 International Institute of the Bay Area Uniting the International Institutes of San Francisco and the East Bay. |
| Our History |
Since the founding of the first International Institute in New York City in 1910, International Institutes around the country have demonstrated a strong and consistent commitment to protect the rights of immigrants and refugees who come to our communities to build new lives. We would like to share our story with you. |
| FIRST DECADE,
1918 - 1929: In the first two decades of this century, more than 14.5 million people immigrated to the United States. In California, in 1910, 52% of the population consisted of immigrants or children of immigrants. In San Francisco , close to three out of every four residents, or 72% of the population, was immigrants and their children. Around the country, Field Offices of the YWCA reported that a need existed for specialized services and activities for recently arrived, non-English speaking immigrant women and girls, who found themselves alone in a new country without the skills and resources they needed to survive. 
The idea of service centers for nationality
groups was developed by the YWCA, and International Institutes were born.
By 1918, nineteen International Institutes had opened their doors, primarily
in the industrializing Northeast. In California, an International Institute
opened in Los Angeles in 1914. War broke out in Europe that year. As it
spread, the German Ambassador to Mexico proposed in a cable that Mexico
attack the United States, with Germany's support. Germany offered to give
California back to Mexico if the attack was successful. World War I seemed
quite a bit closer to home.San Francisco's need for an International Institute grew as a result of events that followed the United States' entry into the War. Suddenly, a state of national emergency existed. Barriers of language, culture, and social class fell as Americans mobilized to fight. Recent immigrants were enlisting in the military in large numbers, leaving wives and sisters and children at home, to face additional and often unfamiliar responsibilities. The U.S. Army in The Great War was made up of men born in 35 different countries. Italians, Poles, Russians, Greeks, Austro-Hungarians, Spaniards, Chinese, and Mexicans, among others, enlisted. 65,000 recruits could not speak English when they signed up. With two thirds of the men in the country's traditional labor force suddenly involved in war-related industries, it was estimated that 8,000,000 new workers would have to be trained to maintain American industry and meet the challenges of the war effort. Non- essential industries were curtailed, and women were welcomed in huge numbers into jobs that had previously been performed only by men. Records of this time applaud "the dexterity of their delicate fingers" as women assembled airplanes and battleships. The YWCA, as well as Jewish Immigrant work societies, and the Daughters of the American Revolution, worked at the time to provide immigrant women and their families with the skills necessary to become fully participating citizens. Volunteer groups of community leaders in major cities formed "Americanization Committees, which had the mission of encouraging every able-bodied American to go to work. The YWCA organized War Work Councils to coordinate and plan for the welfare and training of women and girls who were taking on employment responsibilities while adjusting to life without the support of their men. As projects of the YWCA, International Institutes assumed the planning and services task for immigrant populations. President Woodrow Wilson wrote to express his appreciation for the Work Councils' efforts. In October of 1918, one month before the Armistice that ended the war, the first staff meeting of The International Institute of San Francisco was convened. Workers fluent in eleven languages were present. An annual budget of $20,000, raised by the YWCA's Pacific Coast Field Office, would support the activities of the staff in field offices in Greek, Russian, and Chinese communities, as well as the costs of renting the central office at 1812 Washington Street, for $50 per month. By February of 1919, when an Inaugural Reception was held, members of Russian, Greek, Chinese, Spanish, Armenian, Swedish, French, Scottish, Japanese, Czech, and Yugoslavian communities in San Francisco joined in celebrating the new agency. In its first year of operation, the International Institute served 12,000 people. Across the country, over 4,000,000 men were being "mustered out" of the military, given $60 and told to go home. Women were released from their war-time employment. The forceful mobilization that produced our war-time economy turned around to focus on the challenges of a productive peace. Families were disrupted, traditional roles often difficult to re-assume. Immigrant families, who had barely set foot on this country's soil when their men were encouraged to enlist in the military, had to cope with the added adjustments that the times required. Within four years, the International Institute outgrew its offices, and moved to larger quarters at 1860 Washington Street. English classes, group work, employment services, and social support activities filled the new building with the sounds of people learning about life in San Francisco, in different languages. In 1925, International Institute executives from around the country convened in Niagara Falls, New York, for a national meeting. Fifty-five International Institutes now existed, in most major industrial cities across the land. Discussions at the meeting resulted in a four-year process of examining and evaluating the relationship that existed between International Institutes and the YWCA. The Institutes' executives expressed concern that the YWCA's methods and mission were difficult to adapt to the needs of foreign-born peoples. Experience had taught workers in the new field of immigrant services of the great importance of family unity and cultural traditions to newcomers. Workers staffing International Institute programs believed that cultural traditions could not be honored without the inclusion of men and boys in International Institute programs. Immigrants were also less and less likely to be Protestants, and the YWCA as an organization had an investment in furthering Protestant beliefs. The United States at this time had an overwhelming Protestant majority. Catholics and Jews saw barriers that had excluded them fall, as a result of the emergencies of the War, for the first time. At the same time, it was the YWCAs, nation-wide, who had encouraged and supported the development of special assistance programs for immigrants. The YWCA had raised the money that supported the Institute's programs, provided office space, opened doors. International Institutes, though emerging with their own vision of their purpose and their constituency, were deeply indebted to the well-intentioned and consistently supportive leaders of the YWCA. The group met again in 1926 in Milwaukee, in 1927 in Des Moines. A preliminary report on the issue was circulated. The report expressed the frustration of many International Institutes, who were aware that the needs of their client populations posed a challenge to traditional YWCA practices. The report was inconsistent, however, with some Institutes participating actively and others not at all. It was agreed that a protocol for assessing the concerns of each Institute equally would be completed in the following year. In 1928 the conference was held in Pocono, Pennsylvania; in 1929, in San Francisco. By 1930, all the studies had been completed. It became clear that the interests of the immigrant populations would be best served by the emergence of International Institutes from the organization that founded, nurtured, and helped to establish them. Edith Terry Bremer, who had founded the International Institute movement as head of the YWCA's Department of Immigration and Foreign Communities, would leave the YWCA in 1933 to become the head of the National Institute of Immigrant Welfare, the umbrella organization for International Institutes around the country. In San Francisco, the Twenties roared. The economy was booming as new technologies developed during wartime were modified for eager and suddenly affluent consumers. Immigration had dropped off considerably during the War, and would not return to the average of 900,000 people per year who arrived in the first fifteen years of this century. By 1926, word had spread in the local Russian community of opportunities that might prove lucrative in a new industry. Russian immigrants moved to Southern California in large numbers to learn the motion picture business. This year, the International Institute became part of the University of California Social Work School's Fieldwork Training Program. In eight years, the fledgling field of social work services for foreign-born peoples had become a recognized specialization for university-trained social workers. As the International Institute's first decade came to an end, with its emergence as an autonomous organization clearly impending, the first sounds of a new national debate began to be heard. How much, if any, of their own culture and language should immigrants be encouraged to relinquish in their efforts to "become American"? What could be done to preserve and protect the parts of a national identity that strengthen an immigrant group? If any debate can be synthesized into one word , the word was "Americanization." Return to the beginning SECOND DECADE, 1930 - 1939: By 1930, International Institute staff and programs were serving people from over 60 different countries. Immigration for this decade would be at its lowest rate in a century, as the worldwide economic situation plunged into depression, and the boom years following the war went bust. In 1930, International Institute staffers documented the need for childcare services for immigrant mothers working in manufacturing, and in sewing factories in Chinatown. Chinatown's garment industry stayed in operation from early morning until late at night, with workers coming and going on schedules that often ran until 10:00 p.m. Factories were not safe places for children, though they often came with their mothers and were kept in small rooms near the machines. Immigrant women, more than non-immigrant women, stayed in the workforce after the War years, helping to add to the family income and realize their dreams of opportunity in the new country. In 1932, Annie Clo Watson became the fifth Executive Secretary of the International Institute of San Francisco. Miss Watson would stay in her position for 25 years, building a national reputation as an advocate for refugees and immigrants. The Institute encouraged social and cultural exchanges to brighten up the difficult times. In 1933, after a large Swedish group had attended an Institute-sponsored Mexican Christmas party, the two groups formed a folk-dancing club. The group met monthly, with over 50 members. German and English people joined the Mexicans and the Swedes, and the group thrived for years.  By
1933 the International Institute's independence from the YWCA was clearly
established. The National Institute for Immigrant Welfare was founded, which
would become the American Federation of International Institutes in 1944.
The International Institute of San Francisco became a Charter Member of
the local Community Chest in 1934, which was a forerunner of the United
Way.The International Institute had an active group-work program during this decade, offering classes and activities that ranged from cooking to basketball. In 1933 a Chinese Girls' Group refused to go to Chinese cooking classes. They reported that they could get anything they wanted to eat at local restaurants, and they would prefer to learn to tap-dance. A tap-dancing class was started, and attendance was good for years. By November of 1934, a lead article in Harpers' Magazine pointed out that close to one fourth of all Americans were immigrants or the children of immigrants, and strongly suggested that "older Americans" had a responsibility to bring newcomers into our way of life. The article, written by Louis Adamic, and titled "Thirty Million New Americans," recognized a rising tide of anti-immigrant prejudice, and documented the strength and perseverance of immigrant families. With a sensitive description of the feelings of inferiority experienced by immigrants who feel different and apart from the mainstream, Mr. Adamic recognized the work of the International Institutes. At the same time he blamed immigrants for their "poverty and ignorance." The article exemplifies the ambivalence felt in the United States about people from other cultures who were poor.  In
San Francisco, where in 1936 61% of the population was immigrants and their
children, a tradition of diversity is reflected in the composition of the
International Institute's client population at the time: 12% were Chinese,
11% Filipino, 14% Greek, 17% Russian, and 16% Mexican.At this time, the Immigration Service supplied Institute staffers with the names and addresses of new immigrants when they arrived in town. Each new family was visited. During the hardest parts of the depression, the costs of making these visits became prohibitive. The Junior League came to our rescue, and provided cars and drivers to assure that newcomer families were welcomed, and informed about available services and activities. The issue of giving immigrants equal opportunity in employment was clearly articulated in a speech made by an Institute Board Member to the San Francisco Personnel Manager's Association in 1937. Citing the attempts of six IISF clients to gain employment in areas equal to their education and training, the speaker makes a strong case for the benefits of including educated young immigrants in our labor force. The clients, from Mexico, Japan, China, and Russia, all had special training or skills, and most were working as maids or houseboys. By 1938, the long-term impact of the depression and the imminence of war in Europe had resulted in several years of low immigration to the United States. Nationality communities in San Francisco wanted to help people who were less fortunate, in other parts of the world. Club La Senoras was founded at the Institute for Spanish-speaking women in San Francisco. The group met weekly and assembled layettes for needy families. The group became an ongoing social network. Women of other nationalities joined in, and the group became the Daytime Gathering Group. As the IISF's second decade came to an end, our work with immigrants and their children in San Francisco had provided opportunities to immigrants to join in an active and culturally diverse community. We worked to help newcomers gain access to jobs and education, and we gave people a place to meet, provide service to others, and exchange ideas and friendship. Unfortunately, impending events would undermine decades of effort as the climate of war promoted distrust between Americans of different origins. Return to the beginning THIRD DECADE, 1940 - 1949: The bombing of Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into the Second World War in 1941. Fears of a Japanese invasion of the West Coast dominated the news. San Franciscans of Japanese, Italian, or German origin became objects of suspicion and derision, as potential allies of the enemy. The International Institute worked hard to assure that the human rights of new and loyal citizens would not be violated, but the climate of the times was hostile and cold. People whose families had come from countries with whom we were now at war, called "Axis Aliens," suffered greatly. Business licenses were revoked, insurance canceled, installment purchases repossessed as the closure of "Axis" banks cut off access to assets. Agricultural credit agreements were canceled. Access to areas deemed to be "strategic," such as the waterfront, was denied. This created a threat to the livelihoods of Italian-Americans involved in the fishing industries. Perhaps most ironic were the restrictions placed on German Jews, many of whom had come to the United States to escape Nazism. Immigrants lived in a climate of fear. 
The International Institute protested these
actions consistently, but with little result. In the first few months of
1942, all Americans of Japanese origin living on the West Coast were rounded
up and sent to relocation camps. Annie Clo Watson, the International Institute's
Director, was appointed to head the State's National Defense.Subcommittee on Minority Groups in January of 1942. For months, she kept up an active correspondence, citing case after case of hardship, discrimination, unfair treatment of Americans of foreign origins. In July of 1942, beaten by the government's anti-alien policies, she disbanded the subcommittee, criticizing the federal government's labeling of the people she'd worked with for years as "enemy aliens." By 1944, the Chinese participation in the Allied war effort changed American attitudes. Policy, as a result, moved in their favor. Legislation was passed that made it possible for Chinese who had been living in the United States for some years, but who had been prevented from becoming citizens, to naturalize. International Institute staff assembled documents to assist Chinese wives of Americans citizens, and Chinese mothers of American citizens, to become citizens themselves. These women had entered the country between 1917 and 1922, and had in most cases never returned to China to live. Institute staff worked to advocate for broad interpretation of the legislation, so it would include citizenship opportunity for Chinese working on American ships during World War I, and Chinese working on ships of the American-owned Panama Mail Company in the early 30's. International Institute staff consistently advocated for equitable interpretation of the laws related to derivative citizenship, and for family reunion for all families, regardless of their national origin.  At
the end of the Second World War, over 175,000 Mexican men were working in
the United States, with special immigration status that reflected war-time
labor needs. As the U.S. military demobilized, problems arose. In the past,
immigrants who worked for U.S. war efforts had been allowed to stay after
their work was done. Chinese and Latin Americans who worked in the U.S.
shipping industry during and after World War I had been allowed to apply
for permanent residence, and later, citizenship. Fears that the flood of
returning soldiers wouldn't be able to find jobs identified Mexican workers
as a threat. Tensions were high. The International Institute worked to promote
understanding, and directed efforts toward projects for Spanish-speaking
youth.The Republic of the Philippines became independent the year after the war ended. Survivors of the Philippine Scouts were given U.S. Citizenship. The Scouts, over 10,000 soldiers who had served honorably in the U.S. Army during the brutal campaigns of the war in the Pacific, were retired from service and returned to their homes. In 1946, San Franciscans had the hope that the City would become the home of the newly-chartered United Nations. International Institute staff working with the Russian community in Potrero Hill suggested an ongoing Folk Arts and Crafts Museum, to celebrate the arts of immigrants. Too often, they observed, immigrants would sacrifice the richness of their culture in their attempts to appear to be "American." In youth groups, teen-agers would describe their parents' unwillingness to talk about the old times, the old country. This broadened what would later be called "the generation gap," as young people found the door to their family past closed tight. As they developed, plans for the Folk Arts project included Mexican and Filipino participants, who shared the Institute's concern that the benefits of appearing to be "American" had another side: estrangement from a rich and sustaining history. With the decision to headquarter the United Nations in New York, the project lost momentum. The debate that it inspired, however, continues to this day. Contrary to the trend of "Americanization" that was born in the 20's and continued until after the Second World War, new voices were articulating the personal and social costs of a rapid, superficial assimilation that failed to integrate the deep ties immigrants maintained to the culture they came from. 
Also in 1946, the International Institute began
a project to provide assistance, activities, and a social network to the
large number of Japanese war brides who were settling in the area with their
American husbands. The isolation and confusion experienced by these women,
as they attempted to understand the role they had assumed in a new cultural
context, far from home, was creating problems. The women who participated
in this group stayed together for over ten years, as they raised their families
and learned about their new land.In 1948, the Displaced Persons Act was passed, which opened the door for hundreds of thousands of people who had lost their homes or their homelands in the war to come to the United States. Thousands of people came to the San Francisco Bay Area as displaced persons. The International Institute helped them to resettle here. For many months, the Institute was open until 10:00 or 11:00 at night, as victims of war and their families took the first steps toward building new lives. At the end of our third decade, our work was defined by the damage and upheaval caused by the Second World War. At the same time, revolution in China, the occupation of Japan, civil war in Korea, and the independence of the Philippines were all having an impact in the United States, especially in the West, where Asian populations worked to reunite with family members overseas who were suddenly in great peril. In 1949, Mao Zedong came to power in China, and unprecedented numbers of refugees poured into the British colony of Hong Kong. Return to the beginning FOURTH DECADE, 1950 - 1959: In 1950, a large population of Russians came to San Francisco, joining a substantial Russian-language community here. The Institute provided resettlement services. For this group, the United States was their second new country. They had left Russian in 1917 and settled in China. With China's revolution, they came here. 
The local Community Chest began a fund-raising
campaign to purchase buildings for non-profit organizations working with
youth. The Institute, through its work with Spanish-speaking young people,
qualified as a beneficiary of this fund, and worked actively to assure its
success. By 1953, money was available to purchase the building at 2209 Van
Ness for $53,000.The Institute moved into its new quarters in 1954. By this time, over 1200 Filipino Scouts had made the agonizing decision to come to the United States, leaving their families behind in the Philippines until such time as they had found employment and could support them. Their status as U.S. citizens in the Philippines put them in the precarious situation of being deprived of the benefits of Philippine citizenship, at a time when the majority of the Scouts had been involuntarily retired from the U.S. Army. They could no longer support their families on the meager pension provided by the U.S. Government, which often totaled less than $30 per month. In the early fifties, the American Legion and other Veterans' groups who had served with the Scouts began an advocacy effort to equalize the veterans' benefits paid to the Scouts. With the option of free transportation to the U.S. on military transport planes, the Scouts, many of them now in their late forties and early fifties, made the journey to California to seek employment that their status as U.S. Citizens made them unable to find in their own country. Over 300 Philippine Scouts were living in San Francisco in deplorable, poverty-stricken conditions when the International Institute asked the San Francisco Foundation to help in 1955. Tuberculosis and other diseases of poverty and poor nutrition were taking their toll on the physical health of the Scouts, while their strong feelings of having been betrayed by the U.S. government had no forum. The San Francisco Foundation provided a grant of $1600, to expand services to the group. Within two years, jobs had been found for most of the Scouts. Participants in the project were educated on the issues that concerned the Scouts, and a strong advocacy effort was born that addressed their entitlement to additional compensation from the government. During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, Scouts who had been captured by the enemy were given the choice of dying in hellish Japanese POW camps, or accepting their captors' willingness to let them try to return to their homes. Those who left the death camps were considered by the U.S. Army to be ineligible for compensation as POWs from that time. No other American soldiers who escaped from POW camps had their benefits cut off as a result of that action. The project also offered immigration services that enabled family members to join them in this country. Every step of the project unearthed another injustice, however, as staff recognized that the sons and daughters of these citizens would not be allowed to join the family if they were over 21 years of age, because the national origins quota allowed only 100 Filipinos per year to immigrate. The matriarchal, extended family structure of the Philippines dictated that mothers of older children who could not immigrate stay in the Philippines with the family. By 1957, the plight of the Filipino Scouts, as an example of discriminatory treatment of people of color at the hands of U.S. immigration laws, had raised the political consciousness of everyone who worked on the project. In 1956, Annie Clo Watson retired, after providing dedicated leadership to the IISF for 25 years. In honor of her years of service, a scholarship fund was started, to provide training in social work for young people wishing careers in service to the foreign-born. The Refugee Relief Act expired, bringing to a close eight years of effort to resettle the victims of the Second World War. For the first time, the Attorney General of the United States exercised his right to grant parole into the country for a group of refugees, and a three-year effort to provide resettlement services to Hungary's Freedom Fighters began. In 1959, the American Council for Nationalities Service was formed, combining the American Federation of International Institutes and the Common Council for American Unity. "Interpreter Releases," a nationally recognized publication specializing in immigration law. The decade ended as Cuba's revolution began. Return to the beginning FIFTH DECADE, 1960 - 1969: In 1960, the annual operating budget of the International Institute of San Francisco was $91,000. 85% of all funding came from United Bay Area Crusade. In a trend that began in the early sixties, United Ways across the country have encouraged social service organizations to become increasingly reliant on funds generated from other sources. Funding from the Rosenberg Foundation in 1960 helped the IISF to continue its program activities for Japanese war brides, which by this time was focusing on the stresses inherent in intercultural marriages. The resettlement task of the early sixties focused on Cubans, as thousands of refugees from Castro's Cuba came into the United States. In 1962, the IISF provided leadership for the formation of the Circulo Cubano, a mutual support organization for Cuban new arrivals. The group flourished, and became independent within three years. Five years later, in 1968, they presented Luis Carrillo, the IISF staff person who organized the group. In 1961, local concern about the psychological health of newly arriving refugees and immigrants was expressed in the need for psychiatrists, psychologists, and clinical social workers who spoke Chinese, Russian, and Spanish. Because there were virtually no bi-lingual mental health professionals in the community, the Department of Public Health provided IISF staff caseworkers with a staff consultant from Community Mental Health Service. Monthly consultations became part of staff in-service training. 1962 marked the first annual "Gaslight Gala," an International Institute fundraising event that continued as a yearly event until 1978. Foods from all over the world made the galas popular and well-attended events. The early sixties were times of high hopes for pro-immigrant organizations, with the election of John F. Kennedy as president. Kennedy, the grandson of Irish immigrants, and the country's first Catholic president, promised reform of our immigration laws. His assassination in 1963 threw the country into a period of mourning. President Lyndon Johnson carried Kennedy's policy goals forward in a rush of legislation that created what would be called "The Great Society" programs. A firm Johnson commitment to end discrimination on the basis of race came to include discrimination on the basis of national origins under the protections of the civil rights legislation passed during the years immediately following Kennedy's death. By 1965, the International Institute, along with other local organizations, organized a dinner at the San Francisco Hilton to support the Hart-Cellar Bill, which would abolish national origins quotas and support family reunion as the basis of immigration to the United States. Over 300 people bought tickets. The Attorney General of the United States, Nicholas Katzenbach, flew out from Washington to make the keynote speech. He carried with him a message from the Secretary of State, urging support for the passage of the bill that would eliminate discrimination in immigration. The old legislation allocated the right to immigrate on the basis of the percentage of the United States' population held by any country-of-origin in 1920. This system favored Northern Europe and discriminated against Southern Europe and Asia. The Johnson Administration held this to be discriminatory and not in the national interest. With strong support from the Executive Branch the immigration reform bill passed in 1965.  Under
the new law, 5,000 new arrivals from China arrived in the San Francisco
Bay Area within the year. By 1967, 19% of all new immigrants to the United
States named San Francisco as their destination. 8,500 Chinese came to San
Francisco in the following year. IISF staff saw the clear need for a special
service center for Chinese new arrivals, and began work which would result
in the founding of the Chinese Newcomer Service Center in 1969.43% of all clients at the IISF at this time named "Immigration Problems" as their reason for coming to the Institute for assistance. 22% were seeking employment, 11% wanted to know more about educational opportunities in the area. 70% of the Institute's funding still came from the United Bay Area Crusade, down 15% since 1960. The Gourmet Gala fundraiser in 1967 was held at the Cannery, with pre-gala parties hosted by members of the Consular Corps. An active Auxiliary of over 100 members organized and worked at the event. 1968 was the fiftieth anniversary year for the International Institute. Mayor Joseph Alioto proclaimed April 22 - 29 to be "International Institute Week." A festive re-dedication ceremony was held at the International Institute's mansion on April 17. Our fifth decade ended in a spirit of affirmation and commitment to our mission, at a time when our nation's involvement in the war in Vietnam was beginning to take its toll on our resources, our national unity, and public support for the President who had been responsible for our new immigration law. Return to the beginning SIXTH DECADE, 1970 - 1979: In 1970, over 7,000 immigrants gave San Francisco as their destination when they entered the United States. The International Institute served clients from 83 different countries. Mexicans, Chinese, Salvadoreans, Filipinos and Nicaraguans were the groups using our services in the greatest numbers. A branch office was opened in the Mission District in 1971 to provide more accessible services to the Spanish-speaking population that lived there. Following a model started by The English Speaking Union, we developed an English-in-Action Program this year, which provided one-on-one tutorial sessions for clients wishing to improve their English. A Filipino Newcomers Advisory Committee was organized in 1970 to develop projects and funding that would address the needs of the hundreds of Filipino new arrivals coming every year. Filipino immigrants were largely professional people, and they faced the challenge of additional education and re-licensing to gain in this country the occupational status they had in their own. Funds were obtained from the San Francisco Foundation to start a Filipino Newcomer Service Center in 1972. In the recession of the early seventies, much attention was focused on the competition created by illegal immigrant labor. Legislation proposing employer sanctions, a method by which the government could punish employers who hired illegal aliens, was introduced in Congress by Peter Rodino. The bill failed, and kept failing to pass, until it became part of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. The Institute's Board of Directors went on record as opposing the concept of sanctions in 1973. In 1972, 71% of all services provided by the International Institute were related to problems they were having with legal immigration. 37% of the clients were Mexican, 11% Salvadorean, 8% Nicaraguan, and 7% Chinese. The San Francisco Community College District arranged with the International Institute to hold ESL classes in the IISF building. In response to the urging of foreign student advisors from a number of local colleges and universities, the Institute agreed to seek funding to expand its capacity to serve foreign students in 1972. By 1973, the project was able to provide counseling, referral and resource services to this population. Staffed primarily by volunteers, the project helped find American home placements for foreign students, as well as counseling them about immigration law, American life, and local resources. By 1974, the need for an outreach office to serve Spanish-speaking immigrants in San Mateo County resulted in the opening of an International Institute branch office at Fair Oaks Community Center in Redwood City. In April of 1975, the U.S.-backed government in Vietnam fell to the North Vietnamese, and Vietnamese people who had been closely associated with the U.S. war effort surged into Saigon, already teeming with refugees from the war. In the panic that awaited the approach of the North Vietnamese army, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese were airlifted to American ships in the South China Sea, and taken to safety on Guam. For the first time in United States history, half a million people were given legal status as refugees without local, family, or agency sponsors. Refugee camps were opened for the Vietnamese at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas; Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania; Fort Lewis, Washington; and Camp Pendelton, California. A new era of refugee resettlement had begun. By 1976, the International Institute convened an Advisory Committee to develop a service center for the thousands of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Lao refugees who were coming to the Bay Area. Government assistance provided living expenses, medical care, and English classes for the refugees, but the task of mobilizing staff and legislation that would pass the funds through the government structure to the front lines of the effort was overwhelming. New arrivals from Southeast Asia had no existing nationality community to welcome them, and few local linguistic or cultural resources. The Center for Southeast Asian Refugee Resettlement was started as a project of the Institute, and became independently incorporated in 1979. Early in the process of providing resettlement services to Southeast Asians, it became clear to IISF staff that the trauma of years of war, combined with other factors that included cultural disorientation and high degrees of ambivalence about the U.S. role in the war, made Southeast Asians particularly vulnerable to adjustment problems. The Institute was awarded a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to develop a demonstration project that would address these problems in a culturally appropriate way. In 1977, the Indochinese Family Services Project was started, to offer counseling, educational, and orientation services to the refugees. Over a thousand refugees were coming to San Francisco every month. Those who had not managed to escape in 1975 were leaving Vietnam by boat, risking the possibility of death at sea, and washing up on the shores of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In 1979, the Pol Pot government in Cambodia fell to the Vietnamese, and the nightmare of Pol Pot's murderous regime came to light. Local Cambodian refugees learned for the first time the fate of their friends and families, as survivors came into the area to resettle. By the early 80's, close to a million Southeast Asians lived in California. The close of the decade was marked by the passage of The Refugee Act of 1980, which for the first time formally integrated into our national policy the concept of ongoing government responsibility for assisting in an international effort to provide resettlement opportunities for the world's displaced peoples. The legislation provided a process for determining annual refugee admissions quotas, and guaranteed government assistance with cash and medical expenses, education, employment and social services for new refugee arrivals. At the time this legislation was passed, there were 8,100,000 refugees waiting outside their homelands for safe haven, and 4,555,000 people displaced because of war, famine, or political oppression in their own countries. Return to the beginning SEVENTH DECADE, 1980 - 1989: In the Spring of 1980, Fidel Castro opened up Mariel Harbor in Cuba and more than 125,000 Cubans boarded small boats and landed in Miami by the end of the summer. The Refugee Act of 1980 was being put to the test, in an election year . Reports that Castro had emptied his mental hospitals and jails into the boats proved true, although the vast majority of the Marielitos left Cuba seeking freedom and family reunion. IISF staff were active in assisting over 300 Mariel Cubans to adjust their status to permanent residence. In San Francisco, the health-care system was being challenged as it had never been before by a malicious virus, AIDS, that would reach epidemic proportions in a very short time, and threaten refugee and immigrant populations. In 1981, when the Department of Public Health started keeping records, 31 cases of the disease were reported. In 1982, massive civil disorder and repression of the Solidarity movement in Poland caused large numbers of Poles to flee the country. The Institute received a grant from the American Council for Nationalities Service to provide employment and English language training services for Eastern European refugees resettling in San Francisco. The Solidarity refugees represented the first wave of inevitable change in Eastern Europe. Unfamiliar with the insecurities of a free and competitive economy, and well aware of the material abundance in the United States, they arrived with expectations of good jobs and easier lives. They learned the basic skills necessary to seek employment, and began the difficult task of making their way in a new land.  By
1983, the major part of the Southeast Asian resettlement was over. Government
support for services for new arrivals had been severely cut by the Reagan
administration. Most refugees who had arrived in San Francisco over the
past eight years were working and supporting their families. For the others,
older people, rural people, people who were having difficulty learning English,
services were still needed. The Institute started the Refugee Information
and Referral Project, with a contract from the city's Department of Social
Services. Bi-lingual workers, who had arrived as refugees themselves, assisted
people to find the help they needed in the areas of employment, health,
housing, education, immigration, and welfare.By 1984, refugee and immigrant needs in Marin County became apparent, and a branch office was opened in San Rafael. In 1985, the California State Department of Social Services granted funds to the International Institute and eight other local voluntary agencies to develop a demonstration project that would provide long-term case management services to refugees who had been unable to become self-sufficient. During the three-year term of the project, every goal was accomplished, hundreds of refugees were placed in jobs, and welfare savings were generated that more than returned project costs. In Washington, long-term concern about illegal immigration resulted in the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986. The law offered amnesty and the opportunity for citizenship to all people who had been living in the United States without documents since 1982. The International Institute responded by offering outreach and legal assistance to amnesty applicants, serving over 3,000 people during the application period. By December, 1987, testing for the AIDS virus ( HIV) became mandatory for all people wanting to immigrate to the United States, including amnesty applicants already here. Institute staff worked with local coalitions to assure that HIV test results were managed in a sensitive, confidential fashion. In 1987, an ESL/Civics training program was developed to help amnesty applicants meet the requirements for the second phase of the program, application for permanent residence. As the International Institute's seventh decade came to a close, over 5,000 San Franciscans had died of AIDS. A broad-based, city-wide education and prevention effort was a model for the nation. Still, monolingual, recently arrived refugees and immigrants were less likely to benefit from educational programs. The Institute received a grant from Northern California Grantmakers to provide AIDS education and prevention training to staff people of local immigrant and refugee serving organizations. Return to the beginning EIGHT DECADE, 1990-1999 The International Institute of San Francisco has a staff of forty people, representing nineteen different linguistic and cultural groups. We provide services in a four-county area, with an annual budget of over $1,000,000. To this day, we continue to advocate for the benefits of a culturally plural society, the strength of families. Return to the beginning by Margi Dunlap, Executive Director For more recent history, please refer to our Annual Reports section. |
Copyright ©
2005 - The International Institute of San Francisco The International Institute of San Francisco is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. |