Recommendations
Research Methodology and Data
Legalization and a Path to Citizenship
There’s no more important policy change for immigrants
in Rust Belt communities—as well as those throughout the
United States—than the establishment of a path to legal
status and citizenship. Without this, immigrant integration
efforts and other programs will have limited impact. To
make a full contribution to the revitalization of the Rust
Belt, immigrants need legalization and a path to citizenship.
The economic benefits that legalization would bring both
to immigrants and to the U.S. economy as a whole are well
documented.48 Recent research also suggests that in addition
to the benefits of gaining legal status, immigrants receive an
additional economic benefit from citizenship.49
The primary data for this report was gathered in the
course of three case site studies of immigrant communities
in the Rust Belt. The host communities were chosen based
both on the city or town’s status as part of a region that has
been losing population over decades, and on whether efforts
to reach out to and integrate immigrants are being made
by local government or a nongovernmental organization.
All three sites host growing immigrant communities, and
together, they offer geographic and economic diversity. In
each site, we conducted interviews with government officials
working with the local immigrant community, nongovernmental leaders, members of other organizations working with
immigrants, and immigrants themselves. Relevant leaders in
the business and faith communities were also interviewed.
The goal of the interviews was to gather information on
the economic contributions of immigrants in the case study
sites. A total of 78 interviews were conducted. Interviews
were conducted by phone or in person, in Spanish or English depending on a respondent’s preference. All interviews
took place between September 2012 and August 2013. The
interview protocol was semi-structured; it consisted of openended questions designed to encourage respondents to talk
extemporaneously about various topics. We used a variety of
secondary quantitative data—from the U.S. Census Bureau
and other sources, as cited in the body of the report—to
frame the qualitative data gathered through the case study
research. The quantitative data helped ensure that the case
study site information was grounded in a broader context of
the economic impact of immigrants, whether in other Rust
Belt communities or nationwide.
The information gathered in interviews was transcribed
and coded thematically based on major themes (as identified through assessing the interview content as a whole). We
found consistency in themes across the three sites, which
gives us confidence that the issues we discuss are both relevant to improving the potential of immigrants to revitalize
local economies, and matters that require policy attention.
Many quotes from the interviews, often intertwined with the
author’s interpretations, are incorporated into the narrative
of the report. The validity of information from the interviews was ensured by obtaining and comparing information
from a number of respondents playing a variety of roles. For
example, at one site, interview subjects included a mayor,
city council member, community leader, business person,
immigrant worker, and immigrant entrepreneur. Discrepancies in responses were noted and ex