Immigrant Civic Integration

According to recent census projections, the proportion of foreign-born Americans (currently about 12 percent) could approach 20 percent by 2050. Today, immigrants comprise one in eight U.S. residents and one in two new workers, while children of immigrants make up almost one quarter of all children and 30 percent of all low-income children. Three out of four children of immigrants are United States citizens. A major characteristic of the current wave of immigration is the dispersal of newcomers to states without a history of immigration, such as in the South and Northwest.

Building a pathway to citizenship through immigrant civic integration

In recognition of these trends, immigrant integration built around a pathway to citizenship is a core goal of the U.S. Democracy and Civic Integration program. To achieve this goal, we have reflected on past grantmaking, assessing the strengths and deficits of the field. As a result, our approach has shifted to more streamlined grantmaking structured around an organized public education campaign relying on key organizations for implementation. This new strategy focuses on fewer grantees serving as hubs for convening and coordinating the people and processes needed to achieve better policy development, strategic communication, increased civic/voter engagement, and field capacity.

The majority of future grantmaking will fall within four primary levers of change:

1. Strategic communications
2. Strengthening field building
3. Improving policy development
4. Increasing citizenship and civic engagement

Ultimately, we aim to support organizations that achieve enactment of federal legislation with a pathway to citizenship, as well as encourage state and local policies that support legal integration of immigrant populations; increased voting and civic participation by immigrants and the children of immigrants and increased tolerance for pluralism within our functioning democratic society.