Chicago is Da World

a doorway to ethnic media in the american heartland

Archive for Immigrant Stories

The bonds that bind us here from all over the globe

the next six stories you will read here are very special. They are the stories of how six immigrant communities here are dealing with the U.S. Census.

What makes them so different?

It’s the bond that you will see that links them.

This work is the result of a unique collaboration of six Chicago area ethnic news media Read the rest of this entry »

Two Indian Communities and Their Struggle to be Counted

By Jessica Allen | January 14th, 2010

The Indo-American Center just off Devon Avenue has been ready for the 2010 U.S. Census for months, not wanting to overlook any opportunity to get the attention of the area’s large Indian community. When the census forms are mailed in March, they hope the area will be properly counted. Read the rest of this entry »

The Census Challenge for Chicago’s Fillipinos

By Zoe Jennings | January 14th, 2010

It is seven o’clock on a Thursday evening at St. Francis the Catholic Worker in Uptown, and tonight, Filipino food – an aluminum container of spring rolls and big metal pots of white rice and noodles – fills a table in the dining room. Myrla Baldonado sits on a stool in the main room. She is talking about toxic waste left at American military sites in the Philippines, and she passes out cards drawn by Crizel Jane Valencia, a little girl who died from leukemia attributed to the waste. Read the rest of this entry »

Why the Census Matters to Chicago’s Arabs

By Jessica Abels, Raphaelle Neyton and Shasha Zou | January 14th, 2010

In the U.S. Census’ most recent American Community Survey, it is estimated that 51,972 people of Arab descent currently live in the greater Chicago areas of Cook, DuPage and Lake County. Another estimate, provided by the Advisory Council on Arab Affairs to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, puts the number of Arabs at 150,000 in the metro Chicago area. A Zogby International study suggests the number is actually 182,000. Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. Census and Korean Elections

By Kate Endeley and Clara Lingle | January 14th, 2010

The level of participation by the Korean community in the 2010 U.S. Census may well be influenced by a new law in the Republic of Korea that for the first time allows Korean citizens living abroad to vote in national elections at home. Read the rest of this entry »

Counting Hispanics in Little Village’s Hands

By Matthew Bellassai and Alex Hollander | January 14th, 2010

Crusaders will soon descend upon the community of Little Village, armed with cans of spray paint and posters to cover the walls of this Chicago neighborhood while its neighbors are sound asleep. These people aren’t vandals who seek to deface the city—it’s a city, in fact, that these crusaders care deeply about. Read the rest of this entry »

Why the Census matters to Chicago’s Poles

By Arianna Hermosillo and Nadine Shabeeb | January 14th, 2010

Grazyna Zajaczkowska pulls out an 1,832-page Polish Yellow Pages directory. The Director of Immigrant Services of the Polish American Association (PAA) in Chicago does it to underscore how many Polish-Americans live and work in and around Chicago. She puts the number at more than one million people, an astonishing figure if accurate. Read the rest of this entry »