Making Schaumburg feel more like home

All involved with a new effort to reach out to Schaumburg's South Asian population are pleased with its progress and hopeful of the chances of renewing the grant that made it possible.

"It's been fascinating work," said Sue Keener, the Schaumburg Business Association's director of member services. "It has been an incredible experience for me personally."

The village of Schaumburg received the original $50,000 grant last summer for the association to study ways to better integrate the community's immigrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

A 2005 survey by the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that South Asian residents made up 10 percent of Schaumburg's population, yet made up only about 2 percent of the association's members.

Four municipalities were picked by the Chicago Community Trust to receive grants, each to concentrate on integrating a different ethnic minority, Keener said.

The hope is that each grant recipient will create a model of integration that can be replicated elsewhere.

Already in place is an advisory group of 23 members, 17 of whom are South Asian and represent the fields of health care, education, business and not-for-profit work.

"We really have a well-rounded group of people that lead the discussion and meet regularly," Keener said.

The association also hired a research group from Northern Illinois University to facilitate focus groups and solicit community surveys.

One of the first questions the study had to answer was why representation of South Asians in government and politics was disproportionately low.

Many harbored the expectation that cultural or religious differences would be found as the cause, but they were wrong, Keener said.

"It's really more about the generation that's here," she said. "First-generation experiences are very different from second-generation."

While there's little problem getting community participation from the second generation, there's still a desire to close that gap with the first.

Many first-generation immigrants find themselves too busy establishing themselves in a new country to volunteer for other activities, the group found.

That's not a surprise to advisory committee member Ghazala Siddiqui, a teacher at Schaumburg's Hoover Elementary School.

Siddiqui and her husband moved from Pakistan with three small children in 1987.

Only now, after 20 years and with their children grown up, have they felt able to volunteer their time, she said.

Though many newer immigrants feel that way, Siddiqui now realizes that that attitude should change.

"You have to make them realize that this is to their benefit and that even a little commitment of their time will be of great benefit to their community," she said. "And this message has to come from someone they trust."

Though these issues have existed for decades, backlash from the events of Sept. 11 made immigrants even less comfortable about stepping into the public eye, Siddiqui said.

The association is applying for the second year of what could be a three-year grant. Keener said she believes the group is in good position to demonstrate its progress so far.

She recently reported on the study to the Schaumburg village board, which Mayor Al Larson said was very happy with the association's use of the grant money.