Immigration expert Dr. Westy Egmont will speak at NECC on Feb 12.

Dr. Westy Egmont, founding director of the Immigrant Integration Lab of the Boston College School of Social Work, will address the facts around U.S. immigration and the risks of poor immigration policy decisions during a presentation titled “We Need More Immigrants” on Wednesday, February 12 from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

Free and open to the public, the presentation will be held in the Pentucket Bank Lecture Hall in the Spurk Building on NECC’s Haverhill Campus, 100 Elliott St., Haverhill, MA.  A reception will follow the presentation.

Egmont has served as a leader of the Rift Valley Academy in Kenya and for a decade as the president of the International Institute of Boston, the largest immigrant and refugee service agency in New England.  A frequent speaker, he has lectured at dozens of colleges and universities and in a variety of conferences across the US, Australia, and Europe, and been a frequent media guest on immigration issues.

He also has co-chaired the Massachusetts Governor’s Advisory Council on Immigrants and Refugees and has been appointed by five governors to that advisory board.

This presentation is made possible through funds from the college’s Social Justice Award, which was presented for the first time to Dr. Paul Saint-Amand, retired English professor, at the college’s 2019 Commencement.   The Social Justice Award recognizes individuals, groups, departments, or initiatives that promote values such as a commitment to equity and diversity or the advancement of human rights and social justice.   It comes with a cash prize of $1961—in honor of the year the college was founded—that the recipient chooses to enhance social justice initiatives.

Saint-Amand, a Vietnam-era veteran, is committed to peace and to supporting veterans. When he arrived at NECC 11 years ago, he brought with him the concept for the Peace Poetry Project – a contest for school and college-aged students to write poems about peace. To date, more than 12,000 original poems on peace have been submitted over 11 years.

For more information, contact Janel D’Agata-Lynch, NECC coordinator of civic engagement, service learning, and community resources, jdagatalynch@necc.mass.edu or 978 556-3471.