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.

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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

Articles August 10, 2016 Naturalization Trends in the United States By Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova	Policy Briefs August 2016 DACA at Four: Participation in the Deferred Action Program and Impacts on Recipients By Faye Hipsman, Bárbara Gómez-Aguiñaga and Randy Capps
Articles June 29, 2016 Supreme Court DAPA Ruling a Blow to Obama Administration, Moves Immigration Back to Political Realm By Muzaffar Chishti and Faye Hipsman	Multimedia June 23, 2016 Using Supplementary School Funding to Improve the Educational Outcomes of Migrant-Background Students: A Transatlantic Comparison
Reports June 2016 Improving Education for Migrant-Background Students: A Transatlantic Comparison of School Funding By Julie Sugarman, Simon Morris-Lange and Margie McHugh	Articles April 14, 2016 Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States By Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova
Reports March 2016 Challenges in Accessing Early Childhood Education and Care for Children in Refugee Families in Massachusetts By Jeff Gross and Christine Ntagengwa	Multimedia March 23, 2016 How Well Are Young Children of Refugees Integrating into the United States?

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Reports September 2008 Gambling on the Future: Managing the Education Challenges of Rapid Growth in Nevada By Aaron Terrazas and Michael Fix	Policy Briefs September 2008 High Stakes, More Meaning: An Overview of the Process of Redesigning the U.S. Citizenship Test By Laureen Laglagaron
Reports April 2008 Los Angeles on the Leading Edge: Immigrant Integration Indicators and their Policy Implications By Michael Fix, Margie McHugh, Aaron Terrazas and Laureen Laglagaron	Reports December 2007 Testing the Limits: A Framework for Assessing the Legality of State and Local Immigration Measures By Cristina Rodríguez , Muzaffar Chishti and Kimberly Nortman
Reports July 2007 Adult English Language Instruction in the United States: Determining Need and Investing Wisely By Margie McHugh, Julia Gelatt and Michael Fix	Reports March 2007 Measures of Change: The Demography and Literacy of Adolescent English Learners By Jeanne Batalova, Michael Fix and Julie Murray
Policy Briefs March 2007 Trends in the Low-Wage Immigrant Workforce By Randy Capps, Michael Fix and Karina Fortuny	Fact Sheets February 2007 Immigration Fee Increases in Context By Julia Gelatt and Margie McHugh

Recent Activity

Articles

August 10, 2016

Naturalization Trends in the United States

More than 653,000 immigrants became U.S. citizens in fiscal year 2014, bringing the total number of naturalized U.S. citizens to 20 million—nearly half the overall immigrant population of 42.4 million. Over the past decade, naturalizations have ranged from about 537,000 yearly to just more than 1 million. Learn more about naturalization trends in the United States with this Spotlight article.

Policy Briefs

August 2016

DACA at Four: Participation in the Deferred Action Program and Impacts on Recipients

At the fourth anniversary of the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, this issue brief describes the populations eligible for DACA as of 2016; discusses recent policy developments; presents trends in DACA requests and application rates nationwide, by state, and for top countries of origin; and examines the impacts that DACA has had on qualifying young unauthorized immigrants.

Articles

June 29, 2016

Supreme Court DAPA Ruling a Blow to Obama Administration, Moves Immigration Back to Political Realm

A split ruling by the Supreme Court in United States v. Texas has dealt a hard blow to the Obama administration's signature deferred action programs. While the decision makes it unlikely the DAPA program and DACA expansion will be implemented in their current form, the outcome at the high court may have opened a path for renewed movement on immigration policy changes in Congress, as this article explores.

Video, Audio, Webinars

June 23, 2016

Using Supplementary School Funding to Improve the Educational Outcomes of Migrant-Background Students: A Transatlantic Comparison

Report authors and an ELL professional discuss the mechanics of school funding and the specialized services provided for migrant-background students in the United States, Canada, France, and Germany. Speakers also highlight the choices facing policymakers who seek to use supplementary funding to better support effective, high-quality education for children from immigrant and refugee families.

Reports

June 2016

Improving Education for Migrant-Background Students: A Transatlantic Comparison of School Funding

This report sheds light on supplementary funding mechanisms targeted to migrant-background students in four countries—Canada, France, Germany, and the United States—and some of the key challenges and strategies decisionmakers face as they attempt to ensure that additional resources are used effectively to remedy the achievement gaps that immigrant and refugee students often confront.

Articles

April 14, 2016

Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States

Get all the latest and historical facts and figures on immigrants and immigration in the United States in this handy resource. With immigration often surfacing in public and political debates, learn the answers to such questions as: How do current immigration flows compare to earlier ones? How many unauthorized immigrants live in the United States? How many refugees are admitted annually? And get answers to many more questions.

Reports

March 2016

Challenges in Accessing Early Childhood Education and Care for Children in Refugee Families in Massachusetts

This report examines how refugee families in Massachusetts access early childhood education and care (ECEC) services for their children through the refugee resettlement system. It examines how working parents in refugee families navigate and make use of ECEC services and looks at the institutional and systemic challenges that refugee families face in accessing stable, high-quality ECEC options.

Video, Audio, Webinars

March 23, 2016

How Well Are Young Children of Refugees Integrating into the United States?

MPI analysts discuss the findings of a report comparing young children of refugees to other U.S. children on several key indicators of well-being.

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