Bob Simon
IMMIGRANT SOCIAL INTEGRATION – Whether someone ever meets an immigrant in person, there is no way to not hear about that term from the news.
It’s a process that many people don’t fully understand, especially non-immigrants. However, 60-year-old Tampa resident Joseph Germain arrived to lead the social integration of refugees during his 20 years working with them.
As a pastor, he offers a must-have assistance – combined with the government immigrant program – to hundreds of people flying their countries for a better life in the United States.
“As a minister of God, I follow the Bible guidelines. God says, help strangers, widows, children, and the poor.
So, I want to help as many as possible. Our days, immigrants are a group of people who need help,” he said.
His previous experience as a community development assistant from his hometown in Dominica already gave him the skills to help others address social barriers.
Germain became an associate pastor from a previous congregation, where he realized that some immigrants share some common issues and show similar expectations.
“They come to the United States for education or economic reasons, though they perceive life will be much better for them,” Germain said.
Now, he is the pastor of Global Community Church and continues to follow his call.
Through his experiences, he observes that language is among the common barriers for immigrants who are not English speakers.
He explains that the priority of this category of immigrants is to learn a new language. For him, sometimes it is hard because, “The older that you are, the more difficult it is to learn a new language,” he said.
Germain affirms among the immigrants who come to the United States that some are well-educated people with high aspirations.
However, some individuals see all immigrants as not educated people.
He recalls some time in his prior years falling into this trap where others classified him as an uneducated immigrant.
“Sometimes people assume that because you are not speaking English, you are uneducated,” Germain declared.
When they arrive, immigrants’ priority is to understand how to satisfy their primary needs regarding how to feed their family, find a job, go to school, and have housing.
Therefore, the help they need is most likely oriented toward social integration. For Germain, when they have a good grip, they will go on alone.
Between his willingness to help immigrants and desire to see them develop their autonomy, Germain expects to witness their success.
But he explained that the faster immigrants become self-reliant, the better for them.
“There is a temptation to do everything for them. It’s better to teach them how to do things independently so they become independent,” he said.
Besides preaching the gospel and helping immigrants with their language barrier, Germain used to provide rides to teenagers who went to school. He sometimes drives those who get hired at their first job.
In his dialogue with immigrants, he spends time helping them understand the opportunities that the United States offers to them and vice versa.
He carefully helps them identify and choose the good opportunities from the negative ones. Because “If you find yourself with the wrong crowd, you can find yourself wasting your time,” Germain said.
Seeing immigrants integrate successfully into their community and then become helpful to their new neighbors is the most valuable thing you can do, he explained.
“When I talk to most immigrants I helped, they break my heart when they thank me for what I did; it’s a blessing to know that the people you helped are moving forward successfully,” he said.
Meanwhile, Germain underlines that some immigrants expected everything to work out as soon as they arrived.
His own experience helps him understand that most of the time, things don’t happen like that. “The opportunity is there, but you have to discipline yourself; you have to be prepared to work hard,” he said.
So, in his standard public address to newcomers, Germain encourages them, unfortunately, not to set their expectations too high, like people think everything will fall in line.
“I came here to get a better life; therefore, I may do things that I never did before in my home country.
Work hard, be disciplined, and make the sacrifice, and then you will probably achieve the American dream,” he concluded.
Click here to watch the full interview with Joseph Germain
DC of Tampa 
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