Immigrant Promotion Bus Ads
Ghana ThinkTank
Location: On the Q23 and Q58 Bus Lines, Corona, Queens, New York, USA
Project Description: During the Summer of 2011, the Ghana ThinkTank worked in Corona, Queens, bringing their Think TANK (pictured ) to different parts of the neighborhood, collecting problems they sent to a network of think tanks in Ghana, Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico, Serbia and Iran. They then enacted the solutions they received from these think tanks back in Corona. The idea for running an Immigrant Promotional Campaign came from the Ghana ThinkTank’s June 5 session at Immigrant Movement International http://immigrant-movement.us/?page_id=2756. The “”I came here to be an American”" slogan came from a focus group with the Corona VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars), and “”Made by Immigrants”" came from Immigrant Movement International’s April 3 Slogan Writing Workshop http://immigrant-movement.us/?page_id=952 independent of our project.
The initial problems submitted to the Ghana ThinkTank that spurred all of this included “”Oldtimers are racist to newcomers”" (collected at Corona Plaza) and “”I am becoming a minority in my own neighborhood”" (collected near “”Spaghetti Park”"). When we delved deeper into the reasons behind these issues, we learned that they primarily dealt with more established residents of Corona taking issue with the newer Immigrants in the community.
Similar issues with police harassment, families and relationships being broken up by deportations, and the hiring and non-payment of immigrant workers were also submitted to the Ghana ThinkTank in Corona, and resulted in a series of solutions from think tanks in Mexico, Serbia, intended to ease or highlight misunderstandings and inequities regarding immigrants in Corona, Queens.”
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