This German village is embracing integration

Catholic Charities helps immigrants and refugees access housing and transition to life in a new country. Housing is the first step in the resettlement process, but Catholic Charities also helps immigrants find jobs, get their children in school and integrate into the community. In 2007, Fort Wayne welcomed 3,500 Burmese refugees. By 2016 the number had grown to more than 6,000 and counting.

Sweden has, and continues, to receive a lot of asylum seekers, leading to the need for successful integration of these new immigrants. Certain programs have been developed, such as one that when completed asylum seekers will be able to gain employment faster, or others that help young immigrants understand their new culture.

Three Part Series, "America Beyond Detention": For decades, immigrant advocates have argued that the federal government should increase the use of residential shelters - like Casa Marianella in Austin - as an alternative to detention. The shelters are generally less expensive, treat immigrants more humanely, and are better equipped to integrate people into their new communities.

Erie Neighborhood House welcomes migrants being bussed from Texas to Chicago with resources like food and clothing, medical care, legal support, and case management. The organization has helped more than 3,000 migrants since August 2022.

When asylum seekers are released from the Aurora, Colorado immigration center, many seek help and community from the nonprofit organization, Casa de Paz. Based in Denver, the nonprofit offers these individuals and any visiting family members a place to stay and helps connect them with community resources.

Carmen Carcelen lives in northern Ecuador with her husband, eight children, and hundreds of Venezuelan migrants who are fleeing poverty, violence, and hyperinflation at home. Carcelen has been providing food and shelter (and even foot rubs) to over 8,500 migrants for two years now. Carcelen says that she is spurred to action by her Christian faith, but welcomes any donations because it is currently financed on her husband's small income.

Connecting children with volunteer lawyers can greatly assist immigration cases. Nonprofits like the Safe Passage Project and Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) work to provide children, often separated from their families, with legal defense. Without a lawyer, many children face immigration hearings alone, adding great trauma to a complicated process. A majority of unrepresented children are deported. Nonprofit legal groups across the US are working to create a safety net of legal counsel.

In New York City, a citywide initiative known as Action NYC is connecting immigrants with free legal help and other comprehensive services. While the city provides outreach and coordination, community organizations with more specific language and cultural skills deliver the actual services, helping to engage people who sometimes may be inclined to distrust government services.

Every migrant child applying for asylum in Sweden gets a public lawyer and an assigned guardian. Although a rapid rise in asylum seekers in 2015-16 strained the country’s migration system, Sweden has not resorted to putting children in detention centers and remains a leader by international standards in migrant children’s services.

The Migrant Education Program, which offers educational and social services to migrant worker families in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, is growing in popularity among the valley’s migrant worker population, and has recently begun to focus on getting migrant students geared up for college .