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Abstract
This brief profiles community-based nonprofits in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area that are helping newcomers adjust to their new social and political environment, while affirming their cultural identities. The brief focuses on nonprofit groups that serve Asian, Middle Eastern and African populations and examines the characteristics of these organizations in terms of their number, size, location, and scope of activities. The findings provide a unique picture of the community-based resources that are helping immigrants incorporate into American life.
Introduction
The dramatic rise in the number of foreignborn
residents in the United States has
increased attention to issues related to
immigrants and immigration. Numerous
studies document the number of immigrants
in the United States, their countries
of origin, and the impact of immigration
on the labor force, schools, and social
welfare systems. But little attention has
been given to the community-based
groups that serve immigrants and help
them incorporate into American life.
This brief profiles community-based
nonprofits in theWashington, D.C., metropolitan
area that are helping newcomers
adjust to their new social and political environment
and, in some cases, preserve their
cultural identities. This brief focuses on
nonprofit groups that serve Asian, Middle
Eastern, and African populations; a companion
brief focuses on Latino organizations1.
Together the two studies look at the
characteristics and growth of small, locally
based groups that are expanding and transforming
civil society in the D.C. region.
The Recent Rise in Immigration
Immigration is playing a significant role in
shaping U.S. society. During the 1990s, the
foreign-born population in the United
States grew 57 percent; today, about one in
eight residents (12.5 percent) is foreign
born. The traditional immigrant gateway
cities of New York, Boston, San Francisco,
and Chicago still attract large numbers of
immigrants, but different metropolitan
areas are now experiencing an influx of
new arrivals. Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth,
Las Vegas, and Washington, D.C., are
among the gateway centers for immigrants
emerging since the 1990s (Singer 2004).
TheWashington, D.C., metropolitan
area is a primary recipient of the new immigration
flows, ranking fifth among the
top immigrant-receiving communities2.
Since 2000, the region has received 3.5 percent
of all new immigrants into the United
States3. About 20 percent of residents in
the D.C. metro area are foreign born, compared
with 12.5 percent nationwide. Particularly
for the District of Columbia,
which lost population between 1990 and
2000, the arrival of new immigrants helped
mitigate population losses.
About 75 percent of the foreign-born
population in the D.C. region is either
Latino (39 percent) or Asian (36 percent).
More than 133,200 Salvadorans call the
D.C. area home—or roughly one-third of
all the Latino immigrants in the region.
The next largest groups come from India
(62,300), Korea (58,900), China (46,600),4
Mexico (43,600), and Vietnam (43,200).
While African immigrants make up about
4 percent of the foreign-born in the United
States, they make up almost four times that
proportion (14 percent) in the D.C. area.
The majority of immigrants live in the
suburbs of D.C., especially Montgomery
County, Maryland, and Fairfax County,
Virginia. Both Montgomery and Fairfax
counties report over 230,000 foreign-born
residents—more than half of all immigrants
in the region. In contrast, the District
of Columbia has less than 10 percent
of the metro area’s immigrant population—
about 73,600 immigrant residents. Other
counties and cities in the region with
high proportions of immigrants include
Arlington County (52,700 immigrants) and Alexandria City (32,600) in Virginia. In
each of these jurisdictions, immigrants
account for one-quarter of the population.
In Prince George’s County, Maryland, and
Prince William and Loudoun counties,
Virginia, the share of the foreign-born population
hovers between 10 and 15 percent,
but the numbers are growing. Prince
George’s County has more than 110,600
immigrants, while PrinceWilliam has
about 32,300 and Loudoun County, 19,100.
1 For information on Latino-serving nonprofits,
see Guillermo Cantor and Carol J. De Vita,
“Civil Society Structures Serving Latinos in
theWashington, D.C., Metropolitan Area,”
Charting Civil Society brief 18 (Washington,
DC: The Urban Institute, 2008).
2 The top four metro areas are New York, Los
Angeles, Chicago, and Miami. See Singer
and colleagues (2001).
3 From the 2006 American Community Survey,
accessed March 10, 2008, at http://fact
finder.census.gov.
(End of excerpt. The entire paper is available in PDF format.)
Author's Recommendation
Civil Society Structures Serving Latinos in the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Area
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