New plan sets out steps to help immigrants, refugees become a part of Lincoln community

She was there because she’s lived it — as a first-generation American whose parents fled Laos, swimming for their lives across the Mekong River to a Thai refugee camp. Phan’s mother was six months pregnant with her when she boarded a military plane for America in 1980.

The family landed in Nebraska and Phan grew up in Beatrice. Her family had a loving sponsor family to help it, but life wasn’t easy. Her parents worked long hours and she felt like an outsider in the mostly white town.

She wished, she said Thursday, that she and her family had had the services described in the plan released Thursday.

“This strategic plan will help our new community members with resources, education and opportunities to grow and prosper,” she said. “They will have support to be able to be a part of our community in many ways. It will help with the transitions and uneasiness that they may still be feeling.”

Phan is far from alone. In the 1980s, Lincoln became a designated refugee resettlement site and resettled more than 5,500 refugees, most of them from Vietnam, and by 1993 Lincoln was accepting about 1,200 refugees a year. In 2016, Nebraska resettled more refugees per capita than any other state.

Today, Lincoln is home to more than 30,000 immigrants and refugees from 150 countries. More statistics from the American Immigration Council:

* Between 2014 and 2019, Lancaster County’s population increased by 6.5%, while the immigrant population grew by 16.2%, meaning more than 18% of the total population growth was attributable to immigrants.

* In 2019, immigrants in the region held $455.7 million in spending power and paid $89 million in federal taxes and $60 million in state and local taxes.

* Despite making up 8.2% of the area’s overall population in 2019, immigrants represented 11.7% of STEM workers; 21.1% of manufacturing workers; 11.8% of hospitality workers; 11.7% of education workers; 9.9% of essential food service workers; 9.3% of essential construction workers; and 8.2% of essential health care workers.

* As of 2019, immigrants are 29.7% more likely to be of working age than those born in the U.S., helping Lancaster County meet its labor force demands.

* Immigrant households contributed $70.4 million to Social Security and $17.2 million to Medicare in 2019.

* Immigrants helped preserve or create 1,200 local manufacturing jobs that would have otherwise vanished or moved elsewhere by 2019.

“This plan that we are releasing today underscores the vital role that new Americans have played and will continue to play in the economic success and cultural vibrancy of our community,” Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird said.

Some of the services Phan said would have helped her family nearly four decades ago already exist today: assistance Lincoln Public Schools provides to incoming refugee and immigrant students and their families, the Community and Cultural Centers, a Career Ladder program to help immigrants and refugees, and a MyCity Academy that helps new Americans learn about local government services.

But the Welcoming & Belonging Strategic Plan also identifies six action steps that touch on equitable access, civic engagement, education, economic opportunity, safety and health, and affordable housing, and includes more specific recommendations to improve services.

The wide-ranging recommendations include creating a “brick-and-mortar” welcoming center and hiring a welcoming coordinator for the city and county.

The plan also recommends expanding existing programs such as one that connects professionals from other countries with mentors in their field, increasing funding for naturalization programs and legal resources, creating avenues for young adults to get high school equivalency certificates, and increasing the number of trained interpreters to help new immigrants.

Lincoln and Lancaster County were among 19 places selected by two national advocacy organizations to receive technical and research assistance to help develop the plan.

Phan said the plan is a way to give new Americans a chance.

“Giving a chance to be able to have a new start and be a part of and live in a community that cares and that is welcoming is one of the most powerful things we can provide as Lincolnites.”