Grant Makers and Charities Must Focus on Needs of Immigrants

Immigration legislation may be to the second half of 2010 what the health-care overhaul was in the early months of the year.

Although it is a polarizing and emotional subject, the unmet needs of migrants not only in this country but also worldwide are a critical social issue with strong economic, political, and human-rights implications that cannot be ignored.

• One in five children in the United States lives in an immigrant-headed household, according to research from Harvard University scholars. By tailoring their services to better engage this population, children’s organizations are far more likely to succeed in their missions.
• Immigrants experience significant gaps and inequalities in health care, which can be exacerbated by linguistic and cultural barriers, according to the World Health Organization. By planning for the needs of diverse immigrant clients, nonprofit organizations can better help people stay healthy and reach their potential.
• With women making up half of all new arrivals in neighborhoods around the world, migration has become central to women’s empowerment and rights. As part of the mobile work force, women can be particularly vulnerable to society’s shortcomings—and particularly powerful agents of change. Organizations such as Acción, Mercy Corps, Opportunity International, Pro Mujer, Women’s World Banking, and World Vision have made a positive impact by offering women small loans and other tools they need to start businesses.
• Nonprofit organizations that focus on disaster preparedness should consider reaching out to immigrant neighborhoods. Migrants tend to bear the brunt of disasters. They are also unusually generous and motivated to respond when their homelands are in need, a fact that has played out in heartbreaking and inspiring ways in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.

Historically, migrants were an afterthought for many nonprofit programs, a fact that hit home when our foundation was developing its corporate citizenship strategy back in 2006. At the time, we struggled to find large-scale efforts to foster economic opportunity that focused on migrants and their families.

The good news is that awareness and attitudes are starting to change.

A growing number of forward-looking grant makers are supporting a more comprehensive approach to issues surrounding migration.

For example, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, the Open Society Institute, and the Rockefeller Foundation are all looking at migration trends as they make grants in a broad range of areas, including microfinance, human rights, and civic engagement. Yet significant and troubling gaps remain in terms of money and attention.

Migrants themselves are typically the main source of aid to other immigrants. Many new arrivals have experienced first-hand the struggles of their native countries, where a lack of opportunity too often makes migration a necessity, rather than a choice.

The world’s mobile workers are motivated by a powerful desire to improve conditions for those they leave behind, as well as the need to rally together to overcome barriers in their new neighborhoods.

Those factors contribute to an underappreciated pattern: Migrants are among the world’s most-generous donors.

Although Americans are frequently (and rightly) lauded for our largess—on average Americans give 3.3 percent of their incomes to charity each year, according to research by Arthur C. Brooks, head of the American Enterprise Institute. Immigrants routinely give more.

A 2007 Inter-American Development Bank survey of Mexican immigrants in the United States found that three-quarters gave away nearly 18 percent of their incomes each year. This commitment also tends to be sustained over time: The Migration Policy Institute points to a study of 9,000 African doctors working in the United States who sent an average of $20,000 to Africa each year, even though some of them had been away for 20 years.

Yet immigrants offer so much more than money.

Nonprofit leaders who focus on migrant concerns will strengthen more than their programs. Chances are, their organizations will increase their visibility, their ability to recruit volunteers, and the sums they raise.

By building relationships with members of this rapidly growing demographic, nonprofit organizations can enhance their relevance with new audiences. That potential is too important to ignore, particularly as charities face growing competition for money.

As we face the challenges ahead, nonprofit officials would do well to take a broad view of the trends shaping our world and to embrace those changes head-on.

Although other issues may be less controversial, few have the far-reaching implications inherent in global migration. For philanthropists who want to influence society, aiding migrants is a key way to make a difference.