New Report Details How Cities and Metropolitan Areas Are Integrating Immigrant Populations

Analysis identifies 63 city-level institutions in places as diverse as Nashville, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Salt Lake City where local authorities are actively engaging the foreign-born population.

New York, December 15, 2015 — A new report by Americas Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA), Welcoming America, and the University of Southern California’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII) explores the quiet revolution taking place in U.S. cities and metropolitan areas, where municipalities are actively devising and implementing strategies to better welcome and integrate new Americans.

The report, Opening Minds, Opening Doors, Opening Communities: Cities Leading for Immigrant Integration, identifies 63 city-level institutions in places as diverse as Nashville, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Salt Lake City where local authorities are promoting immigrant integration. Months of conversations with the directors of local offices promoting support for immigrant populations paint a picture of a country where authorities and community stakeholders are devoting time and effort to strengthen social cohesion by welcoming rather than rejecting newcomers. 

Over the past few months, the tenor of the debate around immigrants and refugees in the United States has frequently gone beyond realities and figures, touching on deep concerns about identity in a changing America. This timely report provides a fact-based approach to the efforts that municipal governments as well as civic and business leaders are making to defuse potential tension and capitalize on the considerable impact that immigrants make in boosting the U.S. economic and civic vitality.

"As divisive rhetoric towards immigrants continues to garner national attention, it’s important to show the facts—that cities which welcome new arrivals with open arms reap great economic and social gains," said Brian Winter, AS/COA vice president of Policy.

"This research affirms that pragmatic and forward-thinking local leaders are moving full-steam ahead to build more inclusive communities for all Americans, including our newest neighbors," said Welcoming America Executive Director David Lubell. "Those communities that don't have an immigrant integration plan in place will miss the social and economic benefits that come when all residents are engaged and welcomed."

In the absence of a coordinated effort at the federal level, U.S. cities and metropolitan areas are at the frontlines of the economic, social, and civil integration of the foreign-born population. By examining the origins, functions, and goals of existing immigrant integration initiatives, this report identifies best practices and offers recommendations for other cities to follow.

According to the report, municipal offices for immigrant integration tend to exhibit the same characteristics, among them:

• They have a mayoral champion. Mayoral commitment is crucial, and it must go beyond being generally supportive to actually setting a tone and leading the charge.
• They make the economic case. Stressing the economic benefits of immigrants to the regional economy helps explain why being welcoming eventually pays off.
• They develop, streamline, and consolidate services. Immigrants often need particular services such as document translation, English-language classes, and microfinance support for new small business endeavors.
• They work with law enforcement. Immigrant lives are shaped on a daily basis by contact with the police. Offices both rein in the police and make them part of the integration process.
• They promote civic engagement. Offices see immigrants not just as recipients of services but also as civic actors.
• They engage policy-makers. In more established offices, efforts go beyond delivering and coordinating services for immigrant to promoting inclusive policies that address vulnerable immigrant populations.
• They offer leadership to their region. Offices help their cities create a wider network of immigrant services and organizations, which benefit neighboring communities.

The report was prepared by Manuel Pastor and Rhonda Ortiz from USC's CSII and Els de Graauw from Baruch College, the City University of New York.

"Our hope is that the framework presented in this report offers a better understanding of what cities are doing to advance immigrant integration, while also encouraging local entities to ‘scale up’ these city initiatives into a national movement that impacts lasting federal policy change," said CSII Managing Director and report co-author Rhonda Ortiz. "Moreover, we believe that building stronger and more welcoming communities is critical for full inclusion, shared prosperity, and racial equity for all—immigrant and native born alike."

Press inquiries:
Adriana La Rotta | alarotta@as-coa.org | 1-212-277-8384.
Kariela Almonte | kalmonte@as-coa.org | 1-212-277-8333.

Americas Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA) unite opinion leaders to exchange ideas and create solutions to the challenges of the Americas today. Americas Society (AS), the recipient of a grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to produce this research, was established by David Rockefeller in 1965 and is the premier forum dedicated to education, debate and dialogue in the Americas. Council of the Americas (COA), affiliate organization to AS, is the premier international business organization whose members share a common commitment to economic and social development, open markets, the rule of law, and democracy throughout the Western Hemisphere. Recognizing the link between U.S. immigration and overall hemispheric relations, AS/COA launched its Integration and Immigration Initiative in 2007 to draw on its public–private convening power in order to bring together key constituencies in new gateway cities and to produce research on the link between changing demographics and economic competitiveness. Visit us at www.as-coa.org.

Welcoming America inspires people to build a different kind of community — one that embraces immigrants and fosters opportunity for all. Connecting a broad network of nonprofits and local governments nationwide, Welcoming America also supports them in developing plans, programs, and policies that transform communities into vibrant places where people respect each other and everyone’s talents are valued and cultivated. Since its launch in 2009, Welcoming America has become a recognized national leader on immigrant inclusion and welcome, honored by the UN Alliance of Civilizations and BMW Group through the 2014 Intercultural Innovation Award and as a “Champion of Change” by the White House. In 2015, The White House Task Force on New Americans named Welcoming America as the nonprofit partner for the Building Welcoming Communities Campaign, an initiative to strengthen the federal government’s commitment to immigrant and refugee integration. Learn more at www.welcomingamerica.org.

The mission of the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration(CSII), based at the University of Southern California, is to remake the narrative for understanding, and to shape the dialogue, on immigrant integration in America. CSII aims to identify and evaluate the mutual benefits of immigrant integration for the native-born and immigrants and to study the pace of the ongoing transformation in different locations, not only in the past and present but projected into the future. CSII brings together three emphases: scholarship that draws on academic theory and rigorous research, data that provides information structured to highlight the process of immigrant integration over time, and engagement that seeks to create new dialogues with government, community organizers, business and civic leaders, immigrants and the voting public. Learn more at www.dornsife.usc.edu/CSII.

This research was made possible with partial support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The opinions and views of the authors do not necessarily state or reflect those of the Fund.