Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees - GCIR

Nearly 1 in 10 families with children have mixed citizenship status, where one or more parents may be a noncitizen and one or more children may be a citizen. This study explores the reasons for the creation of a mixed-status family category and the unintended effects that social policies (such as the 1996 welfare restrictions) can have on citizen children.

This report shows how sharp restrictions of the 1996 immigration law have combined with post-September 11 law and policy changes to create a two-tiered system of justice that singles out immigrants for unequal treatment. The United States should be able to protect its borders, limit illegal immigration, and preserve national security while protecting civil rights, promoting family reunification, and respecting due process. The study combines a clear description of legal changes with stories of affected individuals, and recommends steps to restore due process and fair treatment.

Shows how ambivalence towards new immigrants and racial minorities has resulted in residential segregation by race and income, and how this segregation undermines education and job prospects as well as health and safety. Outlines an agenda to expand opportunity and assesses viability of movement for regional solutions.

This book examines how the dramatic increase in economic inequality since the 1970s may have stalled or reversed gains toward the U.S. ideal of participatory, responsive democracy. Scholars marshal evidence that economic inequality has diminished the voice of middle and working classes in politics, and reduced support for inclusive public policies, like the G.I. Bill and Social Security, that opened opportunities in the middle of the twentieth century.

Newcomers in the American Workplace is a joint publication of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees and the Neighborhood Funders' Group's Working on Labor and Community. This report responds to the dramatic growth in the immigrant population over the past decade and calls attention to the crucial role that immigrants play in the U.S. economy. Today, immigrants comprise almost one in eight workers and one in four low-wage workers.

Finds that after five decades of progress in building a middle class, creating a safety net, and erecting legal protections against official segregation and overt exclusion of marginalized groups, opportunity in the United States is at risk. Clear charts and data measure progress along six interrelated dimensions: mobility, equality, participation in democracy, redemption/ rehabilitation, community, and security.

This book, which was one of two follow-up reports to the Ford Foundation’s Changing Relations Project from 1987 to 1991, placed multicultural research teams in a variety of U.S. cities. The research revealed that participation across groups in a shared task helps to reduce competition as well as build bonds of trust.