This article appeared in the I 2/26/08 Opinion section of the Daily Nebraska. http://www.dailynebraskan.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory...

CLAY NAFF

Last summer, the world looked on in horror as Burma's military regime brutally crushed protests led by the Southeast Asian nation's Buddhist monks. Before the year was out, Lincoln welcomed its first Burmese refugees. While the two events are not directly related, they do illustrate how dramatically life here has changed.

Whatever happens "out there," no matter how remote from Nebraska it may seem, soon has a ripple effect on our community. The biggest effect is human.

Over the last few decades, Lincoln's population has undergone rapid change. The federal government has resettled thousands of refugees here. Additionally, thousands of others - part of the largest wave of immigration to the United States since the 19th century - have made Lincoln their new home.

As a result, U.S. Census figures now indicate that more than 10 percent of Lincoln residents use some language other than English at home. That amounts to some 23,500 immigrants, and the number continues to rise. The newcomers are by and large poor, but hardworking and eager to learn English.

That's where Lincoln Literacy Council comes in. Although we still perform our original mission of helping English-speaking adult Americans improve their reading and writing, today the vast majority of our volunteer tutors are working with English Language Learners from around the world. In doing so, they are not only helping immigrants; they are making an important contribution to our community.

The population flow is two-way. Census figures indicate that Nebraska has lost nearly 37,000 of its citizens in the decade to date. A University of Nebraska study shows that even Lancaster County is losing homegrown population, but here the loss is more than offset by international immigration.

In short, today's newcomers are tomorrow's workers, homeowners, consumers and citizens - if they can successfully transition.

The key challenge for the successful integration of immigrants is to assist them in learning English. Without English, newcomers are isolated, powerless and dependent, or at best relegated to menial jobs at the bottom of the economy. Moreover, their children are likely to do poorly in school.

With English-language competence, immigrants gain opportunities for jobs, for educational advancement, to appropriately access the health care system, for passing the U.S. citizenship test and for helping their children to succeed in school.

Failure to meet their needs for language and acculturation services could result in a multi-generational burden on the community. To assist immigrant families, Lincoln Literacy Council recruits community volunteers, including college students, and trains them to be language and literacy tutors. After completing four three-hour sessions of training, tutors are placed in various settings to work with students once a week for an hour and a half.

That might not seem like much, but it makes an amazing difference in the lives of our students. Last year, 84 percent of them proved on year-end tests that they had advanced their knowledge of English by at least one level on a seven-point standard scale.

Just as important, many of our students made their first real friendship with an American through the tutoring they received. Quite a few obtained jobs because they learned how to read the help-wanted ads and how to fill out a job application. Some learned basic computer skills, some became citizens and others passed the driver's exam in English.

Still, we cannot rest on past success. The pace of change is picking up. Last fall the number of English Language Learners enrolled in Lincoln Public Schools rose to 2,198, a jump of nearly 18 percent from a year earlier. Research shows that their future academic success depends heavily on whether their parents strive for English-language literacy.

More broadly, the future of our entire community depends on whether we remain linguistically united even as we become more culturally diverse. We will either divide into enclaves, where non-English-speaking immigrants are limited to menial jobs, or we will remain united and share in the enrichment that diversity brings.

Lincoln is fortunate indeed that nearly 150 people a year are willing to step forward and become literacy volunteers. If you are interested in joining them, I invite you to call us or visit www.lincolnliteracy.org.

Clay Naff is the executive director of the Lincoln Literacy Program.