Similar to articles 23-27 of the UDHR, articles 25-31 of the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families specify equal access by immigrants to educational, vocational & health/social services and equality of living and working conditions and employment contracts.
Beginning in 2007, Professor Majka has involved students in his immigration classes in research on the challenges and obstacles immigrants and refugees in the Dayton area experience relevant for those areas specified by the Convention. Joined by students in Professor Linda Majka classes, students arranged and conducted interviews with representatives of Dayton-area immigrant and refugee communities and with staff of human service agencies who work with these communities. Students also helped organize and observed focus groups of specific populations. Students in Professor Hallett’s Anthropology of Human Rights class participated in the latest research beginning in 2017.
In this presentation, we will describe two outcomes of student engagement.
One is the impact on the students themselves. All described their participation as genuine learning experiences. Besides putting human faces on class materials, some described it as transformative. Interviewing prepared several for travel to the countries of origin of some interviewees, e.g. Mexico and El Salvador. Some found their experiences useful for post-graduate plans, e.g. volunteering, law school and MSW programs. Others made public presentations. The interviews have provided the basis of several senior research projects and honors theses. We will provides quotes from students’ reflections.
The second is the impact on the larger community. The research findings have resulted in 4 conferences (2008, 2009, 2012 and 2019) that brought together Dayton-area residents, including many leaders and elected officials, with leaders of immigrant and refugee communities. The first two conferences helped provide the momentum that resulted in the 2011 Welcome Dayton initiative
