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Letter from the
Executive Director  Dear Friends and
Colleagues,
The Philadelphia summer is
here, bringing hot temperatures, thunderstorms,
delicious water ice and fun festivals.
At the Welcoming Center for New
Pennsylvanians, we are especially excited about
two things we are doing: We will be attending a
conference in New Orleans, and we will be
hosting an open house at Welcoming Center
West on 52nd Street.
Our trip to the
Big Easy was made possible because our colleague
Yana Chernov was selected as a presenter for the
Workforce
Innovations 2008 conference. This national
event is sponsored by the U.S. Department of
Labor. We are excited about joining a gathering
of thousands of workforce development
professionals to learn more about talent
development strategies for the global economy.
Our workshop will present information on
how regions can tap into the legal immigrant
workforce right in their backyard. Strategies
include helping immigrant professionals get
certified in the U.S., teaching entry-level
workers the unwritten codes of the American
workplace, and finding the crucial first jobs
that help newcomers build U.S. experience.
Later this summer, on August 5, 2008, Welcoming
Center West will have its open house. This
event will feature an outdoor ribbon cutting
ceremony, international music, and food from
local restaurants. Mayor Michael Nutter is
scheduled to be our guest speaker. We are
excited to have Mayor Nutter as a supporter of
our work in West Philadelphia, as we engage
both the immigrant and native-born populations
to strengthen the community and the economy.
We will keep you informed about what we
learn in New Orleans - and how you can join us
for the Welcoming Center West open house.
As always, thank you for your continued
support.
Anne O'Callaghan
Executive
Director
PS. LATE BREAKING NEWS!! This
Saturday, June 21st, Nationalities
Service Center and the Iraq Refugee Advisory
Committee will be hosting an event for World
Refugee Day 2008: Welcoming Iraqi Families,
Celebrating Iraqi Culture. See below for
more details.
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Project Bridging
Cultures art show and picnic  There are few times more
exciting to a high school student than the end
of school. The weather gets warmer, transitions
loom, and calendars are filled with year-end
festivities.
This spring, the Project
Bridging Cultures staff organized an art
show and a year-end picnic for the Project
Bridging Cultures students. Art Club students
were excited to show off some of the pieces they
have worked on throughout the year. The show
featured dozens of diverse works: pencil and ink
drawings, watercolor paintings, collages,
calligraphy, origami, comic strips, poetry,
papier-mache sculptures, macramé flowerpots, and
screen-printed T-shirts. The painting at left is
just one example of the incredible work of our
students -- it's a portrait of Project
Bridging Cultures mentor Amy Cheung.
Staff member Mary Reese coordinated the
Art Club and its show. "It's wonderful to see
how intently the students were looking at each
other's work," she says. We're especially happy
to have been able to offer this activity given
that the students have almost no other artistic
opportunities in school. (However, in a
promising sign, the theater program was recently
resurrected after a 10-year drought.)
The Project Bridging Cultures staff also
organized a picnic that brought more than 40
students and teachers to Franklin D. Roosevelt
Park in South Philadelphia. Students spent the
afternoon playing soccer, eating food, and even
learning ribbon routines from Project Bridging
Cultures mentor Steve Holt.
These
celebrations were a great way to close out the
school year and celebrate the beginning of
summer!
(Water color
painting in photo by Ngoc Tran.)
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Resource of the
month: Health Information Translations
 Imagine you're a nurse,
wanting to give instructions to a diabetic
Vietnamese patient. Or a Russian teenager,
trying to understand why the doctor is
recommending more vaccinations for your younger
brother. Healthcare decisions are some of the
most personal and significant choices we make,
and if you don't feel fluent in English, those
choices can feel overwhelming and even
frightening.
That's why we were so
pleased to discover Health
Information Translations, a website that
provides health information in many
languages. The goal is to improve health
education for limited English proficiency
patients.
Assembled by a group of Ohio
hospitals, the site is an excellent resource for
families, health care professionals, and those
who teach health education to English language
learners. Please take a moment to visit. Topics
covered include asthma, burn care, diabetes,
home care after surgery, and even disaster
preparedness. Materials are available in more
than 15 languages. See the list below!
Arabic
Bosnian
Chinese
English
French
Hindi
Japanese
Korean
Marshallese
Portuguese
Russian
Somali
Spanish
Tagalog
Ukrainian
Vietnamese
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Research Corner
 Koreans with U.S.
doctorates don't want to go home. That was
the blunt message of a new study by Dr. Mi- sok
Jin of the Korea Research Institute for
Vocational Education and Training. The study,
which was published in Korean, was reported in
the US edition of the Korea Times
newspaper.
Of course, many immigrants of
all ethnicities come to the US for college and
are eager to stay and build their careers here.
What is remarkable is the recent increase in
that number among Korean immigrants. The article
notes:
"During the 1990s, 20 percent of
Koreans with U.S. doctorates did not go back to
Korea; 46.3 percent did not return in the early
2000s, and by 2005 the number had reached 68.8
percent."
Unfortunately, not all
graduates are able to find work in their fields.
This can be due to a variety of factors,
including a lack of American work experience.
The Welcoming Center spotlighted a related issue
in our report A
Match Made in Philadelphia, which described
immigrant professionals who struggle to find
jobs that are appropriate to their skills and
talents.
You can read the English
translation of the Korea Times article here.
The study itself has not been published in
English.
As immigration issues continue
to be hotly debated around the country, two
other recent studies examine the
sometimes-inflammatory topic of undocumented
immigration. Those who are interested in this
topic may find it useful to review one or both
of the below studies.
- Fear
and Loathing in Prime Time is an analysis of
cable television's role in spreading
misinformation about immigration issues.
- An
Essential Resource is an attempt to document
the economic impact of undocumented immigrants.
(Photo by Benedict Johnry.
Used with permission, via a Creative Commons
license).
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Celebrate World
Refugee Day, 2008  Philadelphia is one of
several cities across the U.S. currently
resettling and welcoming Iraqi refugees. Local
agencies, including the Nationalities
Services Center, are helping these new
Philadelphians get established by finding
housing and jobs, completing studies, boosting
English skills, and learning about daily life in
the City of Brotherly Love.
These
families are the human face of war -- people
whose lives have been turned upside down by the
violence of war. One in five Iraqis has been
displaced from their homes, making it the
largest refugee crisis in the Middle East since
1948. Among those being resettled are students,
professionals, shopkeepers, workers, and single
parent families.
On Saturday, June
21st from 10:00AM - 4:00PM, at Arch Street
Friends Meeting House (4th and Arch Streets),
Nationalities Service Center and the Iraq
Refugee Advisory Committee will host an event:
Welcoming Iraqi Families, Celebrating Iraqi
Culture in order to raise awareness of the
plight of Iraqi refugees and to raise funds for
Iraqis coming to Philadelphia this summer.
This is a wonderful opportunity to learn
more about Iraqis and their culture and hear
personal stories of Iraqi refugees here in
Philadelphia.
Come learn how you can get
involved! For more information please visit www.nscirac.blogspot.com
or call 215-426-0364.
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We recently read an
advertisement from the Free Library of
Philadelphia: 
Have you ever gotten
frustrated while filling out an immigration
form? Some people, especially those who do not
speak English as their first language, may find
these forms to be complicated and confusing. Now
is your chance to 
Did something in this
newsletter intrigue or inspire you? Please make
a donation.