The 2024 Romanian Community Summit took place on Saturday, May 25 at the Logos Christian Academy in Chicago.
It was a great program with a tremendous turnout. I highly recommend you attend next year’s event if you can make it. You can see videos of the conference on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/live/KE8PGapaMLc
The highlight of the morning program was the Community Panel on Improving Communication and Collaboration, with Teodor Stan, President of the Immigration Research Forum (IRF) and President and Founding Member of the Federation of Romanian-American Organizations (FORA), and Dana Bucin, Immigration Attorney, Honorary Consul of Romania to Connecticut, and Board Member of ARCHER.
You can get a better idea of and follow Dana’s work at the following links:
https://www.facebook.com/ImmigrationDanaBucin/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danabucin/
The afternoon program saw a wonderful presentation by Adriana Preda, the first Romanian Obama Foundation Presidential Scholar at Columbia University and Board Member at The Social Incubator.
Future Objectives
The theme of the Summit was focused on fostering greater collaboration, partnership, and a spirit of community within the Romanian diaspora.
To that end, there was a discussion of a proposal for forming a Romanian Community Council that would gather religious groups, cultural associations, educational institutions, and elements from the business sector. Initially, this would be conceived as largely a Chicago initiative, but there has also been discussion about regionalizing and then establishing national networks.
Other components of this would be to see RUF become more integrative to the city of Chicago’s social health, well-being, and functioning. To develop more partnerships with other diasporas, and to create greater continuity of programming were other discussed avenues for the future.
There was also discussion about broadening the scope to regional and national interests and other organizational entities.
ARCHER
We also need to discuss the larger role of ARCHER, the American-Romanian Coalition for Human and Equal Rights, in this process.
We cannot lose sight of the objectives of ARCHER as an organization. The Romanian diaspora must maintain a focus on issues involving social justice and equal rights, as well as immigration issues and the reception of refugees. We must actively denounce and combat racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and all forms of discrimination as responsible global citizens.
Looking back at this event as members of ARCHER –, we are happy to notice the few community leaders whose work aligns with ARCHER’s values.
For instance, Dana Bucin’s work focuses on identifying policies, procedures, and practices that discriminate against immigrants, especially aging populations, by leading advocacy efforts and supporting legislative changes designed to reduce these barriers. At the summit, she talked about her advocacy and initiatives to expand immigrants’ access to education, healthcare, and jobs, and to support interest groups that come together to work towards common goals for the Romanian community and other minority groups. One such endeavor was the Global Entrepreneur in Residence Program, a pro-immigrant legislation she recently advised on in Connecticut, to enhance H-1B cap-exempt visa options available to Romanians and other international professionals and entrepreneurs, which could easily be implemented in places like Chicago.
At the summit, Dana also emphasized the need for cross-diaspora collaborations, collaborations with the business environment, and broader policy changes related to access to mental health professions benefiting those nationals who can support refugees from conflict areas.
Also, Teodor Stan’s multilateral work at FORA and Immigration Research Forum is directed towards facilitating professional community-building efforts, identifying their difficulties and looking for support to address them, lending attention to these people, and amplifying their voices.
We cannot do this without joining forces. ARCHER is committed to joining this collaborative effort.
If you have any insights or thoughts about this, feel free to contact Roxana Cazan or Mihaela Campion at [email protected] If you wish to play a role or become more active in ARCHER, we would welcome any collaboration and we invite you to contact us.
