By Chad Selweski
chad.selweski@macombdaily.com; @cbsnewsman

Holden Elementary School in Sterling Heights displays in its lobby dozens of flags that represent all the countries of its diverse student body. From left to right are teacher Bill Piscopink; Adnan Kepes holds the flag of Bosnia; Merna Naeem and Rita Arfro are from Iraq; and Laila Muthanna and Kirollos Ibrahim are from Egypt. The Macomb Daily/DAVID DALTON

For decades, gritty, blue-collar Macomb County featured a substantial ethnic population but it has now become a melting pot where families from dozens of countries, many of them led by white-collar breadwinners, have settled in.

Almost 100 languages are now spoken across the county and in some residential areas the concentration of immigrants approaches 50 percent of the population.

Cities and townships that were once dominated by three ethnic groups — Germans, Italians and Poles — are now home to families who emigrated from Iraq, India, Albania, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Mexico, the Philippines, Serbia, Croatia, Ukraine, Laos and Thailand.

“There’s this tremendous diversity, a rich diversity, in the immigrant groups of Macomb County and much of the entire region. We don’t have just Latinos or one group that dominates,” said Kurt Metzger, director of the Data Driven Detroit research firm.

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According to a new report produced by DDD and another group that studies Detroit area demographics, Global Detroit, much of Macomb’s foreign-born population has established residency along the Mound/Dequindre corridor in Warren and Sterling Heights. These ethnic clusters also spill over into Shelby Township, Troy and Madison Heights.

Macomb’s melting pot, its ethnic stew, features the largest Albanian population of any county in America. Yet the Albanians and other prominent ethnic groups are largely “invisible” because they are dispersed, according to the Global Detroit/DDD study.

Macomb County has no Chinatown or Mexicantown.

Susan Katulla of Sterling Heights, a Chaldean who came to the United States as an infant, said that the Mound/Dequindre corridor became a settlement location for immigrants and refugees almost by chance. The early Chaldeans — about 400 families in 1987 — were attracted by the jobs and low cost of living in Macomb County.

Many more followed, including refugees fleeing the Gulf War and Iraq War. The most recent estimates indicate 70,000 Chaldeans and other Iraqi Christians live in Macomb County, with 25,000 to 30,000 located in Sterling Heights alone.

“There are businesses in that area that cater to ethnic communities, selling favorite foods, vegetables, spices,” said Katulla, vice chair of the Sterling Heights Ethnic Community Committee. “The people like to have family close to them. They want a place to shop that’s close to them. They want a church that’s close to them.”

Churches are ‘magnets’
For most of the immigrant enclaves, the church is the anchor of the community, the main draw for those seeking a place to live.

The Macedonian and Serbian communities built towering, ornate churches in Sterling Heights. The Sikh community last year constructed a temple, a gurdwara, nearby. The Assyrians, another sect of Iraqi Christians, established a church on Ryan Road in Warren. Filipinos were attracted to that same corridor by the number of Catholic churches, including some with priests that are first-generation immigrants from the Philippines, according to Betsy Henry, president of the Filipino Chamber of Commerce, located in Rochester Hills.

Another big draw is a Filipino cultural and activities center in Southfield and the huge annual picnic at Warren’s Halmich Park in June to celebrate Kalyaan, Independence Day for the Philippines. The event attracts 3,000 to 5,000 Filipinos of all generations.

“Filipinos are very fun-loving, gregarious people. They love to dance and sing,” Henry said.

Many of the recent arrivals to the United States entered on work visas. They are college-educated immigrants who were sponsored under a 3- to 5-year agreement with an employer. A large number have gone into the health care field as nurses or physical therapists.

Steve Tobocman, director of Global Detroit, said that robust immigration strengthens the local economy and creates more jobs, as highly skilled professionals and entrepreneurs make the Detroit area home. The immigration reforms pending in Congress would add to that momentum, he believes.

“People may tend to think of Macomb County as not as diverse as Wayne County or Oakland County, but some of the most concentrated populations of foreign-born immigrants are in Macomb,” said Tobocman, a former state House member who represented southwest Detroit.

Immigrant profile
The Global Detroit/DDD report depicts a flattering picture of the Detroit-area immigrant populace:

* 40 percent of the immigrant population has a bachelor’s or graduate-level college degree, significantly above the educational attainment of local residents who were born in the U.S.

* Two-thirds of foreign-born immigrants own their homes, and 52 percent have become naturalized citizens.

* The average income for this first-generation immigrant group is $61,000 for males and $41,000 for females.

* Foreign-born residents have a higher rate of employment — 90 percent vs. 84 percent for American-born workers — and only 7 percent work in the public sector.

* Immigrants have a much higher percentage of workers in four categories — management, business, science and the arts — than naturalized citizens.

* The foreign-born are much more likely to be married than American-born residents, and half as likely to be divorced.

In Macomb County, six sections — U.S. Census tracts — within the Sterling Heights Mound/Dequindre corridor feature foreign-born populations of 35 percent to 42 percent.

In the surrounding neighborhoods of Sterling Heights, Warren and Shelby Township, several census tracts are highlighted by foreign-born populations above 20 percent.

The assimilation of these newcomers from a vast array of nations falls on the school districts, nonprofit groups associated with particular ethnicities, and organizations such as Global Detroit. Assistance with finding housing, a job and dealing with “culture shock” are offered by numerous groups.

The Mount Clemens-based Interfaith Center for Racial Justice in 2007 launched a rotating, 5-week program of workshops called “Listen, Learn and Live” that teach residents about other cultures and religions. That effort, according to ICRJ Director the Rev. Michail Curro, expanded into week-long summer day camps run by two churches in south Warren for a diverse group of immigrant kids.

At the public schools, the biggest challenge is integrating kids into the American system of education and getting them into an English as a Second Language class.

92 languages
Immigrants in Macomb County schools speak at least 92 languages at home, according to Judy Pritchett, chief academic officer for the Macomb Intermediate School District. Of the approximately 10,000 K-12 students attending sessions known as English Language Learners classes, the vast majority are enrolled in the Warren Consolidated and Utica school districts.

Katulla, the lone Chaldean member of the Warren Consolidated school board, said her district provides interpreters via a two-way phone system to help immigrant parents communicate with teachers.

But the chasm some kids face in becoming functional in American society goes beyond language skills.

“Many of these kids have gaps in their education due to the trauma of war or persecution or family separations,” Katulla said. “We can have an eighth-grader who last went to school in the second grade.”

Parents also receive assistance with English language classes but Katulla said that at the Chaldean Community Foundation, where she works, sad stories abound. She offered the example of an immigrant pharmacist who was working a menial, 12-hours-a-day job and has no time to attend English-learning sessions so he can secure a job in his field.

“Many of these people have so much talent, but they speak no English,” she said.

While Macomb County may not have a Chaldeantown or an Indiantown, it once came close to establishing a Ukrainiantown.

In the 1960s, at a time when just a few big ethnic contingents were concentrated within the county populace, immigrants from Ukraine began migrating north from Hamtramck and surrounding Detroit neighborhoods to Warren, specifically the area at 11 Mile and Ryan.

The construction of St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Church was the “magnet” that sparked the exodus, according to Ukrainian community leaders. What followed was a Ukrainian housing complex, two Ukrainian credit unions where the tellers spoke the native language, and the Ukrainian Cultural Center, which features a large banquet room and has hosted former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

About a mile away, near 12 Mile and Dequindre, the remnants of the Ukrainians who had worshipped at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Hamtramck established a K-12 Immaculate Conception school within a shuttered public school building. The high school eventually closed but the elementary school lives on. Over time, several Ukrainian sports clubs for kids have also been formed.

Andrey Duzyj, former president of the Ukrainian Cultural Center, said many of the older Macomb County Ukrainians have died off or moved on. But the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1991 sparked a second exodus of immigrants from Ukraine, the former “Captive Nation,” to America in search of economic opportunity.

“They call themselves the ‘new wave’ — and that’s fine,” Duzyj said. “We just want to keep our heritage alive.”

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