Uniting US: Challenging Fear and Standing Up for Humanity

About

It is physically and emotionally taxing to keep up with the Administration’s near daily and inhumane actions targeting asylum seekers at our southern border. These political stunts whether on social media or through executive action have dire consequences in people’s lives. “more than 100,000 people in immigration detention;” “potentially closing off approximately $1.5 billion worth of commerce per day with our third largest trading partner;” chants of “build the wall” at campaign rallies that further polarize and entrench hate in our culture; “…we need comprehensive immigration reform policy.”

It is clear that our identity – as a nation – is being reshaped as perceptions related to culture, security, and the economy are shifting. Technology, social norms and conventions are frequently underscoring the way many Americans view issues such as immigration. These shifts are noisy and often disruptive.  When it comes to America’s security and the economy, there is both optimism and concern. Our challenge is how to articulate a practical and moral statement that improves our understanding of this polarization and its underlying causes.

Join us as we discuss problem/solution framing and the role of cultural strategies, and learn about some of the ways changemakers are using the present moment to move the field of immigration reform forward, and recalibrate our democracy and our values.

Explore

• The forces driving polarization, including economic insecurity, growing inequality, cultural change and the weakening of local communities
• Successful strategies that are dismantling the “us vs. them” narratives that often focus on immigrants and refugees
• How to effectively respond against social media and bring down extreme narratives
• How Americans of conflicting beliefs and values can compromise with empathy in a more human context
• What’s working from philanthropy and how might donors approach this problem differently and address the polarizing/destructive symbolic and rhetorical violence

Presenters

• Wendy Feliz, Director of Communications, Programming, American Immigration Council
• Julie Fisher-Rowe, Director of Narrative and Engagement, The Opportunity Agenda
• Adey Fisseha, US Senior Program Officer, Unbound Philanthropy
• Ali Noorani, Executive Director, National Immigration Forum
• Peter Martin (Moderator), Philanthropic Director, Tides Foundation