Tuesday, January 28, 2024
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A View From the Ground
News and information about politics, government, civic participation and engagement from URL Media's network of Black and Brown publishers.
Good evening. Today we are covering the debate over the H-1B visa program for specialized workers, as well as a first-of-its-kind Indigenous-led database, the history behind a women’s union in India, and more. Plus, we’re bringing you the latest updates at url-media.com as events unfold. Have a question? Write to us at [email protected].
Credit: Getty Images
As H-1B visa debate tears MAGA apart, Indian-Americans shape America’s future: Indian professionals are the largest group of beneficiaries of the H-1B visa program, which supports people from “specialty occupations in fields requiring highly specialized knowledge” coming to the United States to work, according to the U.S. Department of State.Indians have been unfairly placed at the center of a growing political debate around the future of the program, Vivek Wadhwa explains in an India Currents opinion piece first published in Fortune. “What began as a debate over policy has devolved into a campaign of hostility against Indian professionals and their cultural and spiritual identity,” Wadhwa writes.One side of the Trump administration, including President Trump himself, seems in favor of the program, given its success in corporate America, yet the other half claims it hurts workers and the economy. Beyond the growing MAGA rift, actual visa holders also take certain issues with the way the program is run. For starters, employers can take advantage of workers through low wages and little promise of upward mobility. However, the H-1B visa needing reform is no excuse to tarnish the presence, contributions, and influence of Indian-Americans in America’s story. India Currents has the rest → Plus: Immigration Chaos in Trump’s First Week (Documented)
Q&A: Chelsea Curtis (Diné) on creating Arizona’s first MMIWGTT database: MMIWGTT is a heavy acronym: it stands for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit and Transgender people. Families and advocates have been raising awareness for years about how many of these people are missing or have been murdered. To aid their cause, Arizona Luminaria reporter Chelsea Curtis (Diné) has created a database that documents nearly 100 of these cases across tribal and non-tribal lands in Arizona — the first of its kind. Curtis spoke with Elyse Wild, Native News Online’s Senior Health Equity Editor, about the emotional reporting process of creating the database (Arizona Luminaria advises browsing it with care) and where she hopes it will go next. The International Women’s Media Foundation and the Data Driven Reporting Project provided support for the initiative. “I want it to be a resource for families—a way for them to understand this issue and hold people accountable for their loved ones. I also hope tribal nations can use it to identify gaps in resources,” Curtis told Wild. Full interview in Native News Online →
How Kerala’s trade unions have failed women: For decades, women working in Kerala, India’s textile and tailoring shops faced inhumane conditions: no breaks, no bathrooms, not even the option to sit on a 10 or 12 hour shift. This led P Viji, a tailoring shop runner, to form Penkootu, an advocacy group for working women in Kerala in the late 2000s. The group’s first protest demanded new toilets be built, and six months later, they were, according to Scroll.Still, more needed changing, from wages to sexual harassment to representation. The established trade unions in India were male-dominated and largely unsupportive to working women, so Viji led the formation of an official women’s union in 2014 — Asanghaditha Mekhala Thozhilali Union, or the Unorganised Sector Workers Union. Together, they successfully campaigned for the right to sit for textile workers, better bathroom access, higher wages, women in leadership roles, and more. “After the women’s union has been formed, the employers are a little scared of us and worry we will go on a protest. So they listen to our demands,” Sreedevi Chandran, who works as a street sweeper, told Scroll.Get the full story →
Credit: United States Postal Service
Lunar New Year stamp: celebrating the year of the snake: Lunar New Year begins tomorrow, January 29, and the U.S. Postal Service is ready to go. Over 21 million of its signature Lunar New Year stamps, designed by artist Camille Chew, are printed and available for purchase online or in-person, AsAmNews reports.This is USPS’s third 12-year cycle of its popular Lunar New Year stamps. When the current cycle began in 2020, Chew, along with art director Antonio Alcalá and an advisory board, decided to try something new: a modern approach using handcrafted zodiac masks that still honored tradition. This year’s Year of the Snake stamp features an intricate blue and green snake mask that Chew hand carved and embellished with paint and papier-mâché. It was then photographed on a white background to create the festive stamp. These vibrant 3D designs are an intentional step away from the more traditional red and gold stamps of years past. Chew and Alcalá wanted to reimagine the holiday’s traditional paper-cut folks art crafts, while still creating something culturally rich. In this way, they hope the stamp series resonates with younger audiences and long-time collectors alike. More at AsAmNews →Plus: 2025 Lunar New Year: What the Wood Snake Means for You (Luz Media)
Good Black jobs: Calif. program is model of advancing meaningful work (Black Voice News)
Here is how immigration executive orders may affect Haitians (The Haitian Times)
Check out our Currency of Impact dashboard, a new tool designed to revolutionize media buying conversations and put community impact on the foreground. Dive into our impact tracker and case studies highlighting demonstrated impact across the URL Media network. This project was co-produced with the Reynolds Journalism Institute. Visit it here.
