Celebrating Immigration, Citizenship and Belonging

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On Tuesday, April 4, UMass Amherst and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences hosted a naturalization ceremony in Bowker Auditorium in coordination with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Approximately 200 new United States citizens were naturalized at the ceremony. Speakers included SBS Dean R. Karl Rethemeyer, U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, State Rep. Mindy Domb, UMass President Marty Meehan and UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy.

The naturalization ceremony served as the centerpiece of “Immigration, Citizenship and Belonging: Two Days of Discussion, Debate and Celebration.” On Monday, April 3, the series opened with author and NYU journalism professor Suketu Mehta's lecture about how we tell the "true stories" of immigration, "The Global War of Storytelling: How Can We Tell Better Stories?" Afterwards, Mehta lead a discussion of his award-winning book, This Land is Our Land: An Immigrant's Manifesto, which was the topic of an SBS Community Read. Mehta's book draws from his "experience as an Indian-born teenager growing up in New York City and on years of reporting around the world, Mehta subjects the worldwide anti-immigrant backlash to withering scrutiny. As he explains, the West is being destroyed not by immigrants, but by the fear of immigrants." 

Monday afternoon featured a panel discussion on immigration and citizenship with SBS faculty Lynnette Arnold (Anthropology), Tania DoCarmo (Legal Studies), Ina Ganguli (Economics), and Raz Sibii (Journalism). The panelists discussed their research and writing on topics such as immigration myths, family and migration, and the criminalization of migration, discussing how their research informs current policy debates on immigration and what they see as the biggest challenges facing the U.S. immigration system.

The evening concluded with an exhibition of the Fotodiásporas project, which seeks to broaden our understanding of forced cross-border migration due to the Colombian armed conflict, the longest in the Americas. It does so through the eyes and voices of 15 Colombian men and women who were forced to leave the country and start a new life in the United States, one of the largest receiving countries for Colombian migrants. The project is based on the use of photo-voice, an action-research method that uses photographic and narrative composition as a form of community research and expression.

On April 4th, following the naturalization ceremony, the event series continued with a presentation of the Our Immigrant Voices Project Exhibition, part of the Building Bridges Showcase at the Bromery Center for the Arts, a project which amplifies the voices and visibility of immigrant workers on campus.

The series closed with a multimedia jazz performance of "The New Immigrant Experience: Music Inspired by Conversations with Dreamers" by composer Felipe Salles, UMass professor of jazz and African American music studies, and his Interconnections ensemble. This award-winning piece is built upon melodies drawn from spoken word interviews with “Dreamers” – undocumented immigrants protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy.