National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy

Policy Briefs

April 2024

Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families through Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Services

Young girl talks to a child psychologist

iStock.com/Lacheev

Infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) services can offer vital support for young children’s healthy development. Yet, young children in immigrant and refugee families often do not benefit, due in part to lower levels of health-care coverage and limited cultural responsiveness in the field. This issue brief explores the benefits and barriers to supporting these children via IECMH services, and some ways to close key gaps.

Reports

January 2024

Refining State Accountability Systems for English Learner Success

A high school student answers a math problem on a whiteboard

Allison Shelley/EDUimages

State accountability systems are designed to identify and close student achievement gaps. Yet most do not report and interpret English Learner (EL) outcomes in a way that paints a full picture of how different instructional services have contributed to academic development. This report sketches a vision for reimagined accountability systems that can support better understanding of ELs’ learning and inform school improvement strategies.

Reports

November 2023

The Unmet Potential of Community Consultations in U.S. Refugee Resettlement

Young woman speaks to other participants at a meeting

iStock.com/SDI Productions

As humanitarian migrant arrivals in the United States increase, via refugee resettlement and channels such as temporary parole, communication between the national, state, and local actors involved in supporting their reception and integration is critical. This report examines the goals and design of quarterly resettlement consultations, as well as opportunities to refine these processes to boost their impact and relevance in a changing policy landscape.

Fact Sheets

October 2023

Recent Immigrant Children: A Profile of New Arrivals to U.S. Schools

Allison Shelley/EDUimages

A significant increase in the number of immigrant children in U.S. schools over the last decade has challenged K-12 educators to expand their capacity to serve students with different backgrounds and educational needs. This fact sheet sketches a profile of recently arrived immigrant children, presenting data on top states of residence, national origins, household characteristics, and more.

Policy Briefs

October 2023

Leveraging Data to Ensure Equitable and Effective Adult Skills Programming for Immigrants

Adult immigrant students work together in an English class

iStock.com/shironosov

Immigrants make significant contributions to the U.S. economy and social fabric, but many also face barriers to integration. Adult education and workforce development programs offer services intended to help address such challenges yet can be mismatched to immigrants' needs. This issue brief sketches a profile of U.S.-born and immigrant adults, highlighting key similarities and differences relevant to the design of adult skills programs.

Policy Briefs

July 2023

ESSER: Moving the Needle on Equitable and Adequate Education Funding for English Learners

4th and 5th grade students working on posters

Allison Shelley/EDUimages

The pandemic and move to remote learning affected students across the United States, and certain groups—including the nation’s 5 million English Learners (ELs)—were hit particularly hard. At the same time, the federal government made unprecedented investments in public K-12 education to counter the pandemic’s adverse impacts. This issue brief explores the ways school districts have invested these funds to support ELs.

Featured

English Learners and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) includes a number of new requirements for the education of English Learners (ELs), including standardized criteria for identifying EL students and inclusion of English proficiency as a measurement of school quality. Resources on this page can help inform decisions such as how quickly schools must improve and how states can intervene with struggling districts.

Featured

ELL Information Center

The English Language Learner (ELL) Information Center provides informative fact sheets, maps, and state-level data resources that chronicle the demography and trends of immigrant families and their children.

Recent Activity

Policy Briefs October 2018 English Plus Integration: Shifting the Instructional Paradigm for Immigrant Adult Learners to Support Integration Success By Margie McHugh and Catrina Doxsee	Multimedia September 24, 2018 Addressing the Intergenerational Mental Health Needs of Refugee Families with Young Children
Reports September 2018 A Profile of Houston’s Diverse Immigrant Population in a Rapidly Changing Policy Landscape By Randy Capps and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto	Multimedia August 29, 2018 Young Children in Refugee Families and Early Childhood Programs: Ways to Mitigate the Effects of Trauma
Fact Sheets August 2018 English Learners in Select States: Demographics, Outcomes, and State Accountability Policies By Julie Sugarman and Courtney Geary	Commentaries August 2018 Through the Back Door: Remaking the Immigration System via the Expected “Public-Charge” Rule By Jeanne Batalova, Michael Fix and Mark Greenberg
Reports August 2018 Tapping the Talents of Highly Skilled Immigrants in the United States: Takeaways from Experts Summit By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix	Multimedia June 27, 2018 K-12 Instructional Models for English Learners: What They Are and Why They Matter

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Reports February 2015 Through an Immigrant Lens: PIAAC Assessment of the Competencies of Adults in the United States By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix	Reports January 2015 Lessons from the Local Level: DACA's Implementation and Impact on Education and Training Success By Sarah Hooker, Margie McHugh and Angelo Mathay
Reports September 2014 Diploma, Please: Promoting Educational Attainment for DACA- and Potential DREAM Act-Eligible Youth By Margie McHugh	Reports September 2014 Immigrant Civic Integration and Service Access Initiatives: City-Sized Solutions for City-Sized Needs By Margie McHugh
Policy Briefs September 2014 Executive Action for Unauthorized Immigrants: Estimates of the Populations that Could Receive Relief By Randy Capps and Marc R. Rosenblum	Reports August 2014 DACA at the Two-Year Mark: A National and State Profile of Youth Eligible and Applying for Deferred Action By Jeanne Batalova, Sarah Hooker and Randy Capps
Reports June 2014 Critical Choices in Post-Recession California: Investing in the Educational and Career Success of Immigrant Youth By Sarah Hooker, Margie McHugh and Michael Fix	Reports June 2014 Immigrant Parents and Early Childhood Programs: Addressing Barriers of Literacy, Culture, and Systems Knowledge By Maki Park and Margie McHugh

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EventPH 2014.8.6 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) at Two

Audio

August 6, 2014

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) at Two: New MPI Findings as Renewal Approaches

This webinar covers key findings from MPI's report about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative and eligible populations two years after its implementation, and also introduces MPI's data tool that provides national and state-level estimates of the current and potentially eligible DACA populations, as well as detailed profiles for the U.S. and 25 states.

Audio

June 18, 2014

Improving the Educational Outcomes of California's Immigrant Youth: A National Imperative

This webinar exploring findings from MPI's report, Critical Choices in Post-Recession California: Investing in the Educational and Career Success of Immigrant Youth, which focuses on the implications of California's public education system reforms for the state's 3.3 million fi

EventPH 2014.5.20 Addressing Barriers to Successful Engagement of Immigrant and Refugee Parents of Young Children

Audio

June 2, 2014

Addressing Barriers to Successful Engagement of Immigrant and Refugee Parents of Young Children

The authors of the report "Immigrant Parents and Early Childhood Programs: Addressing Barriers of Literacy, Culture, and Systems Knowledge" discuss their findings on this webinar. They and other presenters detail the experiences and challenges faced by early childhood programs and immigrant and refugee parents as they connect with one another.

EVENTPH 2014.5.14 State Level Initiatives to Address Brain Waste

Audio

May 14, 2014

State-Level Initiatives to Address Brain Waste Among Highly Educated Immigrants and Refugees

A discussion of data compiled by MPI on "brain waste" among foreign-trained nurses, engineers, and teachers, with updates on three state-level initiatives—in Illinois, Massachusetts, and Washington State—that are working to analyze and address challenges faced by immigrants and refugees with degrees and training in these fields.

EventPH 2014.3.20 Education for the Future Georgia Gwinnett College

Audio

March 20, 2014

Education for the Future: Extending Georgia’s High School and College Reforms to its Growing Immigrant Population

MPI experts, along with representatives from Gwinnett County Public Schools and the University of Georgia's Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education, discuss the educational experiences of Georgia’s first- and second-generation immigrant youth and where Georgia’s ambitious education reforms have met—or failed to meet—the needs of this growing population.

Recent Activity

Policy Briefs

April 2021

The Integration of Immigrant Health Professionals: Looking beyond the COVID-19 Crisis

The U.S. health-care workforce came under incredible strain during the COVID-19 pandemic. Longer-term trends—including the aging and increasing diversity of the U.S. population, and health-care worker retirement—are also shaping demand for services and the supply of health workers. This issue brief looks at how the skills and expertise of underutilized immigrant and refugee health professionals in the United States can be better leveraged to meet these challenges.

Video, Audio, Webinars

April 21, 2021

Disparities Facing U.S. Children in Immigrant Families: New Data and Ideas for Indicators to Promote Equity

MPI analysts discuss their analysis comparing key sociodemographic characteristics of immigrant and U.S.-born parents of young and school-age children, along with the two-generational implications of these findings. Speakers also explored potential ways to incorporate measures with an eye to achieving more responsive and effective service designs and improving equity and access more generally for these families.

Fact Sheets

April 2021

Immigrant and U.S.-Born Parents of Young and Elementary-School-Age Children: Key Sociodemographic Characteristics

Parents play an important role in supporting their children’s education, but certain factors—such as limited English proficiency, low levels of formal education, and digital access barriers—can make it difficult to do so. This fact sheet series looks at the characteristics of immigrant and U.S.-born parents of young and elementary-school-age children in 31 states and nationwide, and discusses how taking a two-generation approach to services can benefit entire families.

Policy Briefs

March 2021

Funding English Learner Education: Making the Most of Policy and Budget Levers

Ensuring that adequate and equitable funding is available to support a high-quality education for English Learners (ELs) is a critical part of making good on the nation’s promise of equal opportunity for all students. This issue brief explores the federal, state, and local sources of funding for EL education; decisions that shape distribution and use of funds; and opportunities for stakeholders and community members to work toward improvements.

Commentaries

February 2021

A Deeper Look at the DREAMers Who Could Feature in the Legalization Debate in Congress

The DREAM Act of 2021 could represent one of the narrower legalization measures with better prospects for passage in a narrowly divided Congress. MPI's latest estimates of the DREAMers who could gain conditional and then permanent legal status are offered here, as are the share of DREAMers who feature in another ongoing conversation, around essential workers in the U.S. labor market overall as well as in the health-care sector.

Commentaries

January 2021

Nearly 3 Million U.S. Citizens and Legal Immigrants Initially Excluded under the CARES Act Are Covered under the December 2020 COVID-19 Stimulus

The pandemic-recovery stimulus package that passed Congress in December rectified what many had viewed as a significant oversight in the earlier CARES Act: Its exclusion of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants in mixed-status families. MPI researchers estimate nearly 3 million U.S. citizens and legal immigrants excluded from the earlier legislation can receive the later relief, as well as qualify retroactively for the CARES Act payment, as this commentary explores.

Commentaries

December 2020

Anticipated “Chilling Effects” of the Public-Charge Rule Are Real: Census Data Reflect Steep Decline in Benefits Use by Immigrant Families

Researchers, service providers, and others have long predicted that sweeping revisions by the Trump administration to the definition of who constitutes a public charge would deter large numbers of immigrant-led households from using federal means-tested public benefits for which they are eligible. Recently released Census Bureau data show they were right: During the administration's first three years, program participation declined twice as fast among noncitizens as citizens.

Commentaries

December 2020

How the Fear of Immigration Enforcement Affects the Mental Health of Latino Youth

The prevalence of mental-health symptoms among Latino high school students, immigrant and U.S. born alike, is closely related to their fears of immigration enforcement. And the situation may have worsened since the researchers sampled this population, given the COVID-19 pandemic and associated economic hardship have increased the stress on Latino communities that have been hit disproportionately hard, as this commentary explores.

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