Immigrants find job search
By Susan Kreifels
in Hawaii tougher now
Star-BulletinWhen Delta Repunte immigrated here from the Philippines in 1985, she turned down her first job offer because transportation was difficult. No problem, another offer was waiting.
Even in 1993, when Luu Pham came from Vietnam, he and his four brothers were able to find jobs. And government assistance to help get the family started was more generous.
But Repunte and Pham, both caseworkers at the Immigrant Center, agree that today it's much tougher for immigrants arriving in Hawaii.
They face a double-whammy: The state's poor economy makes even service jobs more scarce, and legislation passed by Congress has cut welfare benefits and toughened immigration policies.
"Before, when immigrants arrived, it wasn't hard like now," said Gloria Vergabera, who works with the center's Innovative Employment Training program.
She noted that fewer immigrants relied on welfare in 1984 when she arrived from the Philippines. "If there are no programs, they now ask: 'What will happen to us?' "
The Immigrant Center, celebrating its 25th anniversary next month, faces new challenges in serving about 6,000 immigrants and low-income residents a year.
The center's executive director, Tin Myaing Thein, said the center is moving more toward economic development and self-employment programs through job training and microbusiness loans. The Immigrant Center has been the state's only designated lender through the Small Business Administration since 1993. Last fiscal year, it made 109 loans totaling $565,000 and it hopes to increase that amount.
In February, the center was designated a community development financial institution by the U.S. Treasury Department.
"These people are risk-takers," Thein said. "But economic development won't work without social services."
Noting that the "well is dry" in state funding, she said the nonprofit center, supported by state and federal money and private donations, for the first time may have to start fund raising. Already it has cut its after-school Immigrant Youth Program and the number of caseworkers who visit schools, which worries the director, who fears some immigrant youths will join gangs.
The center also is changing its name on Sept. 9, the anniversary date, to the Pacific Gateway Center of Hawaii, reflecting its broader mission. One-third of its clients are low-income U.S. citizens.
Immigrants confuse the current name with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, a bureaucracy they fear.
The new name symbolizes "a new beginning" for immigrants and local poor, Thein said, "like getting off welfare."
She said federal legislation that cut welfare benefits to immigrants and toughened up other policies, as well as a rise in mainland hate crimes against immigrants, have made newcomers' lives more difficult.
At the same time, getting citizenship has become harder: There's now a two-year wait once applications are made, and fees have doubled to $250 this year, she said.
On the other hand, anti-immigrant moves have triggered a backlash, with the development of more immigrant advocacy groups that see such attitudes as unfair and unhealthy for the country, she said.
