For World Refugee Day, we spoke with five Afghans who trained as community-based researchers and interviewed evacuees about their experiences and needs as they resettled in the United States.
Our issues
Immigrants and their families are part of the fabric of communities across the US. More than 45 million immigrants live in the US, representing a diverse range of countries and racial and ethnic backgrounds. Although one-quarter of the US’s population are first- or second-generation immigrants, many more people in the country live, work, study, or parent alongside immigrant community members. One-quarter of children in the country have one or more immigrant parents, and most of these children are US citizens.
Forty-five percent of immigrants are naturalized US citizens. But because of the complexity of evolving migration pressures and a rigid admissions system, many individuals and families experience significant challenges securing stable immigration status.
The inclusion of immigrant communities largely falls to where they live, work, and attend school. Local communities have to consider how best to meet diverse language needs, connect individuals and families to needed services, and foster well-being and advancement. States and localities have developed a wide range of practices and policies to reinforce federal enforcement priorities or promote immigrant inclusion. Community-based organizations offer critical services as trusted providers, and the capacity of this infrastructure varies across states and communities.
How immigrant communities grow, evolve, and integrate has fundamental social, civic, and economic importance for communities and the nation.
Our approach
The Urban Institute’s research on immigration supports equitable practices by deepening understanding of immigrant communities and families and how they are affected by policy and practice; studying how to connect low-income immigrant families to vital supports and how to make those systems work better, particularly for those with language access needs or members who are undocumented; and highlighting the intersection of immigration with other factors, such as racial and ethnic disparities, health equity, and disability.
We generate new insights through the following:
- employing multilingual data collection and communications efforts to illuminate diverse immigrant experiences and reach communities
- using community-engaged methods and working with communities, service providers, policymakers, and advocates to understand the realities on the ground and inform emerging policy and practice developments
- analyzing the impact of local, state, and federal policy and practice on the well-being and inclusion of immigrant communities and subpopulations, such as mixed-status families and refugees
- understanding the quickly changing demographics of immigration and providing tools to allow practitioners and policymakers to find hard-to-access data relevant to their work
Our impact
Grounded in a deep understanding of policy, practice, and programming, we build evidence to inform decisionmaking. We use rigorous data collection and analysis to provide reliable information for policymakers, advocates, and service providers.