(part 2) MassUndocuFund: One Year of Solidarity

A D D I T I O N A L I N F O R M A T I O N

THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS

ORGANIZATIONAL DONORS

Beacon Hill Friends Meeting

BlueHub Capital

Cleenland

Hancock United Church of Christ

Mass Redistribution

National Jobs with Justice

Oxfam America

Seven Hills PC Deacons

United Parish in Brookline, MA

Wilmington United Methodist Women

FOUNDATION DONORS

Beacon Hill Friends Meeting

BlueHub Capital

Center For Economic Democracy/Mass

Redistribution Fund

Cleenland

Combined Jewish Philanthropies/ Daughters Fund

Combined Jewish Philanthropies/ DEF Fund

Common Stream

The Four Leaf Clover Foundation

Gunderson Dettmer Charitable Gift Fund

Hancock United Church of Christ

DONOR-ADVISED FUNDS

Combined Jewish Philanthropies Donor

Advised Fund Recommended by Donna and David Frieze

Gunderson Dettmer Charitable Gift Fund

The John and Naomi Tomfohrde Foundation

National Jobs with Justice Worker

Solidarity Fund

Oxfam America

Samuel Rubin Foundation

Seven Hills PC Deacons

United Parish in Brookline

The Willam & Lia G Poorvu Family Foundation

Wilmington United Methodist women

And several foundation donors who choose to remain anonymous

DEMOGRAPHICS

DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF MASSACHUSETTS' IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY

Race

INTAKE PROCESS

SELECT INTAKE QUESTIONS

Some of the questions we asked recipients during the intake process, other than demographic questions, include:

How did you hear about MassUndocuFund?

How have you been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic? (e.g. loss of wages, laid off, food insecurity, etc.)

Are you currently employed? Or how long have you been out of work?

Industry Type/Job Title

How much is rent/mortgage per month?

Are you behind on rent/mortgage payments? If so, how many months behind?

How many people are in your household? (Adults and children)

Would you like to share your race/ethnicity and/or country of origin?

FOUNDING ORGANIZATIONS

Massachusetts Jobs With Justice

Lily Huang, Co-Executive Director

375 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

www.massjwj.net

Mass JwJ is a coalition of community, faith, and labor groups in Massachusetts organizing working people and allies to fight for the rights of all workers: locally, nationally, and internationally.

Matahari Women Workers’ Center

Monique Nguyen, Executive Director

96 Tremont Street, Boston, MA, 02120

www.mataharijustice.org

MataHari Women Workers Center is an organization where women of color, immigrant women, and families come together as sisters, workers, and survivors to make improvements in ourselves and society and work towards justice and human rights.

One Fair Wage

Yamila Ruiz, National High Road Director

45 Mt Auburn St, Cambridge, MA 02138

www.onefairwage.com

One Fair Wage is advancing policy, driving industry change, and shifting the narrative in order to ensure that all workers in America are paid at least the full minimum wage from their employers.

CONTRIBUTORS

MASSUNDOCUFUND TEAM ANALYST & WRITER

Yessenia Prodero

Yessenia is the immigrant rights organizer at Mass JwJ. She is the primary intake and project coordinator for MassUndocuFund. Originally from the Boston area, Yessenia returned here after graduate school to pursue work as a community organizer. She identifies as first-generation born in the US, and her family's roots are in Colombia. Yessenia has worked tirelessly over the last year to ensure that MassUndocuFund processes ran smoothly, that the staff and volunteers felt supported every step of the way, and that we always kept our eyes on the longer-term vision and goals of the project.

Juan Pablo Blanco

Juan Pablo is the MassUndocuFund admin and intake coordinator through Mass JwJ. He was a volunteer organizer for JwJ for five years before joining MassUndocuFund, and was hired shortly thereafter to assist in coordinating the Fund. Juan Pablo has been a restaurant worker for 15 years and knows first-hand the structural challenges immigrant workers are facing during the pandemic. Originally from Argentina, Juan Pablo was undocumented for 15 years and is part of mixed status family who deals with these challenges on a daily basis. Now living in Providence, Juan Pablo calls Mass JwJ his organizing home.

Ashley Tarbet DeStefano

Ashley is an activist-scholar and lifelong resident of Massachusetts. She is currently an M.S. candidate in Critical Ethnic and Community Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Ashley has worked alongside Mass JwJ for several years in various projects aimed at fighting for migrant justice, racial justice, and workers' rights and is a monthly sustainer. It is through her long-standing relationship with Mass JwJ organizers that Ashley had the honor to be invited to be part of MassUndocuFund as part of the training and tech team, working with volunteers, analyzing data, documenting the work of our team through a Movement Archive (bit.ly/maufarchive), and collaborating to write this report. Ashley continues her commitment working in solidarity towards a world without cages, borders, and an owning class, where all people care for one another and have the support and resources they need to thrive.

RESEARCH & WRITING ASSISTANTS COVER ARTIST

Natasha Robinson-Link

Natasha is a doctoral candidate in the Clinical-Community Psychology program at University of Maryland Baltimore County. She is currently interning with Mass JwJ to learn more about community-centered research and using her scholarship to contribute to social change Natasha’s contributions to the report include background research and writing.

María Muñoz Gimeno

María is a Sociology and Political Science student from the University of Valencia. She is currently working online from Valencia as an intern with Mass JwJ and MassUndocuFund. María’s contributions to the report include research and infographic design. She aims to keep training and gaining experience in the field of migration as she would like to contribute in solidarity towards a world where all humans have their needs covered.

Ariel DiOrio

Ariel is a Somerville-based artist, organizer, and educator who aims to engage community members around artmaking experiences for social movements. Her art practice is often collaborative and connects to specific campaigns around issues such as Palestinian liberation, racial justice, and prison abolition. She uses a multidisciplinary approach to help make activism more engaging and irresistibly beautiful. You can follow Ariel on Instagram at @rellymakes.

INTERVIEW PARTICIPANTS

For this report, we interviewed seven people who have contributed to MassUndocuFund, including staff, volunteers, and community partners. In addition to Yessenia Prodero and Juan Pablo Blanco, the people interviewed include:

Alex Galimberti

Alex is originally from Brazil and has been a community activist and worker organizer in Boston for many years. He volunteers and organizes with all three of the MassUndocuFund founding organizations. As a senior advisor for domestic programs at Oxfam America, Alex was able to steer some of the organization's covid relief funds to the MassUndocuFund project early on in order to legitimize the Fund in the eyes of more donors. Alex says, “I worked in restaurants for many years and worked with immigrants of all walks of life and feel very connected with that community. And as an activist, I support the cause of providing residency and a path to citizenship for all immigrants in the United States.”

Cristina Squeff

Cristina is a retired professional originally from Brazil but has “lived in this country for a long time.” She did not have any connection to organizations that founded MassUndocuFund before volunteering with the program. Prior to the COVID shut-

down of most businesses and service agencies in Massachusetts, Cristina was volunteering weekly at the Arnold Arboretum and for the Sisters of St. Joseph working with immigrants learning English and preparing for their citizenship tests.

Gloribel Rivas

Gloribel is a young professional and a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Boston currently working as a legislative aide at the State House for the largely immigrant community in East Boston. Originally from El Salvador, Gloribel grew up in East Boston where, as a high school student, she first connected with Mass JwJ through a workshop on social justice, history, and politics. Her family came undocumented to the US fleeing the Salvadoran civil war when she was 5 years old, but later gained status through NACARA.

Natalia DeRuzzio

Natalia lives in the primarily rural area of Berkshire County in the westernmost region of Massachusetts. She works for two community-based organizations in her community: Berkshire Community College, and the community health clinic Volunteers in Medicine (VIM). VIM provides “free, comprehensive health care for those in the Berkshire region who are income-qualified and uninsured or under-insured.” Natalia was born in Colombia and arrived to the US

12 years ago on a student visa. She is currently in the process of becoming a US citizen. As a MassUndocuFund community partner, Natalia coordinated over 350 intakes for VIM clients.

Nelly Medina

Nelly is the parent organizer for the Parents Union of Massachusetts (PUMA), a group under the umbrella of Mass JwJ who was a community partner for

MassUndocuFund. Nelly is a single mom of a strong, confident young son who has become the “‘ no justice, no peace’ child at all the rallies.” During the COVID pandemic, Nelly has been coordinating food donations and deliveries for over 100 immigrant and undocumented families in Worcester with school-aged children. With a small team of parents, she organized the intake process for over 200 Worcester households through MassUndocuFund.

END NOTES

1. U.S. Census Bureau. (2019). 2015-2019 ACS 5-year narrative profile. American Community Survey Narrative Profiles.

https://www.census.gov/acs/www/data/da ta-tables-and-tools/narrativeprofiles/ 2019/report.php?geotype=state&state=25

2 Pew Research Center (2019, June 12)

Unauthorized immigrant population trends for states, birth countries and regions. Pew Research Center Hispanic Trends.

https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/int eractives/unauthorized-trends/

3. Migration Policy Institute. (2018). Profile of the unauthorized populationMassachusetts, 2018. MPI Data Hub. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/data/una uthorized-immigrant-population/state/MA

4. Deloitte. (2019). Data USA: Massachusetts. Data USA. https://datausa. io/profile/geo/massachusetts

5. Migration Policy Institute. (2019). State immigration data profiles - Massachusetts. MPI Data Hub. https://www.migrationpolicy .org/data/state-profiles/state/demographi cs/MA

economy.org/map-the-impact/

8. Kerwin, D., Nicholson, M., Alulema, D., & Warren, R. (2020, May). US foreign-born essential workers by status and state, and the global pandemic. Center for Migration Studies. https://cmsny.org/publications/usessential-workers/

9. Schuster, L. & Mattos, T. (2020). A profile of frontline workers in Massachusetts. Boston Indicators. https://www.boston indicators.org/article-pages/2020/april/ frontline workers

10. Clark, E., Fredricks, K., Woc-Colburn, L., Bottazzi, M.E., & Weatherhead, J. (2020). Disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on immigrant communities in the United States. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 14(7).

11. McFarling, U.L. (2020 April 15). Fearing deportation, many immigrants at higher risk of Covid-19 are afraid to seek testing or care. Stat. https://www.statnews.com/ 2020/04/15/fearing-deportation-manyimmigrants-at-higher-risk-of-covid-19-areafraid-to-seek-testing-or-care/

6. Deloitte. (2019). Data USA: Massachusetts. Data USA. https://datausa. io/profile/geo/massachusetts

7. New American Economy. (2021). Map the impact of immigration: U.S. economic data & numbers [map]. New American Economy. https://data.newamerican

12. Branswell, H. (2019 August 26). Federal rules threaten to discourage undocumented immigrants from vaccinating children. Stat.

https://www.statnews.com/2019/08/26/fe deral-rules-threaten-to-discourageundocumented-immigrants-fromvaccinating-children/

13. See: American Immigration Council. (2020). Immigrants in Massachusetts. Retrieved March 17, 2021, from https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil. org/sites/default/files/research/immigrant s in massachusetts.pdf; and U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. (2020). Massachusetts economy at a glance. Retrieved March 17, 2021, from https://www.bls.gov/ regions/new-england/massachusetts. htm#eag

14. Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, 42 U.S.C. § 1305. (1996).

15. Gelatt, J., Capps, R., & Fix, M. (2021, January 15). Nearly 3 million U.S. citizens and legal immigrants initially excluded under the CARES Act are covered under the December 2020 COVID-19 Stimulus. Migration Policy Institute. https://www.mi grationpolicy.org/news/cares-actexcluded-citizens-immigrants-nowcovered

16. H.R. 748, Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, 116 Cong. (2020) (enacted). https://www.congress.gov/116/ bills/hr748/BILLS-116hr748eas.pdf

17. Gelatt, J., Capps, R., & Fix, M. (2021, January 15) Nearly 3 million U S citizens and legal immigrants initially excluded under the CARES Act are covered under the December 2020 COVID-19 Stimulus. Migration Policy Institute. https://www.mig rationpolicy.org/news/cares-act-excludedcitizens-immigrants-now-covered

and Liz Miranda file Immigrant Taxpayers Stimulus Act [Press release].

https://www.senatoreldridge.com/pressrelease-on-immigrant-stimulus-bill

19. Katzen, B. (2021, January 25). Beacon Hill roll call. Daily Hampshire Gazette. Retrieved March 17, 2021, from https://www.gazettenet.com/Beacon-Hillroll-call-38526117

20. Kolářová, M. (2006). Gender and globalisation: Labour changes in the global economy. Czech Sociological Review, 42(6).

21. This is a result of the interplay between influences of globalization and patriarchal gender roles, as well as the disproportionate increase in targeting male over female immigrants for deportation over the last 25 years.

See: Golash-Boza, T.M. (2015). Deported: Immigrant policing, disposable labor, and global capitalism. NYU Press; Gündüz, Z.Y. (2013). The feminization of migration: Care and the new emotional imperialism. Monthly Review, 65(7); and Kolářová, M. (2006). Gender and globalisation: Labour changes in the global economy. Czech Sociological Review, 42(6).

22. Gelatt, J., Batalova, J. & Capps, R. (2020 November) An early readout on the economic effects of the COVID-19 crisis: Immigrant women have the highest unemployment. Migration Policy Institute. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default /files/publications/COVID-19Unemployment-Women-FS-FINAL.pdf

18. Eldridge, J. (2020 April 26). Senator Eldridge and Representatives Ruth Balser

23. Yearby, R. & Mohapatra, S. (2020). Structural discrimination in COVID-19

workplace protections. Health Affairs Blog. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3614092

24. Scott, K. (2021). Women, work, and COVID-19: Priorities for supporting women and the economy. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. https://www.policy alternatives.ca/publications/reports/wome n-work-and-covid19

25. We acknowledge the limitations stemming from the inflexible and colonial categories used in the US census and other surveys from which demographic information is typically drawn. These types of data collection assign and limit categories into which respondents must bend and contort their complex and multidimensional identities for the sake of easy comparison. However, it is important to name that human identities often do not fit into these simultaneously narrow and broad categories without invisibilizing many. Therefore, we draw upon the information from these data sources while acknowledging that they are insufficient in representing the true diversity of racial, ethnic, tribal, gender, and national identities that would be included if these surveys allowed individuals to self-identify in these otherwise circumscribed categories.

26. U.S. Census Bureau. (2019). 2015-2019

ACS 5-year narrative profile. U.S. Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/acs/ www/data/data-tables-and-tools/narrative -profiles/2019/report.php?geotype=state& state=25

io/profile/geo/massachusetts

28. Ibid.

29. Ibid.

30. Migration Policy Institute. (2019). State immigration data profiles - Massachusetts. Retrieved March 17, 2021, from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/data/stat e-profiles/state/demographics/MA

31. Ibid.

32. Ibid.

27. Deloitte. (2019). Data USA: Massachusetts. Data USA. https://datausa.