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By Pandita Indrani |
August 8, 2002: A Republican mayor warmly inviting People of Guyanese origin to settle in his city? Fact or fiction? I recently accompanied a team representing education, real estate, travel business and the priesthood, to meet with the mayor of Schenectady, in New York State, the Hon. Albert Jurezynski, to discuss his open invitation to New Yorkers of Guyanese origin to relocate to his city, a designated renewal community.
Now, Republicans are not well known for holding pro-immigrant sentiments. So it would be interesting to find out what this mayor was up to. After a two-hour meeting with the mayor and officials one could only come away feeling that this mayor has, indeed, put a human face to the Republican Party in the United States. Mayor Albert Jurezynski of Schenectady city, is boldly inviting immigrants of Guyanese origin into his small city of 62,000 people. He does not hide his admiration for the work ethic of the People of Indian Origin in the Richmond Hill area of Queens, New York and he is openly luring them away from New York City and into Schenectady.
Indeed, as a Trinidadian on the team I often had to assert my Trinidadian identity as the mayor tended to subsume all West Indian identities under the "Guyanese" rubric. So great is his love for the Guyanese people that he jokingly tells me to make it simple, all immigrants should just say that they are "Guyanese" and he would be okay with that. He is in the process of putting up a website dedicated to luring people of Guyanese origin into his city.
Republicans are not normally associated with pro-immigrant sentiments so it was surprising to hear of a Republican mayor not only inviting immigrants to live and work into his city, but actually declaring that their survival depends on these people.
However, some of his detractors believe that the mayor is wooing these new immigrants to add to his vote bank. The mayor is in his seventh terms, has over 12 years of experience in the city council and seeking another term in office.
Most council members are supportive of the new immigrants but there are a couple that are not so accepting, explains the mayor. "Some people find it offensive that I have repeatedly said that the Guyanese people have a good work ethic," he says. But the mayor explains that he does not want people coming there to live on welfare and that he is convinced that the Guyanese people are hard workers. He also does not want absentee landlords. He wants people to rebuild the city's infrastructure and be another rich strand in community life. The officials in Schenectady are also pleased that the new immigrants can communicate effectively in English and already share much in common with them.
Mayor Jurezynski is unapologetic about wanting to woo hard working people with strong family values to help rebuild his city that once centered around the General Electric plant, one of the largest industrial sits in the North East of the country, but which went into decline as jobs moved out under a new economy. "We only need new blood to rebuild," he claims. He recounts how his tight knit family of 8 lived without being a burden on the state coffers. He admires families that can do the same.
In fact, this is what first attracted the mayor to the Guyanese people in New York. He first met Mr Deryck Singh who wanted a building for a mandir and who told him that they were a people who did not want anything for free. This delighted the mayor who immediately saw parallels between his own immigrant experience and those of the new Guyanese immigrants in his city.
"Both Governor Pataki and I are ethnic and proud about it," he says affirming that they are Republicans at the same time. "I am not a minority but an ethnic," he says declaring that it is his immigrant background that makes him appreciative of the Guyanese immigrants. "My grand father came here 90 years ago, not speaking English, and today their grandson is the mayor. I can therefore relate a lot to the Guyanese people," he says.
To the charge that Schenecdaty is an environmental risk, following the migration of most of its industrial corporations, the mayor explains that historically they hosted some of the largest industries in America, like General Electric, the locomotive company made tanks for the war, and there were many heavy industries and blue collar workers there. In those days environmental awareness was not as acute as today. He says that Schenectady is no less clean than any other city in America. "I live here, I love it, it is my home, and I am not going anywhere," he reiterates.
Every city has its 'brownfields", says the mayor, and General Electric is committed to the environmental demands of today they are into cleaning up and beautifying their site to meet environmental regulations.
The attractiveness of Schenectady for new hard working immigrants has now seen surrounding towns competing for the Guyanese immigrants. More towns are trying to cash in on the new wave. Mayor Jurezysnki remains confident that he is on the right track in rebuilding his city.
Recalling America's history and that of his own city, he says "Immigrants have helped this city become great. I have not forgotten that. "It's a pretty diverse place." And he is determined to give another group of immigrants the opportunity that his ancestors once had. In this regard he rehabilitates the stereotype of the Republican who is anti-immigrant and unappreciative of the very family values and work ethic on which the American nation was built, and which exist in a large immigrant group that have already demonstrated their ability to rebuild from the Caribbean to New York City.
It is heartening to see American leaders celebrate the skills and contributions of ordinary immigrants that are different to their own ancestors only in nationality and race. It is no fiction that in Schenectady the mayor is looking to the Guyanese people to rebuild his city a transfusion of new blood since the last immigrants came before World War II. The Guyanese immigrants had rebuilt Richmond Hill and large areas in Queens, New York, injecting new life into the city. Can they now do the same for Schenectady?