Cross-Cultural Public Relations
A Lawyer's Cinco De Mayo
How do you craft a campaign Latino immigrants will truly embrace?
When asked by the Law Firm Carlock, Copeland, Semler & Stair of Charleston, SC to help promote the expanding immigration component of their practice, cross-cultural communication was of utmost importance. Since so many immigrants are undocumented aliens, how could we explain legal services available to all immigrants in the state? Since South Carolina has one of the fastest growing immigrant populations in the US and it is estimated that over 75,000 undocumented immigrants—mainly of Hispanic origin—live in SC, accurate and accessible information was critical.
The general public is often unaware that many of the workers who support the construction and tourism infrastructure (SC’s #1 industry) are Latino immigrants. Whether an immigrant is working legally or illegally, for the Medical University or on a SC peach farm, their legal needs are complex and difficult to understand. For example, there are 56 kinds of temporary non-immigrant visas available. Each one comes with its own qualification requirements, rules and application process.
We developed numerous solutions to deal with these complex issues:
1. One bi-lingual attorney maintains the South Carolina Immigration Law Blog, which provides information to the public about the latest immigration issues affecting South Carolinians. She also provides commentary on immigration issues on a regular weekly radio call in show on El Sol Radio.
2. El Sol Radio held a Latino Fair at the Ladson Fairgrounds. This annual event attracts between 30,000 and 35,000 people. Carlock Copeland sponsored a booth where we distributed materials to attendees with emergency contact information. We wrote a brochure colors of the fair.
3. For our media campaign we developed press materials around Cinco de Mayo! Since the campaign was designed to educate the general public during a time when immigration reform was a hotly-debated political issue, it was appropriate to acknowledge the thousands of Mexicans who live and work in the state. Too often, these immigrants live in the shadows.
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