Embrace and Integrate Newcomers: Address immigrants’ fundamental needs while promoting initiatives that reduce real or perceived competition among newcomers and native residents
To integrate newcomers, and prevent their marginalization, cities must address their fundamental needs first and foremost. From safety and affordable housing, to health, education, and economic inclusion, municipalities must be able to immediately accommodate their newest arrivals. Without this support, poverty and lack of social support often lead immigrants to settle in marginalized neighborhoods. This clustering into isolated communities already disconnected from public services creates a vicious cycle that makes it increasingly difficult for municipal actors to implement integration solutions at scale. New programs that specifically assist refugees or other immigrant groups may lead to resentment from vulnerable native residents, and the perception that their livelihoods could be at risk from more competition.
To avoid this tension, cities are developing programs that address immigrant’s fundamental needs while also yielding benefits for other groups, with a particular focus on vulnerable populations. Interventions that create benefits for different communities have proven successful at preempting or mitigating this potential dynamic. However, some cities have difficulty developing these types of programs, because they lack tools that integrate data across departments, effectively articulate overlapping needs of vulnerable populations, or quantify the resilience dividends achieved across different constituencies.
Examples from the 100RC Network
New York City — IDNYC
New York City’s municipal ID program (IDNYC) was created to give New Yorkers — in particular vulnerable communities like immigrants, seniors, veterans, transgender, and gender non-conforming New Yorkers — easier access to city government, financial services such as bank accounts, cost-saving benefits such as discounts on prescription medication or bike sharing memberships, the city’s botanical gardens, libraries and cultural institutions, and identification recognized by local law enforcement and schools. IDNYC has been a transformative program for many vulnerable populations, and especially for undocumented immigrants. The city vows to protect the confidentiality of all IDNYC card applications and never asks applicants about their immigration status. The Police Department was a crucial partner in establishing the municipal ID program, as residents are more likely to report crimes when they have a form of ID that is accepted by law enforcement.
By making it easier for these populations to access city services and other social institutions, the New York City administration has extended a welcoming hand for people on the margins of society, without creating competition. To date, the program has over 1,030,000 cardholders and over 500,000 cultural memberships have been redeemed at partner institutions across the city. More than half of IDNYC’s cardholders use the card as their primary form of identification and over three-quarters of immigrants surveyed reported that the card increases their sense of belonging to the city.
Practitioner Resources
Joint IDP Profiling Service
Guidance for Profiling Urban Displacement SituationsThe ‘Guidance for Profiling Urban Displacement Situations’ offers a range of methodologies, tools, and case studies for gathering comparative data on the range of experiences, needs, and capacities of both displaced and non-displaced individuals in urban settings. Profiling tools with indicators that enable the identification of displaced, host, and local households enable better comparisons between the experiences and relative vulnerabilities of different groups, ultimately informing more effective programming and advocacy.
Time Banks
Time Banking Resource CenterTo support the most vulnerable categories of migrants without creating competition, city and community leaders can leverage technology platforms that provide concrete goods and services to people who volunteer their time and services. For example, time banking schemes allow participants to earn credits for their volunteer hours and redeem them for goods and services from others. Even if this system does not provide participants with hard currency, it can help immigrants participate in the informal economy and address some of their needs, as well as actively participate in two-way interactions with the host community.
Time Banks, one of the leading organizations in this space, has put together a library of guidelines and resources to help local leaders establish and run a time bank. See the full suite of resources at: http://timebanks.org/resources/
