Immigrant-serving Organizations Research Articles

Immigrant Settlement and Integration in Canada: Trends in Public Funding

This article is the first study to document trends in state funding for the settlement sector in Canada. It is based on an innovative new dataset that was secured through several years of using freedom of information legislation to collect federal and provincial funding data on settlement and integration programs. This study demonstrates, among other things, that there are significant disparities in funding for settlement and integration services among regions within Canada. Funding for immigrant-serving organizations (ISAs) is also concentrated among a small number of organizations. These trends have potential implications for the access and quality of settlement services available to newcomers based on where they land in Canada.

Immigrant Outreach and Language Access During First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract This article applies cultural translation (Kramsch and Hua 2020) and geohistorical frameworks (Braudel 1949; Scott 2018) to analyze the interplay between linguistic, cultural, physical, and ideological proximities and distances in immigrant advocacy and outreach efforts. Data are taken from ‘small stories’ (Georgakopoulou 2010, 2015) shared by directors of immigrant-serving organizations in a small metropolitan area in the USA during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. These stories demonstrate directors’ situated perspectives on new and changing demands for communicating information in the face of persistent challenges associated with the digital divide, reaching clients with limited literacy and who speak indigenous languages of Central America and Africa, and cultivating trust among staff and between staff and clients around COVID-19 mitigation and relief. Findings trace how local, state, and national policies were taken up by individual participants and the communities they serve and bring to light the value of applied linguistics research in amplifying the complexities of language access in times of crisis as well as community resilience that are often hiding in plain sight.

Immigrant-Serving Organizations and Local Law Enforcement: Do Nonprofits Predict Cooperation with ICE?

  Relatively little research has examined the role of immigrant-serving organizations (ISOs) as policy advocates, and virtually no studies have sought to empirically determine whether ISOs shape local policy implementation decisions. Here we study the relationship between ISOs and the policy decisions of sheriff offices, which oversee county jails. Sheriff offices are vital to implementing federal immigration enforcement programs. We determine whether the presence of ISOs predicts sheriff office cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Using a sample of 630 sheriff offices that responded to a national U.S. Bureau of Justice survey, we find the concentration of ISOs registered to provide pro bono legal aid in immigration court does predict sheriff office cooperation. The presence of these legal-aid nonprofits predicts whether sheriff offices will adopt anti-detainer (or ‘sanctuary’) policies. Additionally, these legal-aid nonprofits also correspond to fewer immigration background checks submitted to ICE from county jails.

Brokering Resources during a Pandemic: Exploring How Organizations and Clinics Responded to the Needs of Immigrant Communities during COVID-19.

Though COVID-19 has had sweeping implications, many immigrant groups in the United States have been disproportionately affected. The purpose of the present study is to explore the impact of COVID-19 on immigrant communities and how local immigrant-serving organizations (ISOs) have responded during the pandemic. The authors conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with executive directors and program coordinators of 31 ISOs and health clinics in Kentucky, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Findings highlight the needs of immigrants and refugees during the pandemic, including economic burden, lack of information, and limited access to testing and treatment for COVID-19. The authors find that ISOs have responded to these needs by providing basic supports, partnering with other local organizations to channel needed resources to immigrant communities, and collaborating with state-level entities to improve outreach, testing, and treatment. The authors also identify mechanisms that enabled the organizations to make nimble accommodations during the pandemic as well as the burden and compromises that these organizations have experienced. The authors argue that ISOs represent an important aspect of safety nets available for immigrants and provide insights into how other organizations can prepare for public health crises like COVID-19 in the future.

Immigrant Organizations and Neighborhood Crime

We examine the impact of immigrant-serving organizations on neighborhood crime in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area, while accounting for other community correlates of crime as well as potential endogeneity. We estimate longitudinal negative binomial regression models that test for the main, mediating, and moderating effects of immigrant-serving organizations. We found that immigrant-serving organizations generally have crime-reducing effects for all types of crime. We also find that high immigrant concentration is associated with lower levels of crime in general, and this effect is moderated by the number of organizations, which underlines the importance of accounting for these organizations when studying the nexus of immigrant concentration and neighborhood crime.

"Which Clinic? Pre-Covid or Post-Covid?": Immigration Policy Uncertainty, Immigrant Serving Organization, and the Response to COVID-19.

BackgroundThis article examines how immigration policy uncertainty during the Trump presidency shaped how immigrant serving organizations (ISOs) responded to the needs of immigrant community members in the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsWe draw on semi-structured interviews conducted over the summer of 2020 with 31 directors and program coordinators of ISOs and health clinics in three southern states (KY, NC, SC).ResultsResponding to anti-immigrant policies laid the groundwork for organizations to respond quickly and nimbly to COVID-19 related upheavals. However, organizational flexibility may signal organizational precarity, especially given the long-term impacts of both Trump administration immigration policies and the COVID-19 pandemic.DiscussionOur findings underline how ISOs facilitate access to health and social services for immigrant families. Our findings suggest that this organizational adaptability may signal a relationship between organizational precarity and immigration policy uncertainty that could have an impact well beyond the pandemic.

State Preemption of Municipal Laws and Policies that Protect Immigrant Communities: Impact on Latine Health and Well-Being in North Carolina.

BackgroundSome U.S. municipalities have proclaimed themselves “sanctuary cities” and/or adopted laws and policies limiting local involvement in enforcement of federal immigration policies. Several states, however, have adopted laws that preempt municipal laws and policies designed to protect immigrants. We explored the consequences of House Bill (H.B.) 318, one such preemption law in North Carolina (NC), on the health and well-being of Latine immigrants.MethodsWe conducted focus groups with Latine immigrants (n=49) and in-depth interviews with representatives from health, social service, and immigrant-serving organizations and local government (including law enforcement) (n=21) in NC municipalities that, before HB 318, adopted laws and policies supporting immigrants. Data were analyzed using constant comparison.ResultsTwelve themes emerged, including the positive impacts of municipal sanctuary laws and policies are limited by preemption and other state and federal actions; laws and policies like HB 318 are confusing, have a chilling effect on health services use, and make life harder overall for Latine communities; intensified federal immigration enforcement has increased fear among Latine communities; Trump administration policies worsened anti-immigrant climates; and use of community identification cards and greater information dissemination and inter-organization coordination can lessen the consequences of preemption and other restrictive laws and policies.ConclusionState preemption of protective municipal laws and policies negatively and profoundly affects immigrant health and well-being. However, creative strategies have been implemented to respond to preemption. These findings provide critical data for decision-makers and community leaders regarding the detrimental impacts of preemption laws and mitigation of these impacts.

Inclusive Storytelling: Community Reaction to Immigrant Youth Experiences in Atlanta

From 2016 to 2018, an interdisciplinary community-engaged project incorporating community-based participatory research methodology, explored how the role of storytelling is integral for the transference of knowledge, history, and sense of purpose. The outcomes help us understand how the views of receiving communities change over time with respect to migrants through their own stories, thus impacting the work of immigrant-serving organizations, such as Georgia-based Welcoming America, a nonprofit committed to implementing a variety of initiatives to cultivate welcoming cities and welcoming regions. Our project gauges the impact of the 2018 publication, Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from an Atlanta High School.

Final Lines of Defense: Explaining Policy Advocacy by Immigrant-Serving Organizations

AbstractNonprofit scholars have developed a rich literature on nonprofit advocacy. While the literature is rich, however, gaps remain in our collective knowledge, especially regarding specific sectors of nonprofit human service organizations. Here, we apply existing theory on advocacy by human service organizations to an important subset of the nonprofit community, that being immigrant-serving organizations (ISOs). Most prior research on nonprofit advocacy has not focused on politically polarized issues, such as contemporary immigration policy. Using a nationwide survey of ISOs, we find that unlike other types of human service organizations, the majority of ISOsdoengage in at least some forms of policy advocacy. However, those that report using the H-election status on their Form 990s are significantly more likely to engage in advocacy and do so to a wide variety of policymakers, including legislators, chief executives, and even local law enforcement agencies. H-election groups are also more likely to perceive their advocacy activities as effective. These findings add to the evolving knowledge on when and how human service groups seek policy change for marginalized groups.

Relational tensions, narrative, and materiality: intergenerational communication in families with undocumented immigrant parents

ABSTRACTThis research explores the competing discourses and relational tensions that emerge in intergenerational communication in immigrant families with undocumented parents through in-depth interviews with undocumented Latino/a parents and their children living in New York City. Through the articulation of three themes, we illustrate how material realities affiliated with a lack of legal status incite unique discursive tensions in family relationships that manifest in family narratives. This study lends scholarly insight into the ways undocumented immigrants and their families communicatively navigate their uncertain life terrain through conversation about immigration status, conflicting career dreams, and hybrid cultural values. Using these findings as guidance, we offer practical applications related to communal coping and family advocacy for professionals and volunteers working in immigrant-serving community organizations.

Serving Immigrant Communities: Effectiveness of Nonprofit Legal Aid Organizations in an Age of Heightened Enforcement

A burgeoning line of research examines nonprofit advocacy, yet few have examined how nonprofits advocate against policy objectives. We explore how groups serve client needs by examining immigrant-serving organizations shaping local enforcement of federal immigration removal policies. We demonstrate how groups have helped to reshape national immigration enforcement through the litigation process. These organizations play a vital role in providing legal aid to individuals facing removal. With information on 1079 nonprofits, we predict regional removal numbers from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. We find that the availability of nonprofit pro bono legal aid does predict local removal rates. Regions with greater numbers of pro bono attorney groups produce fewer immigration removals, controlling for other factors. The number of non-attorney advocates in a region predicts fewer non-criminal immigrant removals. This finding is important for both scholars and immigrant advocates at a time of heightened national enforcement.

Understanding Social Network and Support for Older Immigrants in Ontario, Canada: Protocol for a Mixed-Methods Study.

BackgroundOlder adults are the fastest growing age group worldwide and in Canada. Immigrants represent a significant proportion of older Canadians. Social isolation is common among older adults and has many negative consequences, including limited community and civic participation, increased income insecurity, and increased risk of elder abuse. Additional factors such as the social, cultural, and economic changes that accompany migration, language differences, racism, and ageism heighten older immigrants’ vulnerability to social isolation.ObjectiveThis mixed-methods sequential (qualitative-quantitative) study seeks to clarify older immigrants’ social needs, networks, and support and how these shape their capacity, resilience, and independence in aging well in Ontario.MethodsTheoretically, our research is informed by an intersectionality perspective and an ecological model, allowing us to critically examine the complexity surrounding multiple dimensions of social identity (eg, gender and immigration) and how these interrelate at the micro (individual and family), meso (community), and macro (societal) levels in diverse geographical settings. Methodologically, the project is guided by a collaborative, community-based, mixed-methods approach to engaging a range of stakeholders in Toronto, Ottawa, Waterloo, and London in generating knowledge. The 4 settings were strategically chosen for their diversity in the level of urbanization, size of community, and the number of immigrants and immigrant-serving organizations. Interviews will be conducted in Arabic, Mandarin, and Spanish with older women, older men, family members, community leaders, and service providers. The study protocol has received ethics approval from the 4 participating universities.ResultsQuantitative and qualitative data collection is ongoing. The project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada.ConclusionsComparative analyses of qualitative and quantitative data within and across sites will provide insights about common and unique factors that contribute to the well-being of older immigrants in different regions of Ontario. Given the comprehensive approach to incorporating local knowledge and expert contributions from multilevel stakeholders, the empirical and theoretical findings will be highly relevant to our community partners, help facilitate practice change, and improve the well-being of older men and women in immigrant communities.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/12616

Supplemental infrastructure: how community networks and immigrant identity influence cycling

While factors such as urban form, infrastructure, and attitudes shape cycling behavior, the experience of cycling can vary drastically across socioeconomic and identity groups. For foreign-born residents of the United States, additional factors associated with income and cultural context may influence cycling. In this study, I ask how factors associated with being an immigrant, such as economic status, cultural habits, residential location, and social environments, motivate or deter cycling. Results are based on 23 in-depth interviews with low-income Latino immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area. Interviews reveal that close-knit social networks buoyed by support from immigrant-serving organizations encourage cycling, providing social infrastructure where other types of infrastructure may be absent. However, neighborhood safety is a significant deterrent that men and women respond to in different ways. Other effects, such as gentrification, immigrant experiences, and cultural narratives, shape individuals’ perceptions of belonging as a cyclist in their neighborhood. Findings suggest that planners should collaborate with immigrant-serving community organizations and be more centrally involved in addressing neighborhood conditions and their effects on travel.

Advocating for Structural Change? Exploring the Advocacy Activities of Immigrant-Serving Organizations in an Unwelcoming Policy Context

The growth of the immigrant population in the United States has prompted a recent increase in the number of restrictive immigration policies at the state and local levels. The literature on policy advocacy and social service organizations suggests that these local providers can engage in political activities that challenge the restrictive nature of these contexts. This qualitative study explored how immigrant-serving social service organizations engage in policy advocacy in a state with restrictive, anti-immigrant policies. In-depth interviews with directors of 50 service providers in South Carolina clearly indicate a tension between the need for policy advocacy and the risks associated with engaging in such activities. Fifty percent (50%) of the providers in our sample reported engaging in some form of policy advocacy. However, their policy advocacy activities were often indirect, non-confrontational, and episodic. Most were engaged in coalitions and other forms of indirect advocacy tactics. We discuss implications for the social work profession and recommendations for future research, including the need to further explore the impact of policy advocacy efforts on changing the policy landscape in places that are unwelcoming to immigrants.

Reducing bias through indirect social contact: assessing the impact of student involvement with faculty-led research on unauthorized immigration

This paper explores how working on a faculty-led research project influenced the views of Master of Social Work students concerning unauthorized immigrants. Five graduate assistants worked for one year with two faculty members and one doctoral student to code data from interviews with social workers at immigrant-serving organizations in South Carolina. The master’s students then reflected on what they learned from participating in data analysis tasks, indicating that the experience had further sensitized them to the social justice concerns confronting unauthorized immigrants. Drawing on social contact theory, we argue that student participation in faculty-led research can provide a form of indirect social exposure to other groups, which reduce bias, and suggest that such experiences be included in how educators conceptualize the implicit curriculum in schools of social work.

(Re)Defining Access to Latino Immigrant-Serving Organizations: Evidence from Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, DC

AbstractObjective: Local social-service organizations can shape the process of immigrant integration, but their ability to do so partially hinges on whether immigrants can reasonably access services. In addition to distance or proximity, key features of an organization (e.g., capacity, multilingual staff) also shape whether a social-service program is accessible. This study explores the spatial relationship between Latino immigrant neighborhoods and organizations that we define as “immigrant-serving.” We argue that spatial access to social services is a characteristic of the immigrant receiving context and therefore integral to how we understand processes of immigrant integration. Method: Drawing on unique survey data from social-service organizations in metropolitan Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles, California, and Washington, DC, and tract-level demographic information from the American Community Survey, we measured spatial access to social-service providers across neighborhoods with different degrees of ...

Does Where I Live Affect Whether I Apply? The Contextual Determinants of Applying for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program provides temporary relief from deportation and legal work authorization for eligible undocumented youth in the United States. This study investigates the factors that help or hinder undocumented youth in applying for DACA. We focus on contexts of reception to understand the determinants of DACA applications, as studies of previous legalization programs indicate that the communities in which immigrants live help shape application decisions. Our analysis shows that more immigrant-serving organizations in a state translate into more applications, that DACA implementation rates are not statistically significantly lower in states with hostile policy climates, and that socioeconomic factors are most significantly related to DACA applications. In identifying the collective factors that influence applying to DACA, we demonstrate that the structural opportunities and barriers present in receiving locales shape undocumented youths’ decisions to regularize their immigration status, which has significant implications for their resulting incorporation trajectories.

Cross-Sector Partnerships in the Provision of Services to New Immigrants in Canada: Characteristics, Relevance and Constraints

ABSTRACTThe integration of newcomers to Canada is a complex undertaking that involves many players working together in various formal or informal partnership arrangements. This paper focuses on the bilateral but asymmetrical relationship between governments and immigrant-serving organizations. The findings indicate that although there is agreement on what the partnership should look like, the two parties see integration in different perspectives: short-term versus long-term outlook and economic integration versus a more holistic view. The article explores whether contractual relationships can be considered partnerships and differentiates between macro–sector-to-sector partnerships versus those between government and individual organizations.

Immigrant-Serving Non-profit Voter Mobilization in Off-Cycle Elections: An Institutional Explanation of Differential Political Participation Patterns

Immigrants in the USA tend to vote less than other groups, and immigrants vote at even lower levels during off-cycle elections. The aim of this article is to analyse whether these same patterns can be observed in the electoral activities of non-profit organizations that represent immigrants. I argue for a theory of reflective non-profit representation to explain how immigrant-serving organizations make decisions about electoral activities. By analysing original survey data collected in 2012 and 2013, the article finds that immigrant-serving non-profits are less likely to mobilize immigrants in off-cycle compared to on-cycle elections, and less likely to mobilize voters than organizations serving other communities. These findings suggest that immigrant voting could increase if non-profits increased their political involvement, reimagined their identities to include politics as a part of their mission, and generated new revenues to support these activities.

Immigration Reform and Administrative Relief for 2014 and Beyond: A Report on Behalf of the Committee for Immigration Reform Implementation (CIRI), Human Resources Working Group

Successful implementation of any broad-scale immigrant legalization program requires an adequately funded infrastructure of immigrant-serving organizations. In 2014, President Obama announced an expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, as well as the Deferred Action for Parents of Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program, which would make it possible for approximately five million people to attain lawful, albeit temporary, status and employment authorization. As the initial DACA program instituted in 2012 has already stretched the capacity of immigrant-serving organizations to their limits or even beyond them, the possibility of full implementation of DAPA and the expanded DACA programs presents a formidable challenge for these organizations. In this paper, the Human Resources Working Group of the Committee for Immigration Reform Implementation (CIRI) draws on the lessons of the Immigrant Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), DACA, and other initiatives to provide a roadmap for immigrant service delivery agencies and their partners in planning for implementation of the expanded DACA and the DAPA programs, with an eye (ultimately) to broad legislative reform. In particular, this paper focuses on the funding and human resources that the immigrant service delivery field, writ large, would require to implement these programs. If expanded DACA and DAPA were implemented, the CIRI Working Group estimates that, of the total of five million that may be eligible, 1.08 million individuals will require extensive application assistance, generating the need for approximately three times more full-time staff than are currently in the field. Moreover, without additional funding and staff, agencies will likely not be able to shift a portion of staff time to accommodate any new program, even taking the typical fee-for-service model into account. Thus, the paper identifies a pressing need for “upfront” funding as early in the program as possible for outreach, public education, combating notario fraud, advocacy, and assistance to self-filers. In terms of the financial resources needed, the Working Group’s analysis shows that about $83 million, net after collection of fees, is a reasonable estimate for the potential nonprofit sector “funding gap” required to assure effective application assistance services to the eligible low-income people likely to apply for the expanded DACA and DAPA programs. Wise front-loaded investments can help to maximize coordination and minimize duplication, ensure education and outreach, and channel applicants to the most appropriate sources of assistance. While investments required to build the necessary infrastructure are significant, the costs will be far outweighed by the benefits, not just to the DACA/DAPA population but to the society at large.