HYANNIS – An immigrant forum, hosted by the Barnstable Democratic Town Committee, was held at the Barnstable Senior Center on Wednesday night.
The forum, titled “Immigrants On the Cape and Islands: Their Journeys, Contributions and Our Shared Future” included a panel and question and answer session.
“We are part of America, this is who we are,” said Fozia Ahmed, who was a member of the panel and is a Pakistani native. “We’ve always been here and we’re not going away. We’re hoping that people can acknowledge that and can understand that this is what makes America beautiful.”
Panelists also included Collin Mickle from the Immigration Resource Center, Liza Ryan with the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition and Brazilian native Carlos Barboza.
Dr. Munir Ahmed, a Pakistani native who works for Emerald Physicians, said that the he feels that there is a lot of hostility towards immigrants and he hopes that it goes away.
“Racism is more, as far as what’s going on in the country,” said Admed. “We need to take that away.”
Mickle, who has led the Immigration Resource Center since it’s inception last September, said that he wants the Cape and Islands to be a comfortable place for immigrants.
“What we strive to do in our work and all of our work in this community, is make our community a safer place, a better place for our immigrant communities,” said Mickle.
The event was free and open to everyone regardless of political party affiliation.
By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com Newscenter
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