Immigration has made public housing populations increasingly diverse, a challenge met by administrators and staff at two housing developments participating in the Jobs-Plus Community Revitalization Initiative for Public Housing Families. Immigrants and refugees from Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Latin America have settled beside native-born Americans. Foreign-born residents’ needs extend beyond basic language training and assistance in workforce preparation. They are a diverse group, consisting of urban professionals who need certification, rural villagers barely literate in native languages, and others with physical ailments and psychological traumas. By their variety and prevalence in residents’ lives, distinctive issues present major challenges. They may be reluctant to use child care and expose their children to alien cultural practices. Jobs-Plus staff are well-versed in social cues of ethnic groups, including taboos against certain foods, and mixed meetings of men and women. Employment programs clash with cultural priorities in that pressure to direct women into the workforce runs counter to traditional gender roles and encouraging residents to invest financial assets competes with responsibility to remit savings to relatives. Staff leave their offices to reach out to and accompany residents off-site to social service agencies, clinics, and immigration offices. Programs must balance residents’ needs and preferences for culturally specific services with goals of preparing them to function in a diverse workplace and building a multicultural community. (YLB) (ERIC No. ED469859)
