Mano en Mano - February 2, 2017

West Bay Rotary - February 2, 2017

 

Immigrants & Farmworkers in Downeast Maine

Mano en Mano

 

Ian Yaffe – Director

Founded in 2005 in Milbridge, ME

 

Goals from Mano en Mano's 2017-2020 Strategic Plan:

1. Support immigration in Downeast Maine.

2. Ensure access to language services and increase affordable housing.

3. Increase educational and economic opportunity.

4. Foster community leadership, social justice, and equity.

5. Build organizational and financial capacity to achieve Mano en Mano’s goals

Communities Served

Mano en Mano serves the communities of Milbridge and greater Washington County including this residential population of former migrant farmworkers and their families.

​Seasonally - workers enter the community to do the following agricultural work.

Blueberries

Broccoli

Seafood processing

Tipping/wreaths

 

83% latino

4% white

4% Native American

2% Asian

 

Consider this community to be their permanent home.

45% from Mexico

43% from the US

 

$15-25,000 – household income bracket – live at or below the poverty line.

Has been solid economic growth in the last 5 years

 

Starting in the early 1990’s the town of Milbridge experienced a rapid influx of migrant farmworkers who decided to leave the “migrant stream” and settle in Downeast Maine. For many families, a lack of available and affordable housing limits one's ability to put down roots in the area. Mano en Mano worked to build Hand in Hand Apartments to address this need.

 

Provide access to essential services

Interpretation

Job search

Medical services

Referrals to other organizations – food pantries, etc.

 

Do not provide direct assistance beyond the housing assistance.

We match folks with the systems & services that exist.

 

2 barriers – language barriers & cultural barrier

 

Access to essential services was not enough on its own

Voice in the community

Community Workshops

Voting rights

Men's health

 

Largest program

Maine Department of Ed

Migrant education statewide

 

300 migrant children statewide

Provide support & instructional services

 

Increases significantly in the summer – during the blueberry harvest

 

Some national data on the role immigrants in the community – there wasn’t anything specific to rural Maine.  They partnered with Colby to design & develop and econ impact study – collected over 255 data points from over 80 households.  Colby is crunching the data

 

Direct & econ impact & direct jobs supported.

 

How do you multiply this data out to some representative samples.

 

1.5 million in direct & indirect econ activity

There isn’t a solution to the workforce issue in Maine

 

Maine is not a destination state from people moving within the US

Immigrants may be the only answer for rural Maine

Important piece of our economic strategy.

 

Q&A

Are there groups around here that you help?

Some of the blueberry workers here in the Midcoast

Also work with the state on the migrant education – have to be under 22

 

There’s no easy transition from a temporary visa to a more permanent status

 

Has the move toward mechanical harvesting

Piece rate went up recently – increased pay because hand crews in very difficult terrain.

Don’t have the opportunity to gather as many boxes

550-750 here for the blueberry harvest

 

How many new immigrants are you seeing per year?

A couple of families per year – not something where there is a lot of fluctuation in/out

 

Finding a way to help people transition into housing is pretty difficult

 

What are the families telling you?

What’s the attraction? How can we leverage

Economic opportunity – not just Mexico

Like that it’s a small town, its safe, schools good & the community is welcoming and there are services available.  There is an anchor employer – seafood processing

 

How much integration is there with the community?

Schools are 25-30% latino

 

How did the community respond to the influx in immigrants?

The town was pretty proactive about it.  The community needed to figure out how to communicate with each other.  A lot of benefit for the community to having stable population.  Overall it has been a pretty welcoming community.