Oshkosh is one of the refugee resettlement cities in the Fox Valley Region, and many immigrants and newcomers come through our door. Still, many misconceptions and myths about immigrants and the complex US immigration system remain.
To offer guidance and foster community conversations on this topic, WALC will be hosting monthly learning circles focused on all things immigration-related starting February 2025. The activities we will engage in these learning circles will range from teach-ins by invited speakers to facilitated group discussions moderated by our Executive Director Dr. Chu May Paing.
Targeted audience: WALC staff, teachers, and volunteers, Community members with interest in learning more about immigration and immigrants, Community advocates who want to expand their knowledge about different immigrant cultures and to better develop cultural sensitivity when interacting with people from diverse backgrounds
The March Immigration Learning Circle is Social Work 101 with Meri Kelm Lubinsky from Aurora Health. Although WALC is primarily an educational organization, many of our volunteers, staff, and teachers have inevitably have to take on the role of a social worker when helping our learners with a variety of needs, including, understand their mail, taking them to doctor’s appointments, and more. Meri Kelm Lubinsky will present on what social work involves and what those of us who might have to stepped into that role without proper training should know. Meri is the medical social worker at Aurora Health in Oshkosh and works with many refugee community members in a healthcare setting.
In April, the Immigration Learning Circle will focus on The History of the Border with Dr. Juan Garcia Oyervides and students from the UWO Latino Studies Program. This workshop introduces historical changes in the political and cultural landscape of the territories that make up the border of Mexico and the United States and invites further reflection about the ways in which these changes have affected the ways in which we think about immigration today.
The May Immigration Learning Circle will feature Dr. Pam Her sharing her story, Bridging Two Worlds – Forging an Identity. The Hmong have been in the United States for 50 years and yet to many, they are still the best kept secret of the Vietnam War. Dr. Pafoua (Pam) Her was part of the earliest Hmong families that resettled in the United State as political refugees after the Vietnam War. She arrived with her family in 1976 and while many have considered her family as one of the fortunate ones that did not have to endure the lengthy trials and tragedies in Laos and Thailand after the war, she and her family did not escape the challenges that awaited them in the United States as the unidentified, unacknowledged allies of the US during the Vietnam War. Dr. Her will discuss her personal experiences as a refugee child, young adult and woman in the United States and how she forged her identity and leveraged her experiences to create understanding, inclusion and unity. She will also discuss several aspects and traditions of the Hmong culture such as marriages, funerals, family relationships, clan structures, and more
More information on future Immigration Learning Circles coming soon!
Past Immigration Learning Circles –
