Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant Communities - ILRC

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Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant CommunitiesJanuary 2003Example: Lin, a community leader, is helping Victor approach the manager of hisapartment building about a leaky ceiling in Victor’s apartment. They first went to themanager about the leak two months ago. Everyone knows that the manager isoverwhelmed with work because he doesn’t have any assistants and the building is oldand falling apart. At the meeting, Lin and Victor acknowledge that the manager faces ahuge task and that the manager has been courteous to them, but they stress that afterwaiting for two months, Victor needs the leak fixed now. They show copies of the lettersthey have written to both the manager and the landlord. They finally make a deal: if themanager has not fixed the problem in three days, Victor can fix it himself and subtract thecost from the next month’s rent.After the meeting Lin and Victor write a letter to the manager thanking him for themeeting and stating the terms of their agreement.3. If someone on the other side is behaving wrongly, tell him so. If necessary, ask to speakwith a supervisor.In some cases the governmental workers might clearly be breaking the rules. If possible, bestrong but calm and polite. Don’t get personal. A good tactic is to talk about the law, that is, whatthe worker is supposed to do, and ask for a justification of his or her behavior in legal terms. Ifnecessary, ask to speak with a supervisor.Example: Mohammed is trying to schedule a meeting to talk about youth services forrefugees at the city’s community center. Mohammed knows the community center isavailable to use for free on Tuesday evenings at 6 p.m. Yet when he approaches the city’scommunity center administrator to reserve the room, the administrator first saysMohammed cannot use it. Then after Mohammed shows him that the community center’sbrochure says community members can reserve the room, the city worker tellsMohammed that he will have to pay $125 to use it. Although Mohammed would like tosay, “Listen you idiot! Don’t you even know the your own city’s requirements for usingthe meeting room?” he instead remains calm. He tells the worker, “I have the right to usethis room for free. Show me where in writing it says I have to pay $125. If you don’twant to let me use it for free, I’d like to speak with your supervisor.” The worker finallydecides to let Mohammed use the room for free.4. Look for creative solutions. Consider the other side’s point of view and their interest inefficiency.Sometimes the other side will reach a compromise if you can convince them that what you areasking makes sense for them.Example: During the immigration amnesty program of the 1980s, community groups inSan Francisco wanted to set up a table and have an advocate help people who came to thelegalization office at INS. They formed a coalition and met with the head of thelegalization department. They pointed out that the legalization office was crowded withclients who had a lot of questions and problems. INS did not have enough personnel to7-7
Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant CommunitiesJanuary 2003help all the people. There was a crowd control problem in the office, and some peoplewho were eligible were not applying, which was not good for INS statistics. The officeagreed to provide space for a full-time community advocate who could counsel the publicand distribute educational materials. The advocate worked there for three years.Example: INS had a procedure requiring people to speak with three different branches toget certain papers. This might take several hours. At a liaison meeting with INS,advocates stated that this not only wasted their clients’ time, it was very inefficient forINS to tie up three officers. INS decided to change the practice.Sometimes the other side will reach a compromise if you make it too embarrassing or costly notto reach an agreement. These efforts can be linked to community organizing.Example: The INS had been conducting raids on several street corners in San Jose, Calif.Several of the raids had taken place near schools and churches. Frightened parents kepttheir children out of school because they did not want the INS to pick them or theirchildren up on their way to school.Community members, school and church officials were outraged because schoolattendance had decreased. They joined together and started a group called “Committeefor the Rights of Immigrants”. The group held community forums and several pressconferences.The group was able to schedule a meeting with the Border Patrol. People in the groupstated that conducting raids near schools, or even in schools, was not a good way to carryout the Border Patrol’s legitimate functions. Because of bad publicity and communitypressure, the Border Patrol made a formal agreement that it would no longer visit anyschool in the county.5. Practice negotiating before you negotiate with the other side.Practice with other community members, neighbors and co-workers by doing role-plays anddemonstrations. This is especially useful for people who are just beginning to conduct formalnegotiations. If several people plan to speak for your group, you must determine who is going tospeak in what order and on which topic and what each person is going to say. All this preparationmust be done in advance. We will practice a negotiation soon.6. Keep aware of your other options: community intervention, presswork and working withmembers of Congress.Media work was covered in Chapter 6. When considering these other options, be sure to knowwhat you want. In particular, be aware that involving the press can help only in certain cases. Inother cases, using the press could backfire and cause harm to your case or to the community.Even if press coverage would be helpful, some people do not feel comfortable going public.Their wishes, of course, must be respected.7-8
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Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant Communities - ILRC

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