All in for a Thriving Connecticut: Opportunities to Support Upward Mobility for the State’s Immigrant Families
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Highlights
With immigrants driving all population growth since 2006, Connecticut has opportunities to promote the upward mobility of immigrant families for overall societal benefit.
- Connecticut’s 549,000 immigrants represented 15 percent of the state population as of 2019-2023, with nearly 30 percent of children living in immigrant families.
- Yet immigrants confronted limited adult education capacity, housing instability, and constrained access to health care and legal services.
- The report explores adult education and workforce development, housing, issues affecting low-wage workers, health care and social assistance, small businesses, immigration legal services, K-12 education, and early childhood services.
- State policymakers could improve the mobility of low-income immigrant residents by boosting adult education capacity, enforcing tenant and labor protections, expanding health coverage and legal services, supporting immigrant entrepreneurs, and establishing an Office of New Americans.
Immigrants and their children are a vital part of Connecticut’s present and its future. Comprising 15 percent of the state's residents, immigrants have driven all population and workforce growth over the last decade and a half. In addition, about 30 percent of Connecticut children are part of immigrant families. Most immigrants in the state, as in the country overall, are successful and self-sufficient. However, many face periodic economic challenges, and most immigrants can benefit from integration support in their first several years in the United States.
With an eye to the state’s future vitality, this report focuses on key state policies and services that aim to support upward mobility for all Connecticut families, examining ways in which they meet the needs of low-income immigrants and their children and how they might more effectively do so.
Drawing on interviews with state and local actors, the study considers the following issue areas: adult education and workforce development, housing, low-wage workers, health care and social assistance, small businesses, immigration legal services, K-12 education, and early childhood services. The study also highlights opportunities to improve statewide coordination on immigrant integration and immigration policy issues.
Table of Contents
2 Adult Education and Workforce Development
4 Issues Affecting Low-Wage Workers
5 Health Care and Social Assistance
6 Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners
8 K-12 Schools and Immigrant-Background and English Learner Students
9 Early Childhood Education and Care
10 Concluding Thoughts and Potential State-Level Coordination and Planning Opportunities
About the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy
The Center is a national hub connecting policymakers, educators, community leaders, and service providers with evidence-informed policy research, technical assistance, and data to advance effective immigrant integration at U.S., state, and local levels.
About the U.S. Immigration Policy Program
The U.S. Immigration Policy Program provides analysis of U.S. immigration pathways, the impacts of enforcement and other policies, and the characteristics of immigrant populations.
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