A Global Welcome: Metro Chicago’s Approach to Immigrant Inclusion
Global cities significantly shape our world by driving solutions across a range of challenges, including human migration, immigration, and immigrant integration and receptivity. A new report, A Global Welcome: Metro Chicago’s approach to immigrant inclusion, published September 14, 2020, by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and co-authored by Rob Paral (Nonresident Fellow at the Chicago Council) and myself, provides an overview of greater Chicago’s immigrant community and highlights unique approaches taken to create a more inclusive city, while also emphasizing ways for Chicago and other cities to improve.
The following is an excerpt from the report:
“More than half the global population lives in metropolitan areas, and this proportion will likely increase throughout the 21st century. A significant contributor to this growth will be immigrants and other newcomers. The opportunities that metro areas offer, economic and otherwise, place cities on the front line of immigrant integration. Cities are the laboratories where solutions to the challenges related to migration are being tested. Scholars argue that supporting and welcoming new immigrant arrivals help them to integrate more rapidly into their new society. But while there is much excitement about the potential for cities to lead on immigrant integration, cities’ powers are limited by their jurisdictions and the multiple levels of government within which they are situated. According to prominent immigration and urban researchers John Mollenkopf and Manuel Pastor, immigration policy is fundamentally asymmetrical: the federal government determines how many immigrants enter the country, but “it falls to local and regional jurisdictions to frame the living experience of immigrants [and to] mount the programs that integrate them.”
The following is an excerpt from the report:
“The emergence of city leadership on migration agendas, including through global networks such as the Mayors Migration Council and the adoption of the Global Compact for Migration, suggests there are new opportunities on the horizon. Through city diplomacy and sharing of best practices, cities are learning what other cities are doing and bringing home ideas to implement locally. In Hamburg, Germany, for example, the mayor’s office extends an invitation to immigrants when they have met all the qualifications necessary to apply for citizenship, explaining the process for application rather than leaving this responsibility to immigrants. In Spain, cities across the country came together to shape a new national policy for welcoming refugees. As Simon Curtis, professor at the University of East Anglia, wrote, “the international system of the future is unlikely to look anything like those international systems of the past.” Cities are at the forefront of innovative approaches to solving global challenges, and Chicago is well positioned to collect new ideas from around the world and implement them locally. In turn, the city and region can elevate its leadership on the global stage as a bold city taking on cutting-edge policies and providing services and opportunities for all who choose Chicago as their home.”
Continue reading the report summary and access the full report PDF document here from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
Originally published at https://www.thechicagocouncil.org on September 14, 2020.
