Celebrate Philly’s 200,000 foreign-born residents this Immigrant Heritage Month

Philadelphia is home to 200,000 immigrants — about 13 percent of the city’s overall population.

Our many social services nonprofits have been fairly vocal and active about providing aid to them in recent months. Still, and especially for the city’s 50,000 undocumented immigrants, there is fear about the reported rise of immigrant arrests and uncertainty about whether Latino services organizations’ CEOs should be called out for their apparent support of a certain public official.

Proud to be the mayor of this city today b/c of all of you! @PhillyMayor #worldheritagephl pic.twitter.com/cMashyb2be

— Office of Immigrant Affairs (@PhillyOIA) May 25, 2017

The city itself remains a “Fourth Amendment city” in the face of Attorney General Jeff Sessions finalizing what defines those sanctuary conditions for a city, and so Philly’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (OIA) is taking this month of June to celebrate its fourth annual Immigrant Heritage Month.

The month-long series kicks off officially June 5 and is produced in collaboration with Welcome.us, a national nonprofit that is calling on states to celebrate its immigrant communities, such as with its new “I Stand With Immigrants” initiative.

#ImmigrantHeritagePHL starts tomorrow with the 7th Philadelphia International Tango Festival June 1-4! https://t.co/8Q5j0ZuGa1 pic.twitter.com/YjfCDlUNdC

— Office of Workforce Development (@PHLWorkforce) May 31, 2017

In accordance with the celebration, Generocity’s editorial coverage for this month will also focus on immigration. This June, we hope to take a further look into what the city’s communities, nonprofits and organizations are doing in support of these people.

Here are some of the #ImmigrantHeritagePHL events you can take part in around Philly, according to this full list by the OIA:

• Latino Film Festival 2017, June 2 to 4
• #ImmigrantHeritagePHL Kickoff and Philadelphia International Unity Cup Draw, June 5
• Arab Classical and Contemporary Music with Hanna Khoury and Hafez Kotain, June 5
• Healthy Living 101 for Refugee and Immigrant Communities, June 6
• Human Trafficking Conference, June 8
• Take Action Philly Citizenship Screenings, June 10, 17, 26 and 28
• Odunde Street Festival, June 11
• Caribbean Carnival and Parade, June 17
• Cameroonian Association of Philadelphia Convention, June 17
• The PAPA Sessions Featuring Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists, June 19
• World Refugee Day at City Hall, June 20
• Iftar Dinner at International House, June 20
• Uzbek Rhapsody: The Films of Ali Khamraev, June 22 to July 1
• Muhibbah Dinner, June 27