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Introduction: The Purpose of Community Organizing in Immigrant Communities
Immigrants, also known as foreign born people, live the United States. According to the Center for Immigration Studies there are more than 50 million immigrants living in the United States. Once immigrants begin to enter the United States, they have to learn many new things in order to navigate and adjust to their new homeland. Historically and currently, immigrants experience exploitation in the workforce and different forms of discriminations and challenges in their lives. Thus, opportunities exist to address the needs in the immigrant community. Many organizations that serve this population utilize Community organizing methods that mobilize, empower and advocate for the needs of this particularly vulnerable population.

History


Community organizing in immigrant communities in the United States is not a new concept. In fact, community organizing in immigrant communities in the United States (sometimes referred to as immigrant voluntary associations) began in the 18th century but is most notably prevalent as beginning between the 1860s and World War I. This form of community organizing came about as a result of the growing immigrant population in the U.S. over the years. Immigrants often enter the U.S. through traditional gateway cities, such as San Francisco, New York, Boston and Chicago, and since the 1960s, the foreign-born population has more than doubled from 5.4 percent to 12.4 percent. Essentially, American environment stimulated the need for the birth of this organizing. As a result, it was important for this population to come together and organize in order to either assimilate into American culture or integrate in respective communities.

Immigrant organizations come in many different sizes—some small and some very large—and can be well established or unstable. The most popular reasons for the forming of these organizations is defensive—a response to exclusion—and offensive—a way to set themselves apart from others. Over the years, these organizations have formed to respond to the particular needs of immigrants, such as immigrant rights, worker rights and civic engagement.

Issues Focused in Immigrant Community Organizing
A few examples of issues addressed in immigrant community organizing are immigrant rights, worker rights, access to higher education and civic engagement. An example of a well known community organizing movement that immigrants partake in organizing is the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott in 1965 .. During the nineteenth century, many of the farm workers were Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and Mexican workers. This was led by the United Farm Workers in the effort to improve the treatment of farm workers by the farm labor system.

Characteristics of Organizing in Immigrant Communities
There are a few distinctive characteristics of community organizing in immigrant communities that differs from other forms of organizing. Therefore, it is critical for community organizers to do an assessment of the community prior to entering. Studies have shown that the reason for immigrating to the United States impacts their engagement in political and social justice work. For example, immigrants who came to the United States as refugees or asylums are less likely to join organizations fighting for social and economic justice unless they felt like their safety has been threatened. Thus, It is very important that community organizers recognized and understand: the diversity in immigrant communities, diversity within countries of origin, reasons for immigration, and challenges they face.

Language Differences
One distinguishing characteristic of community organizing in immigrant communities is being cognizant of language differences. The majority of newly arrived immigrants are not native-English speakers. For this reason, it is essential for the organizers to have effective means of communication with the community. An effective approach can be communicating in their native language whenever possible in order to eliminate barriers. There is a high demand for individuals who are bilingual and or multicultural who are capacitated to work with immigrant communities. There are some organizations that purposefully operate under the leadership of members from that ethnic group.

Partnership With Other Organizations and Institutions
Faith-based organizations and other existing cultural, recreational, and social ethnic associations are places where immigrants seek moral and social support. Recent immigrants are more likely to be affiliated with these types of organizations. Immigrants shared that their faith and the support of their faith organization played a central role in overcoming their fears and oppositions when engaged in social and economic justice work. Therefore, reaching out to organizations and institutions that established relationship with the immigrant community whether it is faith-based or community-based is found to be beneficial for immigrant community organizers.

Strategies and Social Services
Existing immigrant organizations that focus on organizing place most of their attention and resources on policy advocacy, civic participation, community education and leadership training. Recent immigrants are often unaware of the American political system and have little political power because of their citizenship status. Hence, organizers aim to build their organization power through voter registration, voter education, and political campaigns.

In addition to organizing around issues that affect the population that they serve, organizations also provide community education and social services. These services range from classes on English for speakers of other languages, workshops on issues and legislation that affect the immigrant community, and legal services for renewal of work permits to assisting in the naturalization process.

Organizations Engaged in Immigrant Community Organizing
Centro Presente New York Immigrant Coalition Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Southwest Organizing Project Multi-ethnic Immigrant Worker Organization Network Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization Causa Justa:: Just Cause Padres & Jovenes Unidos United Farm Workers