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11. Native Language Assessments for K-12 English Learners: Policy Considerations and State Practices

Author:
Julie Sugarman and Leslie Villegas
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Standardized tests play a central role in the U.S. education system, shaping how states hold schools accountable for ensuring that all students have equitable access to a quality education. Schools and districts sometimes also use testing data for high-stakes decisions about teacher pay and whether students can move on to the next grade. It is thus crucial that standardized assessments are able to accurately capture what students know and can do. But for English Learner (EL) students, test scores may not fully reflect how much they have learned in a subject if they cannot demonstrate their knowledge in English. The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) encourages states to consider offering native language assessments as a test accommodation for ELs. Yet official guidance and research are limited on how to use such assessments effectively, and only 31 states and the District of Columbia use such tests. Depending on factors such as students’ English proficiency levels and the language(s) in which they receive instruction, these tests may be a good fit for some ELs but not others. This policy brief explores key policy and practical questions for states considering implementing or expanding their use of native language assessments. It also provides an overview of the choices made by the jurisdictions that already use them—including the subjects and languages in which native language assessments are offered and how they were created. Finally, the brief offers recommendations for the federal government, states, and local actors that could help build understanding of when these tests work well and how to make them more widely available.
Topic:
Education, Immigrants, Language, Integration, and ESL
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

12. Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families through Home Visiting: Innovative State and Local Approaches

Author:
Caitlin Katsiaficas
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Home visiting programs are increasingly popular in communities across the United States. A two-generation model for health and social service provision, home visiting is designed to support both young children and their caretakers to promote their health, well-being, and long-term outcomes. For immigrant and refugee families, home visiting can also offer integration-related supports, such as by helping parents navigate unfamiliar early childhood, health, and social service systems. But even though they make up an important segment of the at-risk populations these programs aim to serve, immigrant and refugee families are less frequently enrolled in home visiting programs than families in which the parents are U.S. born. This brief highlights strategies adopted by some states and counties to address this gap. To do so, it looks at four case studies: King County, Washington; San Diego County, California; Illinois; and Massachusetts. Working with different populations and in varied funding environments, these state and local efforts illustrate key steps policymakers and program administrators can take to boost the equity and quality of home visiting services for immigrant families, such as by: explicitly including at-risk immigrant families in program needs assessments and prioritizing them for services alongside other at-risk families; incorporating community input into program design; adjusting procurement processes to level the playing field for community-based organizations that seek to offer home visiting services and are well positioned to connect with families of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds; and supporting research on what program models work well for immigrant and refugee families.
Topic:
Education, Refugees, Immigrants, and Integration
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

13. Transnational Impacts of Muslim Bans and US Sanctions

Author:
Azadeh Shahshahani
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Center for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR), Rutgers University School of Law
Abstract:
This lecture focuses on the harm that US sanctions as well as the Muslim Ban have caused Iranians and Iranian-Americans, and ways in which the public can help put an end to US threats of aggression and sanctions as well as work towards repealing the Muslim Ban and other discriminatory policies.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Sanctions, Border Control, Immigrants, Discrimination, and Immigration Policy
Political Geography:
Iran, Middle East, North America, and United States of America

14. Leveraging the Potential of Home Visiting Programs to Serve Immigrant and Dual Language Learner Families

Author:
Maki Park and Caitlin Katsiaficas
Publication Date:
08-2019
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
A child’s first years are ones of exceptionally rapid growth, a period that can lay the foundation for school readiness and healthy socioemotional development. Growing awareness of the importance of investing in infants and toddlers is reflected in the spread of home visiting programs—family-focused social services provided in the home on a regular basis to expectant mothers and new parents alongside their young children. The federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, for example, has seen its funding rise since it was created in 2010, and many states and counties have launched or expanded their own programs. Children with immigrant parents and those exposed to a language other than English in the home (known as Dual Language Learners, or DLLs) are important target populations for such early childhood programs. As of 2013–17, one-fourth of U.S. children ages 5 and under were children of immigrants, and nearly one-third were DLLs. Young children of immigrants are also more likely than their peers to live in low-income households—a priority service population for many home visiting initiatives. Yet studies show that DLLs and children in immigrant families are underserved by home visiting services. This policy brief examines the characteristics that make these children and their families important targets for such programs and barriers that may hinder their participation. It also highlights opportunities to address them, including by making these groups visible in MIECHV needs assessments, improving program data collection, and strengthening partnerships with community-based organizations.
Topic:
Education, Health, Children, Immigrants, Family, and Welfare
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

15. Health Insurance Coverage of Immigrants and Latinos in the Kansas City Metro Area

Author:
Randy Capps and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Latinos and immigrants are at least twice as likely to lack health insurance coverage as the overall population in the Kansas City metropolitan area. This gap that has significant implications for the region, as Latinos and immigrants will form an ever-growing share of the area’s labor force and tax base amid anticipated declines in the native-born, non-Latino population. This brief offers a demographic profile of the immigrant and U.S.- and foreign-born Latino populations in the three Kansas City-area counties with the largest immigrant populations: Missouri’s Jackson County and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas. The brief also examines these populations’ health insurance coverage and gaps. Overall, 161,000 residents in the three Kansas City metro counties with the largest immigrant populations—Johnson County; Jackson County, Missouri; and Wyandotte County, Kansas—are uninsured, with immigrants of all origins and Latinos accounting for 38 percent (61,000) of the total. MPI’s analysis draws on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, county health departments, and local safety-net health-care providers. “Given the important role immigrants and their U.S.-born children play in Kansas City-area communities and the future of the regional economy, it makes economic sense to maximize health insurance coverage for immigrant and Latino families,” the authors find.
Topic:
Employment, Immigrants, Health Insurance, and Latino Issues
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

16. Rise of the Far-right Groups in Trump’s America

Author:
Khalid Manzoor Butt and Mominyar Khalid
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Political Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
In the wake of Donald Trump's assent to presidency, a congenial environment emerged for the rise of far-right groups in the United States of America. These farright groups - dormant earlier - are not only resurfaced but they seem to be occupying central position in the political milieu of the United States of America. Elements of Islamophobia, xenophobia and nativism seem prevalent in Trump's presidency. Such an environment is sharpening the cracks in the land of immigrants. Hence, this research intends to find the causes of the rise of far-right hate groups in America; what are the implications of this rise for American society; to avert further segregation and division of American society, how multiculturalism can be used as a tool to reconcile with the force of far-right hate groups; and to find out the institutional response to the hate crimes committed by affiliates of different hate groups. The research also intends to comprehend how to deal with these hate groups. Hence, in order to study the phenomenon, Qualitative Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) has been employed to semi-structured interviews of a purposive convenient sample suggesting some policy guidelines and solution to the problem.
Topic:
Multiculturalism, Elections, Immigrants, Islamophobia, Xenophobia, Donald Trump, Radical Right, and Hate Groups
Political Geography:
United States of America

17. Celebrating the Cultures of the Excluded

Author:
Kristina Bogos
Publication Date:
09-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)
Abstract:
Amidst the rising anti-refugee and anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States, Muslim children in the Washington DC area took a stand this spring in an unconventional way: the expression of their cultures through song, poetry, and dance at Arena Stage in the Mead Center for American Theater.
Topic:
Culture, Refugees, Immigrants, Trump, and Protests
Political Geography:
Middle East and United States of America

18. Full Issue

Author:
Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome
Publication Date:
12-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Ìrìnkèrindò: A Journal of African Migration
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
Contents Editorial Mixed, Perilous and Other Migrations: Do African Lives Matter? Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome 1 Breaching Fortress Europe: By Any Means Necessary: The Complications of African Migration to Europe. Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome .................................................................................... 12 African Migrants in Post-Soviet Moscow: Adaptation and Integration in a Time of Radical Socio-Political Transformations. Dmitri M. Bondarenko........................................................ 35 Exploring the Migration Experiences of Black Zimbabwean Women in the Greater Cincinnati Area. Florence Nyemba and Lisa Vaughn ................................................................................... 76 Socio-cultural Factors Influencing the Ebola Virus Disease-related Stigma among African Immigrants in the United States Guy-Lucien S. Whembolua, Donaldson Conserve, and Daudet Ilunga Tshiswaka ....................................................................................................................... 117
Topic:
Migration, History, Ebola, Immigrants, Post-Soviet Space, and Stigmatization
Political Geography:
Africa, Russia, Europe, Zimbabwe, and United States of America

19. US Undocumented Population Drops Below 11 Million in 2014, with Continued Declines in the Mexican Undocumented Population

Author:
Robert Warren
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Abstract:
Undocumented immigration has been a significant political issue in recent years, and is likely to remain so throughout and beyond the presidential election year of 2016. One reason for the high and sustained level of interest in undocumented immigration is the widespread belief that the trend in the undocumented population is ever upward. This paper shows that this belief is mistaken and that, in fact, the undocumented population has been decreasing for more than a half a decade. Other findings of the paper that should inform the immigration debate are the growing naturalized citizen populations in almost every US state and the fact that, since 1980, the legally resident foreign-born population from Mexico has grown faster than the undocumented population from Mexico.
Topic:
Politics, Elections, and Immigrants
Political Geography:
Mexico and United States of America

20. The Economic Impacts of Removing Unauthorized Immigrant Workers

Author:
Ryan Edwards and Francesc Ortega
Publication Date:
09-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for American Progress - CAP
Abstract:
In every state and in every industry across the United States, immigrants—authorized and unauthorized—are contributing to the U.S. economy. Immigrant labor and entrepreneurship are believed to be powerful forces of economic revitalization for communities struggling with population decline. Estimates suggest that the total number of unauthorized immigrants currently residing in the United States is approximately 11.3 million, or about 3.5 percent of the total 2015 resident population of 324.4 million. Of those 11.3 million, we estimate that 7 million are workers. What is the economic contribution of these unauthorized workers? What would the nation stand to lose in terms of production and income if these workers were removed and returned to their home countries?
Topic:
Economics, Migration, Labor Issues, Border Control, and Immigrants
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America