Kalihi nonprofit helps Micronesians retain values

A fledgling nonprofit in Kalihi-Palama is trying to help Micronesians in Hawaii hold on to the cultural values that mean the most to them.

Micronesians value family relationships above most things, but their communal lifestyle can clash with the Western value of individuality, said We Are Oceania Director Josie Howard.

“We are nobody if we have no connections or aren’t related to anyone,” and caring for one another holds the clan together, she said.

Howard said if her children were in Chuuk, they would never see a senior shunted off to a nursing home, but growing up here, “my youngsters are losing that value. … So they’ll probably be comfortable putting me in a nursing home,” she joked.

We Are Oceania aims to help Micronesians retain communal values and succeed in a modernized world. Being successful, she said, means “to be able to navigate both worlds … find that safe place for what works for you.”

Howard, who moved here from Chuuk to study in 1989, said Micronesians in Hawaii often face discrimination.

“We feel very unwelcome,” she said. Her three Hawaii-born children are “bullied at school because they’re Micronesian,” she said.

Many newcomers are homeless, without job skills and in dire need of health care — which places a major strain on social services and has led to some resentment.

“We feel this sense of, where do we belong? We’ve been displaced by nuclear testing, threatened by global warming … marginalized in the U.S. — where should we go?”

We Are Oceania opened its small One-Stop-Micronesian Center in August 2015 to help citizens of the Compact of Free Association (COFA) nations, which includes the Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands and Republic of Palau. The COFA treaty was formed in 1986 to compensate the island nations for the lasting damage caused by nuclear weapon testing from 1946 to 1958, and giving the U.S. strategic military control in the Asia-Pacific region. With the more recent climate change crisis, there is concern that rising tides will eventually make the low-l­ying islands uninhabitable, Howard said.

Hawaii has the second-­largest number of COFA immigrants in the U.S.— some 15,000 — who may enter and work legally without a visa or green card. But access to social and health services has been increasingly restricted even though Micronesians pay taxes, Howard said.

Micronesians have a unique status as immigrants because COFA allows them to live and work in the country legally, but with aggressive new immigration laws, there is heightened fear of deportation in the community, Howard said. “We’re (Micronesians) so unknown that any reform (related to) immigration, we’re lumped in with everyone. So we do get affected.”

Several local attorneys interviewed by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser said they have not seen an increase in the deportation of Micronesians.

“Anybody who has an outstanding removal order, they’re going to start knocking on those people’s doors and putting them on a plane,” said Kevin Block of Maui, who defends people being deported. There is no leeway for those who have committed crimes of “moral turpitude,” such as theft, aggravated felony and drug convictions, as under Barack Obama’s administration.

“The level of fear in the immigration communities in general is very high since the (presidential) election,” said Maile Hirota, an immigration attorney, who said she has received “lots and lots of calls” from people with green cards worried about travel restrictions. Any brush with the law is worrisome for those who have committed even minor offenses as well as for victims of crimes afraid of reporting them to police, she said.

“The reality is the administration is unpredictable and has said so many things that are anti-immigrant, and people are just really afraid,” Hirota added.

Howard said it’s absolutely “vital” for Micronesians to keep their legal documents in order in the current political climate to remain in the U.S. and to obtain social services or employment. The problem is that many Micronesians have a language barrier, barely subsist on low-paying jobs and can’t afford Hawaii’s high rents, ending up homeless. During sweeps of homeless encampments, they’ve lost their documents, which are difficult and expensive to replace, she said.

We Are Oceania has to educate clients about their rights and what to do “if ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) shows up at their door,” said Howard.

With a $250,000 federal grant, We Are Oceania offers services in the community center at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church. Staff members speak various Pacific island dialects or can put their clients in touch with other interpreters to help them through government red tape. Most clients need help enrolling in medical care, but the center assists with housing, employment, education and other needs.

Last year We Are Oceania assisted 2,000 clients, but expects the number to double this year.

The organization is in a three-year program to obtain its own 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, under the mentorship of a group that helps disadvantaged Hawaiians, the Partners in Development Foundation.

We Are Oceania held a summit in April for Micronesian youth.

“They felt so empowered,” Howard said. “They said, yes, we are marginalized here but we are so capable, we also know our own strength. I don’t want in any way for that (the marginalization) to be a barrier to motivate us to overcome all those disparities and reach our potential to be successful.”