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Following Public Agenda's pioneering 2002 survey of immigrants in "Now That I'm Here," this new study, "A Place to Call Home: What Immigrants Say Now About Life in America," provides a thoughtful and probing analysis of current views immigrants hold towards the United States, as well as offers trend data to support themes from our earlier study. As the nation begins yet another effort to reform immigration policy, it will be important to understand the attitudes of those most affected by new policy: immigrants themselves. With that in mind, "A Place to Call Home" examines what brings people here and what they think once they arrive. The study was conducted with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Provides insightful discussion of why migration occurs and assesses major theories of how immigrants incorporate into receiving society. Analyzes detailed evidence on successful economic, linguistic, and social incorporation among contemporary immigrant groups; discusses how increased racial and ethnic diversity created by immigration may blur the racial divide, transforming the United States into a multi-ethnic, multi-racial society.
From the infamous "melting pot" to segmented assimilation to an identity-based model, explore the various ways academics conceptualize assimilation.
How can societies that welcome immigrants from around the world create civic cohesion and political community out of ethnic and racial diversity? Providing a comparative perspective on how the United States and Canada encourage foreigners to become citizens, based on vivid in-depth interviews with Portuguese immigrants and Vietnamese refugees in Boston and Toronto and on statistical analysis and documentary data, this book shows that greater state support for settlement and an official government policy of multiculturalism in Canada increase citizenship acquisition and political participation among the foreign born.
This book describes the growth and population characteristics of immigrants in new settlement states and examines the implications for the integration of immigrants moving into areas that lack a tradition of receiving newcomers. It Pprovides case studies of new immigrant settlements in North Carolina, Atlanta, Minnesota, Virginia, Utah, and Arkansas. The book aims to improve communication between immigrants and the institutions they interact with, and enhance the flow of information between communities facing similar challenges in different regions.
In 2003, the Fund for New Citizens began a Capacity-Building Initiative to strengthen immigrant-led groups in New York City by enabling them to address critical management issues. By providing grantees with both grants and technical assistance, the Fund aimed to help individual grantees strengthen their programs and expand their budgets, while also increasing the groups' individual and collective capacity to advocate on behalf of their constituents. From 2003 to 2007, the Initiative's 27 grantees took on a range of projects related to fiscal management, technology, fundraising, leadership development, and governance.
The aim of this report is to gauge how the Initiative has affected grantees, individually and collectively, over the past five years. In short: What kind of results has the Capacity-Building Initiative produced? The report seeks not only to highlight the key factors that bring an organization to the next level of growth and sustainability, but also to illustrate the effect the Initiative has had on grantees' ability to advocate on behalf of their constituents.
This publication offers a glimpse of the learning journey that took place for a group of GCYF members over an eight-month period. In this publication, we synthesized the collective learning that emerged and relayed some of the most important strategies for success that we uncovered. In an attempt to make the information presented in this publication as accessible as possible for funders, GCYF also developed a companion learning kit, which includes power point presentations on the subject, a planning guide, discussion guide and resource guide.
This study examines immigrant integration through the lens of community-based organizations. Based on interviews with nonprofit leaders and an analysis of data from the National Center for Charitable Statistics, the study found that immigrant-serving nonprofits provide a wide range of programs and services to foreign-born communities which promote the social and political mobility of newcomers. Findings also suggest a potential spatial mismatch between immigrant-serving organizations and the people they serve. The organizations are concentrated in the metropolitan area while immigrant populations are growing in the outer suburbs. Moreover, different political and administrative structures and policies affect the ability of these nonprofits to serve their constituents.
Trends in the U.S. economy and labor force over the past 30 years have implications for the workforce and for low-wage workers and their families in particular. This article discusses the increased diversity in the workforce, the growing need for low-skilled workers, the skills gap between high- and low-skilled workers, and the number of working poor in the United States.
Hispanic children often encounter challenging environments in which to grow up including high poverty rates, limited access to health and social services, an education achievement gap, and hostility toward immigrant families. Meanwhile, public policy impacts their neighborhoods, families, and schools. This volume explores the challenges confronting Hispanic youth and the policy agenda that could improve these children's lives.
Recognized for its superb portrayal of immigration and immigrant lives in the United States, this book probes the dynamics of immigrant politics, examining questions of identity and loyalty among newcomers, and explores the psychological consequences of varying modes of migration and acculturation. The authors look at patterns of settlement in urban America, discuss the problems of English-language acquisition and bilingual education, explain how immigrants incorporate themselves into the American economy, and examine the trajectories of their children from adolescence to early adulthood. With a vital new chapter on religion--and fresh analyses of topics ranging from patterns of incarceration to the mobility of the second generation and the unintended consequences of public policies--this updated edition is indispensable for framing and informing issues that promise to be even more hotly and urgently contested as the subject moves to the center of national debate.
The school system provides numerous opportunities and challenges for immigrant integration, and as a place where many immigrants interact the most with their communities, it can play an important role in integration. This guide, intended for school administrators, district administrators, and teachers provides specific recommendations for promoting immigrant integration in schools.
This report looks at the challenges and opportunities of immigrant integration in Los Angeles County. It seeks to frame the debate and future policy with a careful grounding in the facts, using data collected from both secondary sources and insights gleaned from a series of focus groups and interviews. The intended audience is broad - civic and business leaders, immigrant advocates, public officials, and other interested parties - but we make a special effort here to spell out what a philanthropic agenda might be for promoting immigrant integration in Los Angeles.
Reports on immigrant experiences and ability to resettle in United States, based on in-depth interviews with 230 immigrants in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, representing 19 countries. Combination of data and extensive quotes portrays danger of border crossing, difficulty of obtaining legal status, workplace discrimination, and lack of access to services. Recommends states and federal government work together to create paths to citizenship, strengthen worker protections, broaden opportunities for immigrants to become part of community life, and protect immigrants from discrimination.
Behind the contentious politics of immigration lies the question of how well new immigrants are becoming part of American society. To address this question, this book draws on the results of a ground-breaking study of young adults of immigrant parents in metropolitan New York to provide a comprehensive look at their social, economic, cultural, and political lives. The authors conclude, "We began this study worried about downward mobility of some of the children of immigrants. We now feel that, in some ways, it is the opposite problem that is actually a greater cause for concern. It has become clear that the relative success of the children of immigrants is now obscuring the depth of continuing poverty and discrimination, limited opportunities, staggering rates of incarceration and the general social excluision of large segments of the native minority youth population."
This study assesses demographic trends indicating how well immigrant families are faring and explores conceptual and policy design issues that should inform an immigrant integration agenda. It also reviews federal spending on immigrants in areas key to integration, such as education, and outlines policy issues affecting future directions in safety net, education, employment, and housing programs.
The task force commissioned by the Nebraska legislature evaluates the potential for integrating new Latino workers, whose numbers grew by 155 percent between 1990 and 2000 in response to new beef- and poultry-processing jobs. It paints a portrait of newcomers’ economic, education, English language, and citizenship status. Through surveys of schools, churches, law enforcement, and local NGOs, the Task Force identified seven challenges to integration: language, lack of understanding of U.S. rules, cultural conflict and racism, low wages, education/training needs, basic needs, and lack of access to legal status and advice.
GCIR's Investing in Our Communities: Strategies for Immigrant Integration is a succinct, easy-to-understand guide that describes how grantmakers at all levels can play an important leadership role on this issue. This publication was developed through extensive research and interviews with hundreds of foundations, community, business, and government leaders. It incorporates academic research as well as policy and community-based concerns into a resource that can inform the work of practitioners in the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. The toolkit offers foundations many benefits, including concrete recommendations to guide philanthropic investment, a historical perspective on immigrant integration, profiles of more than 75 promising program and policy models, a resources section complete with fast facts on immigration-related terms in topics, and a DVD of film clips that can be used to engage foundation colleagues and other stakeholders in discussions on immigrant issues.
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The author uses a century of Census data and other research to present a comprehensive comparison of contemporary Mexican immigrants with the progress of Italians who came at the beginning of the last century. The book examines wages, schooling, and economic outcomes to show that Mexican second-generation progress, though slowed, is better in several respects than earlier Italian generations. Key recommendations to boosting progress include reversing the growing wage inequality in the United States, legalizing undocumented Mexican immigrants, and improving high school graduation rates.
Hispanics now make up 22% of all children under the age of 18 in the United States--up from 9% in 1980--and as their numbers have grown, their demographic profile has changed.
A majority (52%) of the nation's 16 million Hispanic children are now "second generation," meaning they are the U.S.-born sons or daughters of at least one foreign-born parent, typically someone who came to this country in the immigration wave from Mexico, Central America and South America that began around 1980. Some 11% of Latino children are "first generation"--meaning they themselves are foreign-born. And 37% are "third generation or higher"--meaning they are the U.S.-born children of U.S.-born parents.
This report presents findings from several existing and new Pew Hispanic Center analyses of U.S. Census Bureau data. The analysis of the legal status of Hispanic children utilized the augmented March 2008 Current Population Survey. The historical and current profile of Hispanic children derives from new analyses of Decennial Census and American Community Survey data.
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