling sites in the morning and in the afternoon.
• Aswini Anburajan went to Harlem in the morning: she met a man in his fifties voting for the first time, a woman who marched in Selma and a Senegalese immigrant, a Puerto Rican couple, and a Trinidadian immigrant. She then went by Union Square to record the palpable excitement in lower Manhattan, before heading to Jackson Heights, Queens. There she found a Babel tower of electoral interest, complaints of election law violations, and had an extraordinary sidewalk conversation with two Bangladeshis and an Argentinean outside the polls. She also went on the air on PRI’s The World and sent us audio interviews with voters.
• Eduardo A. de Oliveira reported from New Hampshire, where he talked to a Vietnamese voter, and also found time to interview Brazilians in Massachusetts. He also appeared on WNYC, New York Public Radio.
• Martina Guzman talked to Latino families who came out to vote in Southwest Detroit, met an African American man who had tried to vote for the first time in Louisiana in 1955, and in the evening she marveled at the predominantly black city’s raucous celebration of Barack Obama’s victory.
• Suman Raghunathan reported on immigrants having trouble voting in Astoria, Queens, and then met Filipino, Egyptian and Indian voters at a firehouse in Jersey City, New Jersey.
• Yan Tai reported on high levels of turnout among first-time and immigrant voters in Chinatown and on an Asian American group’s complaints about barriers to immigrant voting.
• Pilar Marrero reported from Latino neighborhoods in Chicago, where residents were excited with the possibility of a fellow Chicagoan being elected president.
• Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska talked to Polish voters in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, who also came out in big numbers.
• John Rudolph wrapped it all up with news analysis of Obama’s place in history.

Reporter Pilar Marrero, a columnist for La Opinión newspaper in Los Angeles and Feet In 2 Worlds contributor, appeared yesterday on PRI’s nationally-syndicated radio show The World. She spoke with anchor Lisa Mullin about the impact of first-time Latino immigrant voters on the outcome of the presidential election.

Marrero reported –among other data– that Latino turnout held constant and that the Latino vote in Florida is shifting away from the Republicans.

You can listen to the segment here or you can visit the show’s website:

NEW YORK – Yan Tai, World Journal reporter

As Election Day drew to an end, an Asian American watchdog group said there were more problems among Asian American voters than people thought.

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a civil rights organization based in New York, said Tuesday that for many Asian American voters things did not go that smoothly. The group sent 1,400 attorneys, law students and community volunteers to cover 130 polling sites in eleven states with large Asian American populations which have seen election day glitches for Asian American voters in the past.

Problems cited by the group included long lines, delays, and poll-worker confusion over ID requirements, as well as anecdotes of voting rights violations. These problems were also experienced by other voters, but the group argues that the problems hit Asian American voters harder because of language barriers.

The group received hundreds of complaints via its Election Day hot line, said Margaret Fung, AALDEF’s executive director.

The problems reported included:

— Voters who could not find their names on the voter rolls. For instance, at P.S. 250 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, several voters claimed they had voted in previous elections but their names were not on the voter rolls.

— Improper requests for voter ID. At P.S. 94 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, one voter was told to go home to get an ID in order to vote. No interpreters were available to explain why this was needed.

— Racial remarks used against immigrant voters. At P.S. 94 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, two Arab American voters asked a few questions, and after they walked out, AALDEF volunteers heard a poll worker say, “They look like terrorists to me.”

— Violation of voters’ civil rights. In Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, a Chinese American grandmother needed assistance voting and asked her granddaughter to help her cast her ballot. A poll worker prevented her from bringing her family member into the voting booth, in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.

— Inadequate assistance in Asian languages.

— Broken voting machines.

— Delays and long lines and scarcity of poll workers. In New Orleans, some Vietnamese American voters had to wait two hours to vote at Sarah T. Reed High School in Orleans Parish, while at Mary Queens of Viet Nam Church, voters had to wait almost three hours to vote.

Eduardo A. de Oliveira, a Brazilian-born reporter for New England Ethnic News and a Feet in 2 Worlds contributor, appeared this morning on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, New York Public Radio, to describe the scene in the battleground state of New Hampshire.

You can listen to that segment of the show here.