He describes immigration as a “political act,” and discusses not only immigration stories in the U.S. and Canada, but also the situation in Spain where over 6,000 northern African immigrants died last year trying to make the journey.

Most importantly he provides examples of ways to resist and provides examples of resistance from Vancouver.

The only problem is that there is some music playing in the background that can be very distracting. I can’t figure out why it’s there.

Listen Here.

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Barre Toelken always talks about the “So What? Question.” So…Some questions for folklorists and ethnographers that come to mind—

Because of our economic system, we all unintentionally engage in the exploitation of human rights through our food consumption, our driving, and other daily activities. How can public folklorists, whose mission it is to study the rhythms of daily life, help in organizing against these abuses?
I think for starters we can open out the story to move past just the local–to see how the local is global. Material Cultural specialists often talk about studying the “life history” of an object. What about folklorists examining the life history of one of our common denominators: a trip to the grocery store, for example.

Folklorists and other so-called ‘cultural professionals’ can also parter with worker’s rights organizations to learn more about local immigration situations. Rather than just looking at how immigrants dynamically combine the culture of their country of origin with the culture of their new home, folklorists can actively listen to the stories of why they are here.
I think this also brings up a discussion about the importance of being at least conversationally multi-lingual. We need to place a higher priority on our language skills.
Current articles on public folklore theory encourage us to learn to speak the language of business, of marketing, of tourism. How about we learn to speak the language of the people we are supposed to be working with?

Of course, that begs the question how CAN we work with immigrant communities in a way that is not superficial? Do we have models for this? If not, how do we start working toward one?

I often think about the often disputed Kelly Feltault article, “Development Folklife: Human Security and Cultural Conservation,” published in the special JAF Public Folklore Edition. She argues that without a greater understanding of globalization, we can’t truly be folklorists who focus on human rights.

I also think we can use one of our greatest skills: asking questions. Public folklore programs are forever wanting to embrace ‘the diversity’ of people. But so much of this so-called ‘embrace’ stays at a superficial level. Let’s start being part of the voice that asks questions like, What are the stories of immigration in my community? What economic policies keep this in place? What is the human face of immigration, as the radio piece asks. I think Kelly Feltault is right. If we want to do what we say we do, we have to actively pursue a deeper understanding of economic systems, cooperations, immigration laws, guest worker programs, and the like.

LINKS FOR KY AND AR:
Northwest Arkansas Worker Justice Center
Kentucky Jobs with Justice

Thoughts? Comments? Ideas? From folklorists or anybody else?