Stepping in To Fill the Gap: Organizations Providing Immigrants with Services, But Advocacy Lacking

by Mallory Mpare and Caroline Dobuzinskis

An IWPR report finds that nonprofit community and religious organizations have stepped in to assist Latina immigrants who face challenges such as lack of health care and violence at home or in the workplace. The efforts of these groups to meet the full needs of immigrant women, however, may be limited by funding, as well as immigration enforcement and legislation.

“Comprehensive immigration reform is part of winning the future,” said Director of U.S. Department of Labor’s (U.S. DOL) Women’s Bureau Director Sara Manzano-Diaz at a launch event for the report on March 25. The report, Organizations Working with Latina Immigrants: Resources and Strategies for Change, is the result of a survey of 280 organizations in immigrant communities in Phoenix, AZ, Atlanta, GA, and Northern Virginia. Of these, 120 are involved in some type of advocacy to advance the rights of immigrant women.

At the report’s launch event held at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, co-author and Study Director Dr. Cynthia Hess outlined the range of services nonprofit organizations offer to immi-grant women such as English classes, child care, health services, and access to affordable transportation. In many cases, religious groups have stepped in to provide services when the government has not.

Hess discussed the climate of fear—for both documented and undocumented immigrants—that may prevent Latina immigrants from seeking help and support. Immigrant women face challenges such as disproportionate levels of violence at home and in the workplace, and can feel unable to seek assistance from legal authorities. Immigrants may even avoiddriving and be forced to seek public transportation for fear of being pulled over. Some survey respondents said authoritieshad waited outside religious congregations, typically considered safe havens for immigrants to meet.

Other speakers and panelists at the launch event included Sonya Michel, Director of the United States Studies program at the Wilson Center; Patricia Foxen, Associate Director of Research at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR); Pierluigi Mancini, Executive Director of CETPA (professional mental health counseling services for the Latino community); Jen Smyers, Associate for Immigration
and Refugee Policy with Church World Service; and Cecilia Menjívar, Cowden Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Arizona State University.