Boston’s Annual Citizenship Day - A Momentous Step Forward for Migrants and the Boston Community
On April 27th, Project Citizenship, a nonprofit that provides free, high-quality legal services to immigrants, partnered with the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Advancement to hold its annual “Citizenship Day.” Per their website, “over 400 permanent residents were registered to start their journey to become U.S. citizens,” at the Reggie Lewis Track Center in Roxbury. To assist the aspiring citizens, over 100 volunteers composed of lawyers, law students, community members, and Project Citizenship staff worked in unison throughout different stations.
Volunteers helping aspiring citizens with Application Assistance in the main room.
Aspiring citizens would arrive during their scheduled appointment and, after registering, begin the “Application Assistance” process where a volunteer would guide them through the hundreds of questions required by the application—many of which, without assistance, are either too vague, confusing, or unanswerable for many families. Afterward, a licensed volunteer lawyer would conduct “quality control” on their application to guarantee the highest chance of acceptance possible. Lastly, aspiring citizens would go to another room to complete.
At checkout, many learned about opportunities with the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance and other non-profits that could financially aid them through the exorbitantly expensive application process. Additionally, many non-profits/government programs such as “English For New Bostonians,” Mayor's Office of Worker Empowerment, ALPHA, and many others had tables set up for permanent residents to learn about the opportunities they offered.
By the end of the day, aspiring citizens left with a complete citizenship application and knowledge of helpful programs available to them—all for free. Many, if not all, showed a great appreciation for the great work of Project Citizenship.
Claudette, a grandmother who arrived in the US in 1971, expressed how “helpful” it was to be taken “question to question” by a volunteer. Christian, a young engineer and father to a 3-year-old living in Winthrop, also expressed gratitude for how “helpful” the volunteers were. Ting, a young mother from China who arrived in 2014, expressed a sense of “official validation” for her and her children.
Juan Wulff (right) and Miles Koppe (left) pictured with one of their ESL students who was at Citizenship Day to work through her son's application.
Project Citizenship conducts consultations such as the ones Claudete, Christian, and Ting had year-round. Citizenship Day is their largest opportunity to provide these services.
When talking to volunteers, many of them spoke of how grateful they were to help. For Paul McAlarney, a recent graduate of UMass Law, this was his 2nd time volunteering with Project Citizenship. He shared how amazing it was to learn the “stories of the fellow humans” he worked with. He also shared how his experience has allowed him to see the flaws in the immigration system. He expressed a disagreement with how just being arrested, not convicted, is recorded in the application. Additionally, he also condemned the “scrutiny” of the process, especially how much information about the family's past was needed—something that can be difficult for many to find.
The scrutiny of the process that Mr. McAlarney mentioned is precisely what Project Citizenship hopes to assist migrants through. Regardless of how broken our immigration system is, especially with a lack of resources for migrants, it will always be crucial for groups like Project Citizenship to aid people through this process.
