National Immigrant Integration Conference 2010 – Strategy Sessions
Receiving Communities
September 30, 2010

Summary of Issue
The country is in the midst of a massive demographic shift. This shift is happening both in terms of sheer numbers of
migrants but also in terms of geographic dispersal. Across the country, there are new immigrant gateways; these are
areas that are experiencing dramatic growth in their immigrant population for the first time. This is in contrast to
traditional gateways that are accustomed to receiving immigrants and have the social structures that generally value,
or at least accept, these new immigrants into their communities as they have for generations. Examples of new
gateway population include Kurds in Nashville, TN and Latinos in Nebraska.

The receiving communities movement is a new initiative that is part of the immigrant integration field and recognizes
that there is a need to address the receiving community if we want immigrants and refugees to succeed and integrate.
If communities are hostile toward the newcomers in their community, it is far less likely that the newcomers will
integrate. Arizona and Hazelton, PA are just two examples of places where this has happened. While many groups
reach out to receiving communities as part of their projects, this movement is the first whose main goal and focus is
to engage receiving communities in the process of immigrant integration. This movement is working to gather
resources, reach individuals not traditionally engaged with integration and create systems to measure results.

Best Practices
In Colorado, the Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning administers one of the most innovative immigrant
integration initiatives in the nation. It does this by managing the Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families Initiative
(SIRFI) on behalf of The Colorado Trust. Spring Institute provides technical assistance to participating communities
on creating and implementing comprehensive immigrant integration plans. The initiative was created because
Colorado was a top-10 new gateway state from 1990-2000. In Colorado, most immigrants are from Mexico, but
there are many other groups, including individuals from Russia, Vietnam and Korea. There was some
community ambivalence and even backlash growing around the level of immigration to the state. To promote a more
positive environment, the Spring Institute didn’t focus on policy, but rather on helping communities identify local
level strategies to promote community cohesion and positive interaction between immigrant and U.S.-born
communities. Examples of these strategies include: potlucks, dialogues, mentoring or buddy programs, learning
exchanges, leadership councils, group activities (health fair), cultural celebrations, photography exhibits, radio stories
and community education around culture. A key to success was that strong champions emerged who brought strong
credibility to these efforts, and each community felt local ownership and adapted the program to their local
conditions. In addition, they found that engaging opinion leaders and stakeholders, such as local media, early on
is helpful. Engaging those who typically don't participate in such efforts was a challenge, in part due to time
limitations. Such individuals may be reticent to engage on an integration project, but may be more willing to when
an effort is focused on an issue that is important to them, such as health care. Another challenge was engaging
immigrants in this work and having them effectively connect with the receiving community, sometimes for the first
time, with even rudimentary issues such as the time to hold meetings posing barriers.

Welcoming Berkshires is hosted at the Berkshire Immigrant Center and has made significant strides to make the
Berkshires more welcoming to immigrants and refugees. Berkshire County is the Western most county in
Massachusetts. It is mostly a rural area of only 131,000 residents, with about 8-10% of the population being foreign
born. Immigrants, however, are the only growing segment of the workforce. The Cross Cultural Action Network
(CCAN) helps to meet the needs of immigrants and other minority groups through promoting cultural awareness.
CCAN decided to take on the Welcoming Berkshires project because there was a local and national attitude shift
against immigrants that was becoming increasingly negative. They were also mobilized by an increase in the number
of incidences of racial profiling and other forms of discrimination against people looking for an apartment, applying
                  
                    
   
 
for a driver’s license or buying food in the grocery store. To address this negative sentiment, CCAN worked to
change the tone of the debate by passing three resolutions that declared key cities to be “Welcoming cities.” In
addition, they collected over 500 pledges county-wide, gained positive media attention for immigrants and their
contributions, and had officials and community members talking about their “Welcoming Community.” Through
these outreach efforts, Welcoming Berkshires was able to disseminate the message that immigrants contribute
enormously to the economy and are hard-working, tax-paying resident who enrich our environment with their
diverse cultures and backgrounds. They also were able to get key groups to ensure that they have equal access to local
services and are able to quickly integrate into the community.

The Welcoming Tennessee Initiative was developed in 2005, also in response to increased divisions and
misunderstandings between U.S.-born community members and their immigrant neighbors. Long-term
Tennesseans saw that their state was changing and were uncomfortable with it and no group was addressing these
fears proactively. Welcoming Tennessee engaged the receiving community, including those who were fearful, by
developing immigrant and non-immigrant leaders who could work together. These leaders engaged the broader
community through dialogues, presentations and the media. The outreach focused on issues that the audience cared
about but also helped them to understand their immigrant neighbors. Welcoming Tennessee saw that giving
presentations wasn’t enough and that to really change the tone in how immigrants and refugees were discussed in
their communities, they needed to reach a broader audience. To do this, the committees launched paid media
campaigns in which billboards were put up with welcoming messages like “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. –
Matthew 25:35,” “Welcoming the immigrant you once were” and “I pay over $3,000 each year in local taxes. I’m glad
to do my part. I love America, and I’m proud to call Shelbyville home.” These billboards, along with positive media
stories about the contributions and realities of immigrants in Tennessee helped to dispel many myths and make
Nashville and Shelbyville more welcoming cities. Nashville was named the most Welcoming city by Travel & Leisure
magazine in 2009 and elected leaders now frequently describe a having a welcoming community as a top priority for
their community.

Welcoming America is the national movement that grew out of Welcoming Tennessee. Welcoming America works
with its 15 affiliates in 14 states to make communities in those states or regions more welcoming by facilitating local
leadership development, public engagement and strategic communications. Welcoming America also supports its
affiliates in evaluation and fundraising. Like the Spring Institute, the Welcoming model seeks to meet individuals
where they are and engage entire communities in the integration process.

Disagreement/discussion
Question: How relates to immigrant rights movement? Doesn’t this just take away resources from immigrant rights?
Answer/Discussion: Working with receiving communities is an integral part of immigrant integration. Without
tending to the soil (the receiving communities), how can the flowers (the immigrants) be expected to grow? Working
for immigrant rights is another part of immigrant integration, in that if immigrants have access to more services and
status, they will be able to better integrate. These initiatives are not seen as competing, but as two essential parts of
creating a more fully integrated country.

Question: How do you know if the Welcoming model works?

Answer/Discussion: Proving that people’s opinions have been changed is a challenge that many groups face.
Welcoming groups are doing this through polling and evaluations at their events.

Next steps
To learn more about the initiatives discussed in this panel, you can access the websites of the organizations at:
http://www.berkshireic.com/, http://www.spring-institute.org/, http://welcomingtn.org/ and
http://www.welcomingamerica.org/