Does America Need An Integration Policy? December 10, 2008

Does America Need an Integration Policy?

Moderated by Tomás Jiménez, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Stanford University

The Statue of Liberty’s pedestal lays claim to “world-wide welcome,” but U.S. immigration policy has, since its inception, been a muddle of conflicting attitudes towards immigrants and their place in American society. While our nation does not demand ethnic homogeneity, we are deeply divided over how newcomers should assimilate and offer little support to arrivals eager to become American. Tomás Jiménez, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Stanford University, sits down with Alfonso Aguilar (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services), José Luis Gutiérrez (Illinois Office for New Americans), Laureen Laglagaron (Migration Policy Institute), and Urban Planning Professor Dowell Myers (USC) to ask what government should do to bridge the gap between immigration and integration. When our standard-bearer proclaims, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” should we offer immigrants more help in adjusting to their new country? Or does the American dream need to be strictly self-service?

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