NCDC217: Immigration and Midwestern Communities
(Multistate Research Coordinating Committee and Information Exchange Group)
Status: Inactive/Terminating
NCDC217: Immigration and Midwestern Communities
Duration: 10/01/2008 to 09/30/2010
Administrative Advisor(s):
NIFA Reps:
Non-Technical Summary
Statement of Issues and Justification
The issue of integration of immigrants and new ethnic groups (particularly Latinos, as they are the largest new ethnic group in many Midwestern communities) has become more and more important to both policymakers and practitioners as many rural communities in the North Central region continue to struggle with the challenge of a growing numbers of immigrants and other minority residents. The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD) is planning an Immigration and Communities Knowledge Network meeting on October 6 and 7, 2008 and the response from both practitioners and researchers has been very positive. The extremely enthusiastic participation in a recently established SERA project on Latinos in the South suggests that a similar effort in the North Central region would be welcomed by diverse stakeholders. The failure to take positive steps to fully involve these new groups in rural and urban communities of the North Central region would be a missed opportunity to enhance economic and community development in places that otherwise are experiencing labor shortages, continued low-wage employment, and in some cases, conflicts among new residents and with long-term residents. The full involvement of all residentsregardless of origin, race, or ethnicitycan strengthen social, human, cultural, political, and financial capital in communities that have in many cases experienced difficulties since the farm crisis of the 1980s. These new residents should be viewed as assets for community betterment rather than as problems to be dealt with. High quality research is needed to devise suitable policies and practices for involving new residents in their communities of destination.
The proposed NC Development Committee, which we anticipate developing into a NCERA, fits the North Central regions high priority research because it will
" Encourage high quality science and foster multidisciplinary and multistate research and outreach by bringing researchers and outreach specialists with common interests and research agendas related to Latinos and immigrants in Midwestern communities together to exchange information about work they are already doing. Simultaneously, the effort will encourage comparative studies across states and build communities of practice among extensionists and other change-oriented organizations working with Latinos/immigrants throughout the region. This effort will begin with a the convening by the NCRCRD of a North Central Knowledge Network on Immigration and Communities to build interstate research affinity groups and communities of practice. We anticipate that it will result in articles, reports, or special issues of journals that contribute to the advancement of related fields of research and practice.
" Develop plans to form a NCERA and strengthen opportunities for obtaining funding for multistate as well as single-state work related to immigrants and Latinos because participants will be fully aware of relevant research and outreach programs in the North Central region and will therefore be able to write better proposals. By building multistate research networks and communities of practice, individuals with strong research and outreach skills and knowledge will more readily come together to develop proposals that will be more attractive to funders than if researchers and outreach personnel from each state were to seek funding on their own.
Priority Experiment Station objectives that relate to research and outreach activities designed to involve immigrants and Latinos in their new Midwestern communities include the following:
" Strengthen community and rural vitality by assessing and strengthening support services for new and long-term residents, particularly in the areas of job creation, education, health, and conflict resolution among ethnic and racial groups. (Social Change and Development [SC&D] objective.)
" Identify and build life-long learning opportunities for community members (SC&D), particularly for those with less education or whose first language is not English.
" Determine and reduce barriers to use of appropriate technologies and increase adoption of sustainable agriculture (SC&D) by immigrants, particularly those with experience in farming in their own countries or as farmworkers in the U.S.
" Improve community and rural economic development including home-based and small businesses. Design strategies to improve social and human capital (Economic Development and Policy objective). Latinos and immigrants in particular have a high and growing entrepreneurship ratio when compared with other U.S. groups (. This tendency needs to be encouraged.
" Enhance civic participation in governance structures by increasing contributions of diverse stakeholders in the assessment of social and economic opportunities in organizations and communities (SC&D). New immigrants civic and local governance involvement is quite low and will require a great deal of assistance from Extension and other outreach entities
" Design effective nutrition education programs and delivery mechanisms so that individuals most at risk choose healthy diets (Food and Nutrition objective). Involvement of new immigrants in local food systems can be an excellent way to assure improved nutrition and to combat obesity
Possible foci for collaboration
While we are gaining new knowledge about who immigrants are, why they come, and what kinds of jobs they acquire, we know much less about successful community-based integration and acculturation strategies, contextual factors that influence immigrants inclusion or exclusion from full community participation, the impact of immigration on local and state services, the impact of ICE (Immigrant and Customs Enforcement) raids and other government policies (particularly those that exclude recent and/or undocumented immigrants), as well as the effects of anti-immigrant and nativist movements within our region.
More specifically, in some areas useful research is lacking and, because of the paucity of research, outreach efforts are sometimes inadequate or inappropriately oriented. More and better research and outreach are needed in the following areas (among others):
a) Demographic contributions of immigrants and new ethnic groups to North Central communities and states. In particular, there is a need to better understand the contributions they can make to a workforce which over the next two decades will experience increasingly more retirements than new labor-force entries by native-born persons. It is important to understand geographic distribution and age structure of immigrants, rates of growth and migration patterns of immigrants and native-born persons in different localities and states, human capital changes, employment characteristics, age structure, etc. Related extension/outreach efforts can better be launched to help long term residents understand the contributions of new migrants and their children to the workforce and the issues around present immigration policy and what a future comprehensive immigration policy might be appropriate.
b) Immigrant contributions to otherwise declining rural communities, including their impact on Main Street through minority entrepreneurship, their contribution to increased enrollments and to global awareness in schools, their contribution to financial and built capital, including the fact that they (like senior citizens) tend to shop locally, their contribution to the revival of local state markets, etc. The costs to communities of receiving immigrants are also important to assess, in order to devise state and federal policies to assist rapidly growing communities and their institutions. State and federal governments are primary recipients of taxes paid by immigrants, while localities provide many of the services (however limited in the case of undocumented immigrants) that they receive. Outreach efforts should focus on integrating immigrants and new Latino residents into community life and enhancing their contributions to community leadership, and on disseminating research results to state, local, and federal governments on policy options for assisting local and state governments in their efforts to involve newcomers in community life.
c) Examine the importance of social capital, particularly bridging and linking social capital in integrating newcomers into community life. Examining issues around and approaches for inclusion of immigrants as full-fledged community members, including building on the farming and gardening skills of immigrants from rural areas to develop local food systems and encourage immigrants to retain their cultural food habits as a means of discouraging obesity. All of these efforts need to be evaluated with recommendations for how to increase inclusionand prevent exclusion with all the high social costs usually incurred by potential separation and marginalization. For instance, building ties across cultures by involving immigrant parents in school activities or reinforcing ties between old and new members of the same church, strengthening ties through 4-H and other Extension programs, adult and youth recreation programs, festivals, etc.
d) Conduct research on transnationalism in Midwestern communities and communities of origin, including transnational flows of family financial capital in both directions (remittances to and investments flowing from communities of origin) to foster entrepreneurship; role of hometown clubs in fostering community development in communities of origin and how to strengthen that role; organizing digital electronic technology in new ways to facilitate money transfers, business deals, and cultural interchange. Cultural immersion programs and exchanges among teachers, local officials, Extensionists, and others between communities of origin and destination are gaining in popularity, but these programs are rarely evaluated in terms of their impacts. In order to better engage newcomer students and their parents, local K-12 educators could benefit greatly from understanding the corresponding systems in the sending communities. The same can be said with respect to building cross-national understanding of health systems, local governance and policing structures, family systems, and local civil-society patterns.
e) Research and strengthen job ladders for all residents, including immigrants, in Midwestern communities, to fill existing and projected shortages in a skilled workforce that will alleviate such labor shortages as Baby Boomers retire in greater numbers. Many immigrants enter without skills that are recognized by the receiving society, but have a great deal of drive themselves and educational aspirations for their children. Latinos, especially immigrants, have high and growing entrepreneurship ratios. As our society upgrades its skills to respond to 21st century economic globalization, the skills of all its membersnatives and immigrants alikeneed to be upgraded to the benefit of the communities in which they live.
f) Research on gender issues within the immigrant communities and in relation to the larger receiving community. A wide variety of issues can be addressed, including vulnerabilities of immigrant women within the family, which may be exacerbated by being surrounded by a foreign culture. There are issues of womens active recreation, of health care issues, of family abuse, and others that hit immigrant women and children particularly hard.
Whether this influx of new people into communities (whose neighboring communities are often experiencing population declines) is an advantage or disadvantage is to a great deal on whether long-term residents, local organizations and local governments view the new residents as presenting an opportunity or a problem, and the direction that policies at the local, state, and federal level take with respect to new in-migrants and new ethnic groups.
Successful completion of the collaborative research suggested above should result in a greater understanding of the contributions of immigrants and Latinos in general to Midwestern (particularly rural) communities and the mechanisms by which those contributions can be optimized. Outreach activities guided by that research should yield strengthened community social and cultural capital, civic participation, economic and entrepreneurial activity, and demographic stability, as well as increases in residential and commercial property valuation, and in general more vital communities and improved quality of life, especially for newcomers, and improved community well being.