At present, the US lacks a coherent national immigrant integration strategy or policy. However, a handful of Democratic governors have taken the initiative to integrate, rather than ostracize, foreign newcomers. By collaborating with advocacy groups like ICIRR, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Washington’s governors have developed a number of policies that seriously address immigrant issues in their localities.

In November 2005, Governor Rod R. Blagojevich announced a first-in-the-nation New Americans Executive Order to address
the needs of an estimated 1.8 million immigrants and refugees who reside in Illinois.

The Executive Order created the New Americans Policy Council, made up of business, faith, labor, community, philanthropic, and governmental leaders from across our state, to develop strategic policy recommendations for how the State can best move immigrant integration forward. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights staffed the Policy Council’s work, with the assistance of national policy experts at the Migration Policy Institute and the National Immigration Forum. This work was made possible by the philanthropic support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Joyce Foundation.

Nearly 14 percent of Illinois residents hail from almost 200 different countries, and speak more than 100 different languages. Foreign-born workers constitute more than 14 percent of the state’s aggregate workforce in jobs at all skill levels, making an integral contribution to the state’s economy. These numbers reflect the diverse population of Illinois and help illustrate the state’s need to effectively address immigrant and refugee integration.

This review of research froma variety of disciplines about dual language development and the impact of different educational approaches for children ages three to eight runs counter tomuch conventional thinking.

Nearly all Hispanic adults born in the United States of immigrant parents report they are fluent in English.

Learning to speak, read, and write in the English language is the most important integration challenge that faces the 1.8 million immigrants who now arrive in the United States each year.

The proportion of all legal foreign-born residents who have become naturalized U.S. citizens rose to 52% in 2005, the highest level in a quarter of a century and a 15 percentage point increase since 1990, according to an analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Even as most Americans celebrate their heritage and identity as a “nation of immigrants,” there is deep ambivalence about future immigration.