Blogs

The Welcoming Massachusetts Week of Action is coming up! It is from October 12-19 and we have heard about plans shaping up in Pittsfield, Worcester, Fitchburg, Brockton, Cambridge, Revere and Chelsea! For ideas on how YOU can get involved with the week of action, please see the toolkit on the resources page.

In a meeting with Centro Presente, SCC and Welcome Project leaders yesterday, Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone enthusiastically endorsed the Welcoming Massachusetts campaign. Mayor Curtatone, whose leadership saw the city of Somerville declared as the “best run city in Massachusetts” by Boston Globe Magazine, is also the President of the Conference of Mayors. He plans to encourage his fellow mayors to endorse the Welcoming Massachusetts initiative in the next September meeting.  read more »

On Monday, August 11, 2008, the Arlington Board of Selectmen endorsed the Welcoming MA pledge unanimously and enthusiastically. Their interest in having Arlington be a welcoming community was clear. There are also plans for the board to pass the pledge in resolution form.

This is great news! Thanks to Susan Lees of United for Justice and Peace for the update and all of the groups in Arlington for their hard and wonderful work!

Food for Thought Books and
Western MA Coalition for Immigrant & Worker Rights present:

DETAINED: THE NEW BEDFORD IMMIGRATION RAID
A film by Jenny Alexander

 read more »

The Center for New Americans is holding their Third Annual Four on the Fourth Road Race on Friday, July 4 at 8:30 am. The four mile course tours downtown Northampton. Early registrants will receive a t-shirt.

All proceeds will benefit CNA's free educational programs for immigrants and refugees in the Pioneer Valley.  read more »

The Western MA Coalition for Immigrant and Worker Rights has been fortunate to connect with Food for Thought Books, a worker-owned collective in Amherst, which has been holding a monthly Films for Thought series open to the public. Last Wednesday, June 11th, we teamed up with Food for Thought's Javiera Benavente and Casa Latina's Edgar Cancel to screen Morristown: In the Air and Sun and hold a conversation about the issues of immigration, labor, ethnicity and economics brought up in the film.  read more »

Out here in Western Massachusetts (yes, there is more to this state than the greater Boston metropolitan area), we have a problem. It is transportation. Or rather, lack of public transportation.  read more »

I received an email from the Coalition of Irish Immigration Centers detailing the TSA's preferred type of travel documentation.

Airtravel

Beginning on May 26, 2008, adult passengers (over the age of 18) will be required to show a U.S. federal or state-issued photo ID that contains the following: name, date of birth, gender, expiration date and a tamper-resistant feature. These IDs include:  read more »

Last Wednesday was my final day at the Boston-based Irish Immigration Center (IIC) and it was more sentimental than what I had expected. Here I am, on a short vacation at home and the only topic I want to write about for my first (ever!) blog post was about the IIC.  read more »

As I sat down to my morning coffee, I finally accepted the fact that I need to catch up with my news. What I read made me want to scrap the coffee and go back to bed.  read more »