State of Illinois receives recommendations for comprehensive immigrant integration in Illinois

CHICAGO - The State of Illinois today received a series of recommendations aimed at helping hard working immigrants and refugees fully integrate into the state's mainstream. These steps include a program to help immigrants learn English, getting legal immigrants on a path towards citizenship, establishing Welcoming Centers as a first point of contact for immigrants arriving into Illinois, and making sure the services State agencies provide are accessible to newcomers.

 

The recommendations from both the New Americans Policy Council and the State Interagency Taskforce, formed by the Governor's own New Americans Executive Order, stem from a year of work by national experts, civic leaders, and state agencies. Throughout the year, they assessed immigrants' needs, resources and relationships with the State and helped establish national priorities for improving immigrant integration.  Both bodies presented their recommendations to the State and the public today during a joint press conference with ICIRR at the Chicago History Museum.

 

The Policy Council's report contains key recommendations for the State of Illinois, that establish a national model for immigrant integration, including:

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Immigrant integration is one of the most overlooked issues of governance in this nation.  These recommendations point the way for what a national agenda that fosters immigrant integration should be.  The recommendations recognize the rapid demographic changes, quickening pace and language requirements of the global economy, growing demand for both high-skilled and low-skilled workers, and challenges to communities that today's immigration poses," said Doris Meissner of the Migration Policy Institute, former Commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, and a co-chair of the National Advisory Panel.  "I thank the Governor and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights for creating and organizing the work of our council and urge other states to initiate similar efforts."

 

"With these recommendations, Illinois is now clearly in the national lead when it comes to developing a comprehensive immigrant integration strategy. It may be clear that immigrants are economic assets to their adopted communities, but it takes vision and courage to lead public and private institutions in recognizing that and being proactive in the creation of new policies. I commend Governor Blagojevich, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the Policy Council and the Interagency Task Force for these landmark recommendations that will help immigrants succeed, will build social cohesion throughout Illinois, and will serve as a guiding light for the rest of the nation," said Frank Sharry, co-chair of the National Advisory Panel and Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum.

 

"The ‘We Want to Learn English' campaign is integral to our goal to become the best state in the nation in regards to helping immigrants quickly learn English," said Juan Salgado, President of the Board of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Executive Director of Instituto del Progreso Latino and one of the New Americans Policy Council Co-Chairs.  "Helping new immigrants learn English breaks down one of the few barriers to their success and speeds up their integration into the community."

 

"Acquiring English language and citizenship are two key priorities to any immigrant integration process.  We also believe that the skills immigrants brought to the state should be fully maximized by providing support for professionals to transfer their credentials and for immigrants to obtain vocational training where their bi-lingual and bi-cultural background are additional assets that can benefit the state's economy," said Ngoan Le, of the Chicago Community Trust and Co-Chair of the Policy Council. 

 

Running parallel to the work of the New Americans Policy Council, the Governor's Office of New Americans Policy and Advocacy convened a State Interagency Task Force where leaders of the state's agencies in the areas of education, healthcare and human services worked on specific recommendations to improve the services the state offers to immigrants and refugees.

 

Among the Interagency Task Force's recommendations are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Immigrants are leaders in our communities. Over one in four Illinoisans, 3.2 million all told, is either an immigrant or the child of an immigrant. Today Illinois has recognized that immigrants are assets and is rightly working to leverage this vital source of energy and industry," said Lisa Thakkar, Project Coordinator for the New Americans Executive Order Policy with ICIRR, which organized the New Americans Policy Council, and the National Advisory Panel, and co-authored the resulting report.

 

On November 19, 2005, Gov. Blagojevich signed the New Americans Executive Order, a landmark initiative, which created a New Americans Policy Council, comprised of 24 prominent Illinois business, community, philanthropic, faith, labor, and governmental leaders with experience in this field. During the past year, the Policy Council, staffed by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, consulted with immigrant leaders, Illinois government officials, and an advisory panel of national policy experts regarding the overall approach to immigrant integration, as well as the specific issues of U.S. citizenship and acquisition of English, education, healthcare, and human services.  The result was a list of recommendations and strategies for responding to the challenges of immigrant integration.

 

At the same time, the Executive Order launched a similar policy development track within Illinois State government by creating the Office of New Americans Policy and Advocacy in the Governor's Office.  The Office coordinates the work of the Interagency Task Force, comprised of high-level officials of state agencies and departments charged with examining how state government can address the rapidly changing population.  The Office issued its own set of recommendations to state government today as well in a companion report, "Immigrant Integration: Improving Policy for Education, Health and Human Services for Illinois' Immigrants and Refugees."  Next year, the project will establish a second interagency taskforce, led by the Governor's Office of New Americans, which will be convened with representatives from departments with purview over economic development and entrepreneurship, housing, law enforcement and police-community relations.

 

The National Policy Council's work was possible through the philanthropic support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Joyce Foundation.