Defending Against Hate
Are you a migrant worker that has experienced hate, harassment, or violence based on your ethnicity?
For over 45 years, Migrant Legal Aid (MLA) has built trust with migrant workers through outreach and counsel. Now more than ever, workers tell us about their fears—of physical violence, of their children’s safety, of losing their rights, and of ICE. Defending Against Hate is the first program of its kind, connecting law enforcement, school systems, and migrants to facilitate communication and understanding.
Our goal is to protect migrant workers and to reduce acts and words of hate directed at documented and undocumented immigrants.
“Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.”
-Cesar Chávez
Al worked up to 10 hours a day, seven days a week. His white supervisors bullied and tormented him with racial slurs. They physically assaulted him with heavy chains, sabotaged his work, and mistreated him to the point of severe psychological trauma. MLA intervened and prevented ongoing discrimination and harassment.
A Hispanic mother of two school-age children contacted MLA after her eldest son had been repeatedly tormented by other students based on his race, with racial slurs and comments. School officials refused to intervene to stop the harassment, so the student dropped out and enrolled elsewhere. MLA has initiated work with the school community to ensure that bullying stops.
RESOURCES: State of Michigan. (2013). Concentration of Migrant and seasonal Farmworkers and Dependent Nonworkers by County 2013. Retrieved from https://www.michigan.gov/documents/dhs/MSFW_Fact_Sheet_496512_7.pdf