Issues Facing Immigrant Communities

Immigrant populations are extremely valuable contributors to local culture, workforces, and communities. Many immigrant families also experience a range of needs, from language to legal, healthcare to housing, and education to entrepreneurship. All of these factors will vary from individual to individual and community to community.

Given the breadth of the needs and assets within local immigrant communities, this section is not intended to be comprehensive. Instead, it will attempt to address some of the major gaps and opportunities that exist in various issue areas, and provide direction for future work and collaboration. It is only through consistent engagement and work that any of these areas can be adequately addressed, and this section of the guide is intended to provide some basis for local stakeholders to move forward on that engagement.

This section will focus on seven different issue areas:

The case management provided by service providers, smaller nonprofits, and volunteers is crucial for helping immigrants navigate complex local systems. However, the lack of formal case management systems, and a widespread reliance on untrained volunteers, creates serious vulnerabilities within the community. To read more about case management, click here.

Many children from immigrant communities struggle with academic achievement. The entire community, and not just local schools, should prioritize providing these young people with improved educational programming. To learn more about education and youth support, click here.

While the expansion of health-care services for immigrant populations has been a major success in recent years, there remain important gaps in these services, particularly in the areas of brain health, translation, and financial support. To learn more about health, click here.

Many immigrant families are especially vulnerable to the housing shortage impacting the region. Language, cultural, and trust barriers often further limit their access to available housing. While additional low-cost housing is the primary solution to these challenges, there are a number of strategies that advocates and service providers can undertake to support immigrant communities. To learn more about housing, click here.

Immigrants in the United States face a complex system of legal requirements, ranging from burdensome forms and fees to the need for legal representation. While addressing many of these issues requires changes on a federal level, local stakeholders can also support immigrants in meeting legal requirements. To learn more about legal assistance, click here.

Because language gaps are such a prevalent issue for immigrant communities, providing more resources for translation and interpretation, and creating more formal systems around accessing those resources, is crucial for connecting immigrants to services. In particular, specialized medical, legal, and counseling interpretation is needed. To learn more about translation and interpretation, click here.

Immigrant populations are key contributors to the region’s economy, but they are often underemployed and disconnected from high-quality jobs. Improving connections to workforce development programs and developing a capacity to help employers better hire and retain immigrant employees could provide significant benefits for families and local businesses. To learn more about workforce and employment, click here.

To read a discussion on how to engage in ongoing collective work on immigration, click here.

To explore challenges and opportunities related to building connections with immigrant communities, click here.

To return to the Immigration Community Assessment welcome page, click here.