Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees - GCIR

The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) has released Crossing Boundaries, Connecting Communities: Alliance Building for Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice. Produced with support from the Hill-Snowdon Foundation, Open Society Institute and Public Interest Projects, this new report includes detailed case studies of organizations that are forging effective cross racial alliances between immigrant and native-born communities in order to build power and win just policies and practices in their regions. The report features current and former HSF grantee partners, such as CASA de Maryland, Highlander Research and Education Center, the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance and the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance. A tool for both funders and practitioners, this report documents the range of creative strategies being employed to create authentic relationships between diverse constituents. It concludes with recommendations aimed attracting more resources for this innovative, yet under-funded, community strengthening strategy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This 45-page guidebook provides practical information about living and succeeding in the United States. Offered in Spanish and English (with additional languages to follow), the guide contains 170 essentials covering health, finances, housing, education, civic engagement, laws, and social values that were generated by cross-cultural trainers and research from reliable resources. The guide seeks to build cultural understanding and provide immigrants and refugees
with critical information in one convenient place to ease the integration process.

For more information or for sample copies, email lee@intercambioweb.org.

This guide is designed to give an overview of what it takes to start and sustain a charitable, community-based agency helping newcomers to the United States obtain lawful immigration status. It is general in approach so as to accommodate a variety of motivating factors and target groups.

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.