Meeting the Social Service Needs of Immigrants: Challenge and Opportunity

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Meeting the Social Service Needs of Immigrants
Challenge and Opportunity

• International Bank of Commerce Keynote Speaker
  Series,The Center for the Study of Western
  Hemispheric Trade.Texas AM International
  University,Wednesday, November 2, 2011

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Our Personal Journeys

• Once you have travelled, the voyage never ends,
  but is played out over and over again in the
  quietest chambers, that the mind can never break
  off from the journey
• Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides

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A World in Motion

• World migrant population reached 214 million in
  2010 (3.1 of the worlds population).
  
• International Organization for Migration
• IDPs (27.5 million), Refugees (15.4 million),
  internal migrants (???), seasonal migrants,
  international students and visitors
• Cultural and linguistic diversity extends into
  the 2nd and later generations
• The traditional paradigm of one-way migration
  doesnt always hold.
• Disproportionate flows to specific countries,
  regions within countries

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The Ten Countries with the Highest Numbers of
International Migrants (2005)
Rank 2005 Millions
1 United States of America 38.4
2 Russian Federation 12.1
3 Germany 10.1
4 Ukraine 6.8
5 France 6.5
6 Saudi Arabia 6.4
7 Canada 6.1
8 India 5.7
9 United Kingdom 6.4
10 Spain 4.8
Source Trends in Total Migrant Stock The 2005 Revision, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division POP/DB/MIG/Rev.2005/Doc, February 2006.  
Division, POP/DB/MIG/Rev.2005/Doc, February 2006.  
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Foreign-born Population as Percent of Total
Population (Selected OECD Countries)
  1995 2000 2005
Australia 23.0 23.0 23.8
Canada 17.8 18.8 19.1
Austria -- 10.5 13.5
US 9.3 11.1 12.5
Sweden 10.5 11.5 12.4
Ireland -- 8.7 11.0
Netherlands 9.1 10.1 10.6
UK 6.9 8.2 9.7
Norway 5.4 6.5 7.8
Denmark 4.8 5.8 6.5
Finland 2.1 2.6 3.4
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The Challenges Facing Migrating People

• The rigors of migration
• The aftereffects of trauma
• Language and cultural barriers
• Marginality
• Family stress
• Racism, xenophobia, and discrimination
• Intergroup tensions

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Mobility and the American Experiment

• There is an emerging historical scholarship on
  the long roots of multiculturalism in U.S. and
  Canadian history

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Our Multicultural Past as Prelude to the Future

• The settlement house movement and the rise of
  social work as a profession
• The many meanings of Americanization and the
  development of patriotic pluralism.
• The Chicago School addresses the Second
  Generation Problem
• The intercultural education movement, 1924-1941

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Four Pioneers
Edith Terry Bremer 1885-1964
Frances Kellor1873-1952
Louis Adamic 1899-1951
Rachel Davis Dubois 1892-1993
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The Impact of the Civil Rights Movement

• Produced a scaffolding of laws and public
  policies designed to eradicate segregation and
  discrimination in American life
• These reforms helped blacks but were also
  beneficial to the entire population, including
  immigrants.

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Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Banned discrimination in employment and public
  accommodations on the basis of race, religion,
  sex, and national origin
• Title VI prohibited discrimination by recipients
  of federal funds
• Led to the development of the cultural competency
  movement
• Established the principle of inclusion in human
  services

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The Re-emergence of Immigrant Integration as a
Policy Objective
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Post-1965 Surge of Immigration
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Communal Tensions and the Terrorist Threat

• Examples
• Korean grocer boycott, Brooklyn (1990)
• Mt. Pleasant Riots, Washington, DC (1991)
• Los Angeles Riots (1992)
• World Trade Center Bombings (1993, 2001)

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The Jordan Commission

• Americanization is the process of integration by
  which immigrants become part of our communities
  and by which our communities and the nation learn
  from and adapt to their presence.
• The Jordan Commission (1995)

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Foundations Promote Immigrant Integration Some
Milestones

• Ford Foundation (1986)
• Formation of Grantmakers Concerned with
  Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR)(1990)
• Establishment of Four Freedoms Fund (2003)
• Release of Toolkit on Immigrant Integration
  (2006)
• National Immigrant Integration Conference (begins
  in 2008)

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States initiate projects to promote immigrant
integration
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Executive Order Project Reports
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The Perils of an Immigrant Integration Agenda

• Often conflated with the issue of undocumented
  migration
• Often perceived as an attempt by politicians to
  curry favor within specific ethnic communities
• Lacks appeal to other disadvantaged populations
• Lacks appeal to native-born people
• Methodological shortcomings
• The immigrant integration dilemma

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Future Directions

• Subsume immigrant integration into a larger
  diversity agenda
• Build cross-sector alliances and social justice
  movements inclusive of an integration agenda
• Reform immigration policy to make it more
  responsive to U.S. workforce needs and more
  welcoming to global talent

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Example Infusing integration objectives into
cultural competency

• Greater precision in defining cultural competency
• Building an evidence base for culturally
  competent interventions
• Pursuing a systems approach to cultural competency

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A Systems Approach to Cultural Competency
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Link

• http//www.paddc.org/images/stories/pdfs/systems_c
  hange_for_greater_cultural_competence_in_the_penns
  ylvania_disability_service_and_support_sector.pdf

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Towards a New Synthesis

• Mobility and diversity will be the new normal.
• We will find new and creative ways to reflect
  diversity in the design and delivery of human
  services.
• We will have a clearer understanding of
  immigration and diversity as keys to economic
  development.
• We will build alliances and social justice
  movements that span ethnic and racial divides.
• We will celebrate diversity and harness its
  energy.

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Selected Resources

• National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy
  (Migration Policy Institute)
• http//www.migrationinformation.org/integration/
• Welcoming America
• http//www.welcomingamerica.org/
• Cities of Migration
• http//citiesofmigration.ca/
• The Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX)
• http//www.mipex.eu/
• The American Immigrant Policy Portal
• http//www.usdiversitydynamics.com/nj/

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

• Nicholas V. Montalto
• President
• Diversity Dynamics, LLC
• 16 South Avenue, Suite 252
• Cranford, NJ 07016
• 201-320-1669
• www.usdiversitydynamics.com