Community-based organizations and immigrant integration in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area

Abstract

The Urban Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization that examines the social, economic, and governance problems facing the nation. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. AcknowledgmentsWe are particularly grateful to the many nonprofit, community, and government leaders who participated in the interviews and enriched this report, and want to thank them for their time and thoughtful comments. We also wish to acknowledge Judith R. Saidel and Dina H. Refki of the Center for Women in Government and Civil Society at SUNY Albany and Femida Handy at the University of Pennsylvania for their advice and guidance during the conceptualization of this study.The research was made possible through funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

Ethnic Concentration and Nonprofit Organizations: The Political and Urban Geography of Immigrant Services in Boston, Massachusetts

“…In many places, nonprofits have become increasingly involved in providing legal, educational, social, health, and employment services to immigrants (Hein, ; Cordero‐Guzman, ; Hung, ; Cantor and De Vita, ; deGraauw, ; Lee and De Vita, ; de Leon et al ., ). However, in municipalities with a limited history of immigrant settlement or more dispersed patterns, such organizations may not exist at all, limiting not just the quantity and quality of integration services provided, but also the ability to advocate for additional resources on behalf of immigrants (Hutcheson and Dominguez, ; Truelove, ; Wang and Truelove, ).…”

The Institutional Digital Divide

“…At the local level, Gleeson and Bloemraad (2012) documented the underrepresentation of immigrants in the population of nonprofits in California. Other research found that some immigrant communities, including Asian Americans, have many fewer nonprofits pursuing political advocacy that others, specifically compared to Hispanic Americans, who have a richer array of nonprofits with political aims (De Leon, Maronick, De Vita, & Boris, 2009). The authors attribute this to longer traditions of political activism in the Hispanic American community that encourage advocacy from their nonprofits.…”

Immigrant Nonprofit Organizations and the Fight for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

“…Despite being constrained by their 501 (c) (3) status to engage openly in political activities, immigrant nonprofit organizations are indeed political actors (De Grauuw 2008), regularly forming and participating in coalitions to advocate for political causes. Participation in these coalitions affords these organizations a larger platform to influence local and national policy debates on immigration issues that affect their clients on a daily basis (CorderoGuzmán et al 2008;De Leon et al 2009;Fujiwara 2005;Pantoja et al 2008). …”

“…Immigrant integration is defined as a process by which the "receiving community learns to respect the skills, languages, and cultures that [immigrants] bring and, simultaneously, play an active role in meeting their needs" (Grantmakers Concerned for Immigrants and Refugees, 2006: 26). In an effort to promote such integration, immigrant nonprofit organizations operate as holistic and multiservice providers, delivering a range of culturally sensitive services to their immigrant constituencies (De Leon et al 2009). Immigrant nonprofit organizations also take part in immigrant political incorporation, characterized both by participation in electoral politics (De Sipio 1996Gerstle and Mollenkopf 2001) and by the wide range of non-electoral activities -from volunteering, to petition-signing, to attendance at rallies, marches, and demonstrations -promoted by these organizations (Jones-Correa 1998a, 1998bPutnam 2001;Verba et al 1995).…”