Immigrant-Led Organizers in Their Own Voices: Local Realities and Shared Visions demonstrates that community organizing increases civic engagement and integration of immigrant communities. This report attempts to give voice to immigrants as they struggle in their migration and integration experiences. As a result, it contains numerous quotes from community organizers, particularly on why and how they organize.

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.

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. The report noted that the challenge is not merely in "harmonizing relations among groups" but in "mobilizing intergroup cooperation into strategies for economic and political advancement." Examples of initiatives included the following areas: affordable housing, economic development, family literacy, and neighborhood and citywide advocacy.

Finds that classic indicators of civic participation (socioeconomic status, political orientation, religiosity) have less predictive value in a multiracial urban context, where recent immigration, interracial ties, and other factors help explain differences in participation among Anglos, black, Latinos, and different Asian immigrant groups. Extensive bibliography.

Estimates that eight million LPRs were eligible to naturalize as of September 2004; provides tables by year admitted, country of birth, and state of residence.

Analyzes current national data to test applicability of traditional theories of political behavior to contemporary first- and secondgeneration immigrants. Assesses voting and other forms of political behavior among immigrants of different ethnic and socio-economic characteristics and operating in different contexts of political threat and institutional mobilization; also examines non-voting political behavior (e.g., signing petitions, attending meetings, contributing to political causes) across immigrant generations and ethnicities.

Uses Census data from 1996 and 2000 election years to describe key characteristics of immigrant voters and groups in which immigrants are a large percentage of the population, such as Latinos and Asian/Pacific Islanders. New citizens drawn from these groups accounted for more than half of the net increase in persons registered to vote between 1996 and 2000. Clear charts portray rates of citizenship, voter registration, and voting by different groups; give data on 17 states where foreign-born citizens number 100,000 or more.

Brings together historians and social scientists to compare contemporary immigrant political incorporation with dynamics of the early twentieth century immigrant wave; articles examine political machines, naturalization, transnational loyalties, racial exclusion, and the role of the schools in political socialization.

Uses 2000 Census and 2002 Current Population Survey data to examine sharp increases in naturalization rates in the 1990s as well as size and characteristics of the pool of immigrants eligible to naturalize. Of 11.3 million LPRs in 2002, 7.9 million were eligible to naturalize, but these eligible immigrants have more limited English skills and lower educational levels than those who naturalized in the 1990s.

Describes efforts to help immigrants integrate and become engaged in civic activities; summarizes recommendations for funders on ways to support civic integration through policies and programs that help immigrants establish a solid economic and educational foothold, become citizens and vote, and protect their civil rights and liberties.