Minibabble: Two sides to every immigration story

Posted on by suki
The Babblery
The Babblery
Minibabble: Two sides to every immigration story
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Feminist journalist Dr. Peggy Antrobus worked in the Jamaican government and now lives and works in Barbados. American CEO Sharon Sewell-Fairman is an immigrant from Jamaica. They spoke to The Babblery separately, but their stories intertwine to form a story of immigration from two sides. What are the post-colonial conditions that created the will to emigrate? What are the experiences that draw immigrants to America and keep them here? What tools do they need to thrive?

Click here to read reflections on making this episode by Suki Wessling.

The song “Together” by Hollie Cook is courtesy of the FreeMusicArchive.org

[Click for transcript]

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Minibabble: Two sides to every immigration story
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[00:00:31] Voiceover: This is your host, Suki Wessling. In the past few months, I have interviewed two women with roots in Jamaica. Dr. Peggy Antrobus is a 90-year-old feminist who served in the Jamaican government as a young woman and has lived and worked more recently in Barbados. Sharon Sewell Fairman is the CEO of a New York City nonprofit who immigrated from Jamaica as a child.

[00:00:53] Peggy has spent her life working to improve the prospects of Caribbean peoples. Sharon’s family left the Caribbean for the opportunities that a life in America presents. When I thought of the two interviews together, they spoke to the two sides of immigration, the policies that continue to repress development of a sustainable system for small nations and the I Repressible drive that people have to move towards safety and prosperity.

[00:01:19] Let’s start with Peggy’s explanation of what she calls a history of colonialism, imperialism, and extractivism, the history of larger powers making decisions for, but not for the benefit of small Caribbean nations.

[00:01:33] Peggy Antrobus: My background is really in, in, in the Caribbean and development and, um, wanted to do some, to contribute some way to Caribbean development. From that generation on the eve of independence, you know, so we’re all fired up and wanting to contribute. So this is the reason I chose to reach an economics degree and I got a scholarship to university, the British University.

[00:01:59] I read for economics and, um, because I thought that would help me to contribute. And then I found out that that economics degree at a university in Britain did not help me understand Caribbean economies because they’re based on a whole different set of theories and assumptions. They don’t take account of colonial relations, right?

[00:02:20] So in the seventies was a time when a lot of the newly independent countries of of Africa and the Caribbean were coming into their own and finding membership in the United Nations. And, um, they found a voice. They had an international platform, and there was a movement. And the movement was speaking with one voice.

[00:02:41] Our struggle was just to get some justice for our countries, you know, opportunities to build education and healthcare for everybody. Literacy, you know, build up agriculture, build up some industries, just to get our countries on some kind of a footing for socioeconomic development. And then we were find- in the seventies, we were finding we’re up against these structures. So the behind that whole call for new international economic order was actually about trade.

[00:03:13] Then somehow in the 1980s, you know, with the rise of Reagan and Thatcher, all of that was lost in 1980 84 in the Caribbean. Our, our leaders all embraced this new so-called Washington Consensus, and in doing that, they basically abandoned what they came out of colonialism to do, which is to promote broad based socioeconomic development. Meaning a kind of development that prioritizes or understands that education and health and sanitation and housing are all the foundation for economic growth. In which everybody, every, every person a chance to survive and thrive.

[00:03:58] What that system has led to, a few things. First of all, quite, quite apart from the climate crisis, which has led directly to that because it, it has facilitated the kind of growth, economic growth. It has facilitated extractivism. And the kind of economic growth that has really led to the climate crisis. There’s no question about that. But it has also led to increasing inequality and the continuation of dependence. It has led to continuation of the same colonial relations that we were supposed to have ended.

[00:04:34] Voiceover: Peggy says that this new world order was set up to extract from the smaller dependent nations rather than build them up. And that’s the backdrop for the decision by Sharon Sewell, Ferman’s family to immigrate from Jamaica. She arrived in the United States as a child brought over by a grandmother and mother who wanted to give her a better life.

[00:04:51] Sharon Sewell Fairman: My role model was my grandmother, um, who was a trailblazer to to come to the United States. Then she sent for my mother. And so, and then I joined later. So my early years were, really growing up with a, with a great aunt, uh, with a supportive group of, of women who were my teachers and, and counselors.

[00:05:17] Voiceover: Sharon’s grandmother was a nanny in New York City. She and Sharon’s mother worked hard in their jobs and also to instill in Sharon an ethic common to immigrants.

[00:05:26] Sharon Sewell Fairman: I didn’t grow up in a, in a society that was heavily focused on racism, it was focused on, pretty much, in a sense, your economic status. So it, uh, I always make a joke and said, um, growing up, as a young girl, you were taught to either, uh, marry rich or marry at least one status above where we currently were or, uh, focus on education, right? And so, uh, that was instilled in me at a very young age. So education became a very important, asset, if I may say that in my life.

[00:06:11] Voiceover: Every study of immigrants in the United States has told the same story. Immigrants are largely strivers who add to our economy. They value education and especially generational advances as they use the advantages given to them by the American system. They commit fewer crimes, they pay taxes and provide labor that is difficult, if not downright impossible to replace with native born workers.

[00:06:35] . Here’s Sharon Sewell Ferman speaking about the values that took one family from the working class to sitting at the head of a New York City boardroom, a generation later.

[00:06:44] Sharon Sewell Fairman: My grandmother was very committed to her family, so she never left, uh, anyone behind.

[00:06:50] And so she was willing to, to take the risk, uh, come to a new country and the minute that she was able to work and, uh, gather enough resources she sent, for her children, uh, and then ultimately, encourage my mother to, to send for me as well.

[00:07:06] I was 11 years old, so I was just at a turning point in my life. When I arrived in the United States, I settled in Brooklyn with my mother. I did attend, junior high school and high school in Brooklyn, and I had to adapt to a new society, of course.

[00:07:26] But because my education was very strong, um, I, I felt I had a very strong foundation in Jamaica, I was able to do well, in high school. I wanted to become an accountant. Uh, went to SUNY Albany, decided that math was just too much for me. And so ended up taking an internship, doing an internship to really expose me to the world of accounting and, and, and really doing a company’s books. It turned out that that internship changed my entire career trajectory.

[00:08:04] I ended up, being placed, at, NYATEP, which is, uh, the New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals. Um, it’s a membership organization focused on advocating and educating organizations that provide job training services.

[00:08:21] Voiceover: In the middle of what seemed like a straightforward career trajectory, Sharon’s life was changed by a force that reshaped the future of New York City.

[00:08:30] Sharon Sewell Fairman: I recalled sitting at my, um, dining room table like I am now, and I was looking at the television three weeks into the pandemic. And what I saw on the television was lines and lines andlines wrapped around city blocks of women, primarily women on food lines, trying to to feed their family three weeks into a pandemic. And I said to myself, I looked up and I said, I’ve been in workforce development for 20, 25 plus years and it’s really disheartening to see that women do not have the resources or, you know, or the economic means to be able to provide for themselves just three weeks into a pandemic.

[00:09:32] Voiceover: Sharon made a leap. She took a job as CEO and President of Women Creating Change, a New York City nonprofit.

[00:09:39] Sharon Sewell Fairman: I saw it as an opportunity for more women to be able to, affect policy, affect changes in their local community so that they can advocate for themselves, they can advocate for their families, drive changes for their families and ultimately, their local community.

[00:10:00] Voiceover: Back in Barbados, Peggy Antrobus spoke of the deep longstanding relationship between the Caribbean and the United States. She points out that Caribbean immigrants contributed value to the American economy, while at the same time sending money, remittances, back to nations whose dependence on the big players was engineered from the start.

[00:10:20] Peggy Antrobus: Caribbeans always had deep roots in America. Deep, deep roots, you know, so it’s part of our, I mean, our diaspora is there.

[00:10:28] I mean, we all have family there. I have a daughter, grandchildren, all have family there. So we are so deeply connected. One of my real fears about the collapse of the US economy is what will happen to the remittances. I mean, there’s whole communities in the Caribbean that depend on those remittances. You know, people that go to the United States and work hard and send money home to their family. They do all sorts of menial things. I mean, they all sort of terrible, terrible work so that they can send money to their, their children and their families and, um, that’s how their families survive.

[00:11:08] Voiceover: Peggy Anbu sees a deep relationship between the United States and the Caribbean that is now threatened again in a much larger way by the current administration’s restrictions on immigration, especially from places where the majority of residents’ skin is not white

[00:11:24] Peggy Antrobus: I think anybody who’s thinking of going to the United States now is crazy. Quite apart from the fact that I’m too old to travel, but if I were younger, I wouldn’t be, I would not be going there now, least of all to migrate. You’d be, you’d have to be mad to even think about it.

[00:11:40] Voiceover: Back in the US, Sharon Sewell Fairman heads a nonprofit that aims to help the immigrants that are here use their voices, their participation, and when they have them, their votes to influence policy, in the case of Women Creating Change, at the local level. She speaks of the research they did in order to understand what kind of support the communities they serve need.

[00:12:00] Sharon Sewell Fairman: What we found, uh, research found that 33% of Americans don’t even understand the three branches of government. Um, and so there’s a lack of education and in a city like New York City, where the population is comprised of at least, more than 50% immigrants, it’s important to be able to, uh, help women just understand, uh, the process.

[00:12:27] So yes, there’s some concerns I think even prior to, uh, the election. And I think what we saw in election and what we’re seeing, in talking to our, you know, our target audience is that, there is apathy when it comes to voting, because I think, especially in underserved communities, often I, I think they see voting as, that their voice is not being heard. That going to the ballot box does not work, especially if folks are, are trying to, just provide for their basic needs, right? So I, I do think, we’re seeing when it comes to civic engagement, there’s, uh, there’s apathy, uh, there’s concern.

[00:13:17] However, what we’re also seeing is a need for educating, individuals, educating women around in a in-depth way, what does, um, government look like? How decisions are made, and, uh, help individuals to see that their vote makes a difference. And by not voting, what that impact looks like, or what the opportunities look as well.

[00:13:48] Voiceover: As an immigrant, Sharon sees a very different landscape for more recent migrants to the us.

[00:13:54] Sharon Sewell Fairman: There are hundreds, dare I say, thousands of nonprofit organizations that serve immigrants, that serve different cultures. And so, there is concern about lack of funding to be able to support individuals’, just, uh, basic needs, right? You know, food, housing, um, healthcare. And so there is concerns, about the impact of the federal government’s, uh, cuts to communities, especially, you know, underserved communities, um, immigrant communities.

[00:14:36] Voiceover: These cuts, it’s clear, will not only hurt the immigrants who are here. It will hurt the American economy, the economies of the other dependent nations, as well as the families back home. But Sharon Sewell Fairman is optimistic that especially when it feels like we’re going backward, committed efforts to move forward are necessary.

[00:14:55] Sharon Sewell Fairman: That’s really, really important that there’s a sense of what can we do? Again, does our voice count? But essentially it is simply just taking a small step, whether it is voting, whether it is writing to your local Congress person or visiting them or have them come to visit your community, it makes a difference. Because if one person does something and another person does something, then the collective efforts of everyone who takes action, catalyzes change.

[00:15:35] Voiceover: Peggy Antrobus says that she’s concerned for the youth of the Caribbean nations already lacking work in countries that have suffered extractive practices rather than the development they needed in order to function independently.

[00:15:47] And though she had plenty of critiques of the post-colonial extractive system that she worked to raise awareness of, Peggy looks at history as a guide to a brighter future.

[00:15:56] Peggy Antrobus: Again, this is where I’m drawing on my roots now. I mean, I, my ancestors went through slavery. You know, when you read about that, you wonder how anybody ever survived. How did anybody ever survive that? Well, and now again, I know how they survived women, women’s love. That’s it. Historians don’t write about that.

[00:16:22] Voiceover: Thanks to Peggy and Sharon for sharing their experiences. You can access my full interview with Sharon Sewell Fairman @babblery.com. That’s B-A-B-B-L-E-R y.com. Find my interviews with Peggy Antrobus on WINGSradio.org.

[00:16:50] The song together by Holly Cook is courtesy of the free music archive.org. Thanks for listening.

 

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