Introduction : the local politics of immigrant integration -- Nonprofit organizations as immigrant rights advocates -- Immigrants and politics in San Francisco -- Providing language access through nonprofit-government collaborations -- Raising minimum wages through nonprofit-union collaborations -- Strategic framing and municipal ID cards -- Conclusion : making immigrant rights real -- Appendix : immigrant-serving nonprofits in San Francisco, 2006
Summary
More than half of the 41 million foreign-born individuals in the United States today are non-citizens, half have difficulty with English, a quarter are undocumented, and many are poor. As a result, most immigrants have few opportunities to make their voices heard in the political process. Nonprofits in many cities have stepped into this gap to promote the integration of disadvantaged immigrants. They have done so despite notable constraints on their political activities, including limits on their lobbying and partisan electioneering, limited organizational resources, and dependence on government funding. This book examines how immigrant-serving nonprofits can make impressive policy gains despite these limitations
