Summit County celebrating Welcoming Week for immigrants, refugees in September

Summit County is celebrating Welcoming Week Sept. 9-18 to recognize refugees, immigrants and new citizens in the community.

Welcoming Week, which is celebrated nationally, is meant to recognize the contributions refugees, immigrants and new citizens make to the community and the challenges and roadblocks they face.

Summit County Council voted unanimously in 2015 o declare Summit County a “Welcoming County” and participate in the global celebrations of Welcoming Week each year. This year’s theme is “Where We Belong.”

“Summit County is home to people of all backgrounds and is committed to giving those who were not born here, but now call it home, a place to belong,” the county’s resolution on Welcoming Week reads. “Ensuring all residents are welcome harnesses the strengths, talents, and contributions of each and every person…The welcoming of new residents is vital to our community, as they bring ideas, start businesses, serve in civic roles, work in critical conditions, and contribute to the spirited diversity in our community.”

According to the county, 212 refugees arrived in Summit County in 2021. It also said that crises continue to displace people in Myanmar, Ukraine, Ethiopia and Venezuela, and “Summit County stands ready as a home for everyone.”

County Council's committee of the whole approved the resolution last week. Council is expected to officially approve it Monday.

Liv Randall, communications and development specialist at the International Institute of Akron, said that more than 100 million people are currently forcibly displaced around the globe, with 11 million displaced within the first eight months of 2022.

“Now more than ever, it's so important to work together as a community to welcome newcomers to our city and county,” she said.

Randall said that since U.S. troops left Afghanistan nearly one year ago, “Summit County has risen to the occasion and mobilized as a community to help the International Institute of Akron specifically, and helped us kind of rebuild our programming after the previous administration.”

Randall listed examples including the Saffron Patch restaurant and the Islamic Society of Akron and Kent providing 40 hot halal meals for 40 people who arrived just before Thanksgiving last year, the Hudson DEI Alliance and Rotary Club raising $50,000 within six months for the institute to buy a new van and St. Vincent Church raising money to provide groceries and gift cards to 25 Afghan families (a total of 140 people) last winter.

“These are just a few examples. There's many more. There's thousands of volunteer hours. There's people helping clients drive, learning English, all of that,” she said. “But this just shows how Summit County has mobilized and come together, and they welcome newcomers and help resettle refugees and immigrants into our community.”

Randall said immigrants and refugees make communities more culturally rich and diverse, including through food, dance, music, performances and events.

“It truly expands my world past Akron, Summit County, Ohio and even the United States, and you don't even have to leave these borders to experience these new cultures and experiences,” she said. “I believe Summit County would be a completely different community If we didn't begin welcoming refugees and immigrants here over 100 years ago.”

County Council President Elizabeth Walters noted that along with immigrants, refugees and new citizens offering “incredible cultural benefits,” they also have “an incredible economic impact for the better in our community.”

“The foreign-born population has kind of single-handedly helped us from losing huge chunks of our population data among the last two censuses, which benefits the work we do, our ability to support businesses, families and the development of our neighborhoods,” she said.

The changing face of Summit County:Asian and Latino communities see huge growth in past decade

Akron, Summit 2020 census results: Five things the 2020 census results tell us about Summit County

2020 census showed huge population growth in Summit County among Asian, Hispanic, Latino populations

The 2020 census data for Summit County released last year mirrored a national trend: Asian and Hispanic and Latino populations are fueling population growth across the United States, while white populations are falling for the first time in history.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau released in August 2021, the white population in Summit County dropped by 8.2% from 2010 to 2020.

But other communities saw increases. The Asian population grew by 90.3%, from 11,885 in 2010 to 22,621 in 2020. The Hispanic or Latino population (which the Census designates as an ethnicity, not a race) grew from 8,660 in 2010 to 13,206 in 2020, a 52.5% increase. The county’s Pacific Islander population also grew by 20.3%, the American Indian population grew by 3.4% and the Black population grew by 2.1%.

Summit County's total population declined less than 1% over the past decade, from 541,781 in 2010 to 540,428 in 2020.

Summit County has long been home to a growing community of refugees from South and Central Asia — including Bhutan, Myanmar and Afghanistan — and elsewhere.

As of August 2021, the International Institute of Akron had resettled 4,196 people from Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Ukraine, Liberia, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2010. The former Akron chapter of World Relief, which was forced to shutter its doors in 2019 following significant cutbacks to refugee resettlement under the Trump administration, had also resettled many people, including from Bhutan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, before its closure.

The International Institute of Akron said last year that an increase in migration of people from Central America, particularly from the Northern Triangle — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — contributed to the county’s growing Latino and Hispanic population.

Seyma Bayram, a corps member with Report for America, contributed past reporting. Contact Beacon Journal reporter Emily Mills at emills@thebeaconjournal.com and on Twitter @EmilyMills818.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Summit County celebrating Welcoming Week for immigrants, refugees