The National Center on Immigrant Integration
Policy at MPI is a crossroads for elected officials,
grassroots and nonprofit leaders, educators, journalists,
researchers, local service providers, state and local agency
managers, and others who seek to understand and respond to
the challenges and opportunities today’s high rates
of immigration create in local communities.
Key services the Center provides include policy focused
research, policy design, leadership development, technical
assistance and training for government officials and community
leaders, and an electronic resource center on immigrant
integration issues with a special focus on state and local
policies and data. MPI’s primary reasons for
creating the Center are to:
Shine a spotlight on these hugely important
but generally neglected issues. Immigrant
integration issues are among the most overlooked set
of issues in US public policy today. We seek
to bring this neglected set of issues to the fore of
national and local debates and promote constructive
solutions that will advance the economic mobility and
social inclusion of immigrants in the United States.
Set the record straight. MPI’s
Center will provide an unbiased look at the needs, costs,
and contributions of immigrants and provide a balanced
analysis of the integration policy options facing local
communities and our nation.
Organize and strengthen a nascent field. Many
officials in state and local government, as well as researchers
and community activists, have begun to tackle integration
issues in areas such as PreK-12 education, workforce development,
adult literacy, and health access. However, they
often work in isolation, unaware of one another’s
efforts and unable to leverage their expertise and energy
into more systemic and powerful outcomes. Our Center
will provide a hub that allows these stakeholders to connect
with one another, inform and nurture their efforts, and
facilitate the entry of new actors into integration and
its various subfields.
Identify and promote effective policies and
practices. Those working on these
issues at the local, state, and national levels need
research and data that will guide them toward effective
policies and practices. The need for such knowledge
and expertise will only grow as migration to “new
destination” states continues, as the question
of legal status for the country’s roughly 12
million undocumented individuals is decided, and as
concerns about the competitiveness of US workers and
products in a globalized economy become more urgent.
MPI has created the Center to focus attention on this
neglected set of policy issues and to build a more coherent
and knowledge-driven field of researchers, community leaders,
government officials, and other stakeholders who have the
knowledge and skills to effectively address them. The Center thus seeks to not only expand the knowledge base
in the field of immigrant integration, but the field itself. |
Michael
Fix
Margie
McHugh
Integration Center Home
