—Hello Meg! Thank you for agreeing to talk to me today. First of all, let me thank you for being the first person who offered to share her valuable resources for new immigrants and refugees with the Immigrant Platform community! 

Could you please introduce yourself to the people who do not know you yet?

—Sure! So my name is Meg Eubank. I have been working with immigrants for about 10 years, maybe more...I was an elementary school teacher first, and I worked with some immigrant students then. And then I ended working at a local community college as an ESL Tutor. There I really fell in love with working with people learning different languages. They were learning English, and coming from the different cultures. So I went back to school and got my degree in ESL. And then I worked in nonprofits for awhile, where we were running ESL classes. So I have been teaching ESL for over a decade at this point. And currently I am teaching it at a High School as well. I think, it is one of those things that makes me fell like as if I am traveling around the world without going anywhere. I get to meet people from all over the place, and it’s a great way to connect with them. I found out that, although we are all different, we are also all the same. And it really connects us all!

 —It sounds like you really enjoy what you do, and it’s great! In your opinion, what are the major challenges new immigrants and refugees face when coming to live to the United States?

—Well, I think language is a really big one [big challenge]. Language is a key to being able to do a lot of other things. And like you said, how you felt lonely and isolated. I think, that is another big problem—not having a community. If you do not know a lot of people, and do not know the resources, or nowhere to look for things—that’s really hard! And so I know, from my personal experience, even when you move to a new town, even if it’s in your own country, and you know the language, but you don’t know where to find things, and you don’t know who to hire for stuff or where to go or who to talk to...And I can’t imagine doing that within an entirely new culture, and language, and having to start everything all over. It such a huge thing!

—Very true! How could we help immigrants adjust to their new lives?

—I think finding those places where there are communities in place is important. So like, on your website you have all of this information, you are trying to help people connecting them to all the resources that they need. That is like acentral resource hub, where people can go and get what they are looking for. It’s so important! And I think also, connecting them to the people that they need. I saw that you have lots of nonprofits based in Philadelphia listed, like the Welcoming Center, the Nationalities Service Center, places like that help create community and connect people to other people who can help them and support them.

—Yes, absolutely! It my mind, we are ALL immigrants here, except for the Native American Indians. I wonder, where did your ancestors come from?

—My family is fromIreland and from a lot of other UK regions. They came over as refugees from the Potato Famine [a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852]. I know that when my family came over, they were starting from scratch too, and trying to figure out where to go, what to do. They didn’t have a lot of resources, so I can only imagine what that was like for them. It must have been really hard. 

—You know what? I was thinking about the immigrant identity crisis. I mean, how to preserve your traditions and culture while getting integrated into the American society? Is it possible?

—Yeah...I mean, I don’t have an answer for it. I do think it’s very important to preserve the balance. The thing that makes America really strong is that people coming here are from all over the world, and they bring all these differences to the table. I think, it’s a cool thing that we are in a really diverse country, where we meet people from different backgrounds, and different cultures, traditions, and religions. And we share that with each other. I think sharing more perspectives only makes something healthier and stronger. I think it’s important to hold on to those things. But it’s vital to also meet other people and be open-minded to their experiences as well. I know that for some people it’s really easy to just stay in “a little bubble”. If you find other people who speak your native language, you might think: “Ok, I can drop in this grocery store, because they speak my language there and they sell foods I am familiar with, and so on”. You know, it’s easy to do that. But then your world becomes really small! And if you try to “travel” outside of it, you are stuck, because you simply don’t know English. And then, there are some people, especially the younger generation, who become so caught up in trying to be American, that they are not practicing their home language, so they end up losing it. In my experience, these people have said that they regretted it later on. They wished they kept their mother tongue. They say: “I spoke it [native language] so well, now I forgot everything, because I never practiced it!”.

—You are describing the situation with my elder daughter! When we arrived here she was four, and she didn’t know a word in English. She spoke Ukrainian and Russian. Now, I can hardly make speak any of them. It’s simply easier for her to communicate in English.

—Yeah, I know. It happens a lot like that with kids-immigrants. If you can get her to practice Ukrainian or Russian, it’s good! 

—That is one of the reasons why I send her over to Ukraine for summer break. There she has no choice but to speak Ukrainian or Russian. Anyway, are you currently involved with any nonprofit organization?

—Yes, right now I volunteer with a group calledImmigrant Rights Action. I was one of the founding members of the group. At that time I was running another nonprofit. A lot of immigrants from our local community had a sense of fear, regardless of what peoples’ status was. There was a lot of fear and confusion navigating immigration system: how it works and how to get citizenship, and how to work through the process. And I had spoken on some sort of panel discussion, I met some other people during this discussion. And then the very next day, the was an ICE raid [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]. They arrested a bunch of immigrants and deported them. Someone called up somebody else on the panel, and said: “We need a group for this!” And it was like: “ We actually do have the group already! We have a lot of people here, we just need to unify it”. So they created the group called Immigrant Rights Action. It’s an advocacy and a legal aid group. They run workshops on how to gain your citizenship, how to go through the immigration system, they do visits. I mean, they would take you to different USCIS visits. If you are an immigrant living up in the Bucks County and you have to travel to the Center City Philadelphia to go to the immigration office for filing paperwork and stuff like that, it’s super confusing. You are trying to figure out how to get around in a different country where you have never been, and then find this office...and then do all this paperwork... It’s super confusing and scary. People from the Immigrants Rights Action will either ride the train with you and then  help you figure things out, or will be giving you a ride down to the City. They also connect immigrants with lawyers.

—How can immigrants and refugees get in touch with the Immigrant Rights Action nonprofit and start receiving some help?

Just go to the website www.immigrantrightsaction.org and contact them. The woman who is an Executive Director is bilingual. She speaks English and Spanish. They also have connections to people who speak other languages. Seek help if you need it!