About the California Immigrant Integration Initiative
CIII seeks to advance the civic and economic integration of immigrants at the local and state level by strengthening the immigrant integration infrastructure in local communities across California. The initiative, organized in 2007, currently involves 25 statewide and local funders. Through a partnership with the Institute for Local Government, CIII also engages municipal and county governments in its efforts. In a time of significantly reduced public and philanthropic resources, CIII provides funders a forum to identify partnership and funding opportunities and work together to leverage the influence and impact of their leadership and grant dollars.
Learn more about the initiative and its recent work here.
Current Initiatives
Activities
Research Projects
Upcoming Meetings
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Accomplishments
Current Initiatives
Priority areas of work include:
- Increasing citizenship and civic participation through regional funder collaboration and statewide coordination
- Informing funders about local, state, and federal policy developments on immigrant integration and immigration reform
- Building the strategic communications capacity of immigrant organizations
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Activities
- Generate and disseminate data and information about California immigrants and their integration needs.
- Engage diverse stakeholder groups, from foundations to advocates to local governments, in responding to these needs at the local and state levels.
- Encourage the identification and development of public policy, as well as community-based and private-sector solutions to promote immigrant integration.
- Promote funder coordination, collaboration, and leadership to advance immigrant integration in California.
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Research Projects
CIII research has developed data sets with unique information about the state's immigrant population and the children of immigrants. View these data sets here.
Published Reports:
- Integration Potential of California's Immigrants and Their Children: New Estimates of Potential New Voters at the State, County, and Legislative District Levels. Available here.
- The Need to Expand Immigration Legal Services in Northern California. Available here.
- The Vital Role of Community Colleges in the Education and Integration of Immigrants. Available here.
- California Counts! A Funders' Guide to the 2010 Census. Available here.
Reports in development:
- Research on the need for English classes. This research project, conducted by the Center for Immigrant Integration Policy of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), will result in a statewide report that includes: the size of the foreign-born population, with a breakdown of both lawful permanent residents and undocumented persons; an assessment of the education levels and English proficiency levels of foreign-born adults in each county, by age group; and the development of a research protocol that can be used by policy makers and others for assessing the current "supply" or capacity of English language services in each county. Lack of English skills is a key factor in immigrants' inability to access health care, improve their economic well-being, participate in civic life, and become U.S. citizens. The report will provide important baseline data for public, private, and nonprofit stakeholders to develop a coherent response to the English language and literacy needs of California's immigrants. Release date: 2010.
- Other research projects. To fill the information gap, GCIR plans to pursue a number of other practical research projects in the areas of education, health, workforce development, and citizenship and civic participation. The research will likely examine what services exist and where, the programmatic gaps that need to addressed, and policies that need to be changed in order to improve or expand services to immigrants. The specifics of each research project will be determined in conjunction with the foundations that support this initiative.
The specifics of each research project will be determined in conjunction with the foundations that support this initiative and organizations working in these issue areas.
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Upcoming Meetings
CIII holds quarterly meetings. For more information, please contact Amanda Graves.
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