About The National Partnership for New Americans

The National Immigrant Integration Conference is a signature event of the National Partnership for New Americans, which advances the integration and active citizenship of immigrants to achieve a vibrant, just, and welcoming democracy for all.

The New Americans Partnership vision is an authentic and welcoming democracy in which new Americans achieve equal opportunity and are a powerful and organized constituency. Policies and programs at all levels will foster a high quality of life for all, and new Americans will vote, hold office and participate fully in civic life and economic prosperity. 

The New Americans Partnership logo

The National Immigrant Integration Conference is made possible by generous support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Four Freedoms Fund.


 


General Sessions


Capacity Building as Field Building: A Case Study from the Immigrant Rights Field

Many funders recognize that investing in management, fundraising, IT, communications and many other forms of capacity building helps their grantees to become more effective and sustainable. Over the past five years, the Four Freedoms Fund (FFF, a national funding collaborative) has made capacity building grants to individual grantees, but has also sponsored group training, direct coaching, shared metrics and other forms of peer learning to accelerate progress and build greater trust within the greater immigrant rights field. This session will explain the principles and practices behind FFF's "field building" approach to capacity building, and also present both grantee and funder perspectives on what the 'return on investment' has been.

  • Moderator: TBD


    Training: Passing Pro-Immigrant Legislation

    As comprehensive immigration reform remains stalled at the federal level, it's becoming increasingly clear that state and local immigration legislation will continue to play important roles to transform policies that affect immigrant families and drive the national debate on immigration. Despite the considerable attention devoted to anti-immigrant bills such as Arizona's SB 1070, pro-immigrant state and local policies have helped counteract and defeat state and local anti-immigrant proposals. Pro-immigrant proposals are also building momentum for common-sense, solutions-oriented approaches to immigration policy, particularly with respect to expanding educational access for undocumented students and to limit the role of state and local law enforcement in enforcing federal immigration laws.
    Join advocates and legislative strategists for a lively and informative training focused on how to build and advance strategic campaigns at the state and local level focused on building support and momentum for pro-immigrant policies. The training will point to innovative models and best practices with respect to a host of pro-immigrant policies, including tuition equity; anti-racial profiling; limiting the ability of state and local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws; wage enforcement; and support for immigrant small business entrepreneurs.

  • Trainer: Suman Raghunathan, Progressive States Network


    Push and Pull: Collaborating with Diverse Stakeholders on Language Access

    There is a growing awareness that over a decade after Executive Order 13166 established a framework for the provision of language access services by recipients of federal funds, there continues to be a lack of scale, quality and breadth of these services at all levels of government. Amid tight state budgets and a tense political environment, the need to secure and continue to improve the provision of language access services gains greater importance. In light of these facts, this language access session will address both advocates’ and language access practitioners’ needs to identify new and innovative tools for providing language access. The session will present two to-be-determined city case studies of the push and pull between advocates and government officials in the establishment, implementation and monitoring of language access plans in the health and law enforcement fields. Participants will leave with an understanding of the political, technological and administrative tools the case study cities used to advance language access. In doing so, this session will emphasize a central point often underestimated in dialogue about language access: that it is a mutually beneficial process that at once helps immigrants’ integration and contributes to state and local agencies’ ability to efficiently and effectively carry out their missions.

  • Trainers: Gillian Dutton, Seattle University
    Chhandasi Pandya, Migration Policy Institute


    Training: Building Your Data Toolbox

    Learn where you can find the statistics and demographic information you need on immigrants for program development, grant writing, and advocacy. Participants will have a chance to learn about different data sets and internet based resources.

  • Trainer: Mary Giovagnoli, Immigration Policy Center


    Future of Comprehensive Immigration Reform

    Last year’s failure to secure Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) a place at the top of the political agenda or even rally enough votes to pass the DREAM Act was disheartening. In this panel, we will not linger in the past, but we will look back enough to inform future strategies. This moderated conversation will provide concrete examples of new ventures that are paving the way for a future where CIR is a reality and reflect on critical questions that can get us to the end of the road: What’s ahead? What new alliances must be formed or communications strategies should be developed? What is missing? Where does immigrant integration fit in?

  • Moderator: Josh Hoyt, Illinois Coalition Immigrant and Refugee Rights
    Ali Noorani, National Immigration Forum
    Angelica Salas, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles
    Diane Narasaki, Asian Counseling and Referral Service
    Robert Feldstein, Partnership for a New American Economy


    Cities of Migration Marketplace of Good Ideas - International

    Explore an international showcase of award-winning integration practices at the Cities of Migration Marketplace of Good Ideas. Take a whirlwind tour of ten cities for new ideas, practical lessons and smart solutions that contribute to immigrant and city success. This unique peer-learning event invites conference delegates to learn about successful immigrant integration practices from cities across the US -- and internationally -- through a dynamic, hands-on program of short presentations and Q&A sessions. Five outstanding US practices, all E Pluribus Unum Award winners, and 5 international practices from Toronto, London, Barcelona, Kerpen, and Auckland have been selected to demonstrate the power of local initiatives to make immigration a success. The Marketplace is co-presented by The Maytree Foundation, on behalf of the Cities of Migration initiative, and the J.M. Kaplan Fund and Migration Policy Institute’s Center on National Immigrant Integration Policy, on behalf of the E Pluribus Unum immigrant integration awards..

  • Host: Kim Turner, Cities of Migration, Maytree Foundation - Canada
    Claudia Walters, Roadmap for Inclusive Cities, Bertelsmann Stiftung – Kerpen, Germany
    Stephen Fotopulos, Shelbyville's Ambassadors of Welcome, Tennesse Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition –Nashville, U.S.
    Claire Sylvan, Language-Wise in the Global Classroom, Internationals Network for Public Schools - New York, US
    Michaela Hertel, All Kids are VIPS, Fundacion Bertelsmann - Barcelona , Spain
    Cathy Winter, Diversity OnBoard, Maytree Foundation – Toronto, Canada
    José Ramón Fernández-Peña, Welcome to a Healthy Community, Welcome Back Initiative - San Francisco, United States
    Pauline Winter, Alpha to Omega: Mentoring Skilled Immigrants, Opportunities for Migrant Employment In Greater Auckland (OMEGA) – Auckland, New Zealand
    Stéphanie Mestrallet, Banking on Affordable Credit, Fair Finance – London, United Kingdom
    Nikki Cicerani, Interviewing the Up and Coming, Upwardly Global – Chicago, U.S.
    Luis Pastor, Financing Immigrant Futures, Latino Community Credit Union – Durham, U.S.


    Building Our Movement's Media Watchdog: Promoting Fair and Realistic Images of Immigrants

    Part of facilitating the integration of any ethnic or minority group has been fighting for fair and realistic representations of its members on the airwaves. Panelists will highlight efforts that have been successful in fighting stereotyping on sitcoms to anti-immigrant rhetoric on news programming and discuss what still needs to be done to grow or strengthen our own watch dog.

  • Moderator: Robert Bray, Public Interest Projects
    Alex Nogales, National Hispanic Media Coalition
    Ilyse Hogue, Media Matters for America