Speaker
Description
The continuous growth of immigrants in the United States and their residential dispersion into different communities have given rise to various local responses to the immigrant population across policy domains. Local government and civil society leaders have already started to join efforts, share best practices, and form partnerships to effectively integrate immigrants (De Graauw and Bloemraad, 2017). Several networks have emerged that serve as convening organizations of these local efforts, and Welcoming America is one case in point (Rodriguez et al 2019). Launched in 2009, it has over 200 members from both local governments and nonprofits joining its immigrant-welcoming initiatives by now.
The Welcoming America network presents a unique angle through which we examine the diffusion of this new policy initiative within and across both sectors: public and nonprofit. Recent inquiries on this new initiative has focused on welcoming cities only, not welcoming nonprofits (Huang and Liu, 2018; McDaniel et al 2019). We conducted in-depth interviews with over 20 leaders of local governments and nonprofits and collected survey questionnaires from over 100 welcoming members. Specifically, we answer three research questions.
First, what are motivations for joining Welcoming America and are their differences between local governments and nonprofits? These include both internal determinants and external contexts.
Second, how is the adoption and participation process shaped by policy learning and diffusion by the adoption of other local governments and nonprofit organizations? We will pay particular attention to within-sector and cross-sector dynamics.
Third, what is the role of the network of Welcoming America in facilitating the adoption of these initiatives among public and nonprofit agencies? While it is suggested networks and associations promote policy diffusion through knowledge sharing, best practice reports, workshops, awards and rankings (Shipan and Volden, 2012), more work is called for in this area to identify specific mechanisms through which such facilitation takes place.
Our research results will contribute to our knowledge of local cross-sector immigrant-integration efforts and enrich theories on policy innovation diffusion among and between local governments and nonprofits through a network organization in face of rapid immigrant changes.
References
Huang, X. and Liu, C. Y. (2018) Welcoming cities: Immigration policy at the local government level. Urban Affairs Review 54 (1) 3-32.
McDaniel, P. N., Rodriguez D. X., and Wang Q. (2019). Immigrant integration and receptivity policy formation in welcoming cities. Journal of Urban Affairs 41 (8): 1142-1166.
De Graauw, E. and Bloemraad, I. (2017) Working together: Building successful policy and program partnerships for immigrant integration. Journal on Migration and Human Security 5 (1): 105-123.
Rodriguez, D. X., McDaniel, P. N., and Ahebee, M-D. (2018) Welcoming America: A Case Study of Municipal Immigrant Integration, Receptivity, and Community Practice. Journal of Community Practice, 26 (4): 348-357.
| Keywords | immigration, welcoming, cities, nonprofits |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
