CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Academics, activists and state officials will meet to consider issues affecting immigrants in the Midwest on March 17-18 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The dialogue will take place during a symposium on “Gender and Human Security: Latina/o Immigrants in the Midwest,” sponsored by the university’s Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program.
The symposium begins at 10 a.m. in 101 International Studies Building, 910 S. Fifth St., Champaign, with a lecture on “Microlending and Women: Domestic and Global Perspectives,” by Marisa Barrera of Acción, an international non-profit organization that fights poverty by providing entrepreneurs with small loans and business training. At 2 p.m., Katharine Donato, a professor of sociology at Rice University, will discuss “Sex Differences in Health of Immigrant Children.”
The keynote address will be presented at 4 p.m. on March 17 at the Levis Faculty Center, 919 W. Illinois St., Urbana, by Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, professor of sociology at the University of Southern California. Her talk, co-sponsored by the Center for Advanced Study/MillerComm Lecture Series, is titled “There’s a Spirit That Transcends the Border: Faith, Ritual and Postnational Protest at the U.S.-Mexico Border.”
The symposium continues on March 18 with panel discussions on “Income Security and Housing/Home” and “Health Care and Education,” beginning at 9 a.m. in Room 407, Illini Union, 1401 W. Green St., Urbana.
A complete schedule of events is available on the Web.
WGGP director Gaye Summerfield said the symposium has been organized to draw attention to “human security” issues associated with immigration, particularly those areas in which men and women – and their families – may be affected in different ways.
“By human security we mean people’s ability to have income security, access to health care, housing and education that enables them to develop their capabilities and live a life of dignity,” Summerfield said. “Thus, human security is ‘freedom from want, freedom from fear and freedom to take action on one’s own behalf.’ “
At Illinois, Summerfield is part of a team of multidisciplinary researchers examining how these issues affect Latino and Asian immigrant populations in the Midwest, particularly in Illinois. According to Summerfield, the researchers are breaking new ground.
“Despite so-called studies of immigrant populations, we know relatively little about gender issues,” she said. “People doing studies of immigrants in the Midwest usually don’t look at gender,”
“Our project focuses on Illinois, which is the fifth largest recipient state for immigrants and by far the largest destination in the Midwest,” Summerfield said. “Immigrants make up about 13-15 percent of the population in Illinois. Most come from Latin America, particularly Mexico. In Illinois women make up 45 percent of the Latino immigrants and 51 percent of Asian immigrants, and yet in most studies of the Midwest, they are invisible.”
