Twentieth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

This paper focuses on the recent history and current situation of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers from Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East in a mid-size college town in the American Midwest. Champaign-Urbana, home of the University of Illinois, is one of the main destinations of newcomers to Illinois after Chicago. Co-presenter Jean-Philippe Mathy has worked with French-speaking immigrants, refugees, and college students from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries for several years. In the first half of the presentation, he addresses the historical reasons for the presence of a large immigrant population locally, the number of volunteer associations, NGOs, churches, and government agencies designed to bring aid to the newcomers, and the various challenges faced by both immigrant communities and local support structures. In the second half of the talk, co-presenter Eileen Mathy, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist who answers the needs of a linguistically, culturally, and religiously diverse population, will center her remarks on the social and psychological “accompaniment” of refugees and asylum seekers as they try to find work, understand U.S. laws, face current challenges from the federal government and the Trump administration, raise their families, and build a new life in another country.