January 22-28, 2004

city beat

Immigrants on Their Own

THE AMERICAN DREAM?: Djoko Setiyawan ekes out a living in the service industry despite an engineering degree. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

The Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians thrives despite no city funding.

by Helen i-lin Hwang

When Djoko Setiyawan immigrated to Philadelphia three years ago, he was looking for better job opportunities. In Indonesia -- where he's from -- Setiyawan (pronounced se-TEE-yah-wan) graduated college with a degree in industrial engineering, but when an economic recession hit Asia hard, he was left unemployed.

Taking a chance with a tourist visa, he arrived in the United States to get a job and acquire a working permit. Instead, he spent two years working in various factories as an undocumented worker. Today, the 26-year-old works at Au Bon Pain, serving cappuccinos to Wharton MBA students on the Penn campus.

Though the job is mundane, he's starting to feel optimistic since he became a client of the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians, a private nonprofit that helps immigrants adjust to life in America with employment referrals, ESL classes and legal assistance.

About a week after reading a City Paper cover story ("Missing the Boat," Daniel Brook, Aug. 21, 2003) about the city's immigration woes, Setiyawan contacted the center. He's joined a biweekly English-as-a-second-language class and even spearheaded efforts to change the focus to English in the workplace. The class now includes a segment where mentors discuss their jobs in the American workforce so newcomers can compare these jobs with equivalent ones in their native countries. He's gone on three job interviews and attended an import/export trade seminar, all arranged by the Welcoming Center.

Next week, he starts as a part-time assistant bookkeeper in the business office of International House. One of his interviews was with AmeriCorps, for which he was automatically disqualified because he didn't have U.S. citizenship. Currently, he's waiting for an INS interview to get his green card, a process sped along by the fact that he married a South Philly woman about a year ago.

Last Wednesday, the Welcoming Center held a symposium at the National Constitution Center about the "Role of Immigrants in Revitalizing the Economy of America's Cities." Among those in attendance were Anne O'Callaghan, executive director of the Welcoming Center; David Thornburgh of the Pennsylvania Economy League; City Councilman James Kenney; Mark Maloney, chief economic development officer for the city of Boston; and, via videotaped message, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. About 270 people attended.

Population growth -- and how it contributes to civic economic recovery -- was discussed. Menino and Maloney raved about the positive impact immigrants have had upon their city's landscape by reversing population loss and helping businesses thrive. (In the 1990s, Philadelphia lost 4 percent of its population.) In the U.S., immigrants start 18 percent of new businesses, which account for up to 80 percent of new jobs created.

In 1997 and 1998, Philadelphia's immigrants had more college education than immigrants in New York and Boston, yet, surprisingly, the foreign-student body in Philly is 2 percent as opposed to 4 percent and 6 percent in New York and Boston, respectively. Immigrants like Setiyawan -- ones that are highly educated yet end up in menial jobs like driving cabs or making coffee -- fit into the category of educated immigrants in Philadelphia who are not full-time university students.

Still, Kenney hasn't seen his bill proposing an Office of New Philadelphians budge since the last time he proposed it in 2001. The aim of the bill is to attract new immigrants as a means to increase city revenue, revitalize neighborhoods and stymie population loss. Instead, he was heckled by bystanders at the Columbus Day Parade for his pro-immigration policy and has had to dispel false rumors from his constituents, like that every Asian who comes to this country is given a new car by the government.

Mayor John Street calls the Welcoming Center "a worthy effort" and wrote a letter of support, dated Jan. 9, stating it "will bolster the diversity that is one of Philadelphia's strengths and establish Philadelphia as an immigrant-friendly City that seeks to create new opportunities for neighborhoods as well as economic development." Still, Street said in an interview that his "No. 1 focus is keeping the people [we] have," which is why he has no plans to create a city-funded Office of New Philadelphians, like Boston and New York have.

Meanwhile, Setiyawan is taking a class in a Penn graduate school preparation program because he figures it's the best way to get back into engineering. It's probably a good idea too, as Innovation Philadelphia, a city- and state-funded organization concerned with global technological leadership, has identified engineers as a target of opportunity in their "road map" to bolster the regional economy.

Ultimately, his goal is to work as an engineer, like he was trained to do, and the Welcoming Center has "given me confidence [to] help face people, made me feel like part of this country." Yet, Setiyawan is still facing an uphill battle to use his high-level skills to play a weightier role in Philadelphia's economy -- one other than just making coffee for tomorrow's business leaders.