World Refugee Day to celebrate diversity
Ten people will become U.S. citizens in Market Square on Wednesday as part of Pittsburgh’s World Refugee Day celebration.
There also will be food stations, craft vendors and performances representing more than 25 different immigrant cultural groups as part of the event, organized by Northern Area Multi-Services Center, Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Pittsburgh, Acculturation for Justice, Access and Peace Outreach, and several other groups.
The celebration of immigrants and diversity will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; the naturalization ceremony, officiated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, will be at noon.
Reber Shweish, 40, moved to Germany as a refugee from Syria before eventually immigrating to the U.S. Five years after obtaining his green card, he became a U.S. citizen at last year’s World Refugee Day event in Pittsburgh. He said the wide variety of nationalities represented in the ceremony mirrored the diversity that exists within America.
“It was a long journey,” said Mr. Shweish, who lives in Carnegie with his wife and 22month-old son. “[Citizenship] doesn’t help you become a
better person if you’re not, but it’s a key to open a lot of doors and helping you consider the bigger things struggling in this country. … It was a great moment.”
Gisele Fetterman, activist and wife of Braddock Mayor John Fetterman, will emcee the program. When she was 6 years old, Ms. Fetterman moved to New York from Brazil with her family to escape violence. Back then, she said, there weren’t many programs inplace to assist immigrants.
Ms. Fetterman said she is proud of her “undocumented past” and hopes to assist other immigrants through programs she is involved with such as the Free Store, which offers people in need food, clothing and other donated items for free, and No One Left Behind, an organization that assists Special Immigrant Visa holders after theyimmigrate to the U.S.
Rebecca Johnson is the director of Northern Area Multi-Services Center, one of three federally funded Pittsburgh organizations that assists with the resettlement and integration of immigrants and refugees into the Pittsburgh community. The center resettles about 250 immigrants in the Pittsburgh area per year and helps hundreds more with services such as finding housing, employment, health care and schools.
Ms. Johnson hopes that the World Refugee Day event will act as a conversation starter and an opportunity for people to get to know the cultures and stories of those living nearby.
“It’s an event that celebrates the refugees and immigrants,” Ms. Johnson said. “But it’s also about educating and reaching out to the community to learn about immigrants and share in their culture and just enjoy the day.”
The event will include performances by Tuhin Das, an author from Bangledesh; Osama Alomar, a poet from Syria; Somali Bantu dancers and African Yetu drummers; and others. In between musical performances, former refugees will take the stage to tell stories about their experiences as immigrants in Pittsburgh. Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald will alsospeak.
Throughevents like World Refugee Day, Ms. Fetterman said, she hopes people will be exposed to the diversity within Pittsburgh and that eventually Pittsburgh will gain a reputation as a city thatis welcoming to all.
“What great pride to be known as a city who is welcoming to people,” Ms. Fetterman said. “Once these relationships are created, you will see that those similarities are so much more than the differences.”
This will be the 12th World Refugee Day celebration in Pittsburgh.