US Catholic Institutions and Immigrant Integration

The Catholic Immigrant Integration Initiative examines whether Catholic institutions have maintained their special connection to immigrant communities in the United States and how they can increase and improve their work on immigrant integration, well-being and empowerment. The initiative studies the work of Catholic and other faith-based institutions with immigrants. It also documents and disseminates promising integration programs and practices in parishes, elementary schools, universities, the workplace, immigrant service networks, charities, hospitals, and other institutions and sectors. Its overall goal is to support and expand a growing network of Catholic institutions that are implementing successful integration models within and across sectors.

Virtually all of the Catholic Church’s signature institutions—its parishes, schools, universities, hospitals, charities, fraternal and sororal groups, labor centers and others—arose in response to the needs of past waves of immigrants and their progeny. While the Catholic Church’s work with immigrants remains robust, its US institutions have not fully pivoted to meet the needs and incorporate the gifts of the nation’s record number of immigrants and their children. Put differently, immigrant integration in the Catholic sense—of promoting communion between natives and newcomers, development of “each” person and the “whole” person, and building a better society through the evangelization of culture—has not yet become a unifying institutional priority.

Catholic agencies can play a vital role in fostering civic participation, improving educational outcomes and promoting the socio-economic attainment of immigrants and their families. On the other hand, Catholic institutions can be and, in fact, are being renewed and revitalized by the gifts, contributions and leadership of immigrants, particularly youth. This process should expand and accelerate.

The Catholic Immigrant Integration Project is guided by a national advisory council comprised of more than 30 representatives from national and local service-delivery networks; universities and school systems; pastoral, parish-based and ethnic ministries; and immigrant community groups. This work has received a substantial boost from Pope Francis’ vision, teaching and frequent statements on immigrants and integration at https://cmsny.org/wp-content/uploads/JFI-Kerwin-11.17.15.pdf.

Advisory Council

Jeanne M. Atkinson
Former Executive Director
Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC)

Msgr. Arturo Bañuelas
Pastor
St. Mark Catholic Church in El Paso, TX

William Canny
Executive Director, Migration and Refugee Services
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)

Rev. Sean Carroll, S.J.
Executive Director
Kino Border Initiative

Dr. Arturo Chavez
President and CEO
Mexican American Catholic College

Dylan Corbett
Executive Director
Hope Border Institute

Kathleen A. Curran
Senior Director of Public Policy
Catholic Health Association of the United States

Most Rev. Nicholas DiMarzio
Bishop of Brooklyn, NY

Sr. Sally Duffy
Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati

Anna Gallagher
Executive Director
Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC)

Dr. Mary Gautier
Senior Research Associate
Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA)

Dr. Brett Hoover
Assistant Professor of Theology
Loyola Marymount University

Kiku Huckle
Associate Professor and Graduate Director of Theological Studies
Pace University

Donald Kerwin
Executive Director
Center for Migration Studies

Fr. J. Cletus Kiley
Archdiocese of Chicago, IL

Sharon Granados Mahato
Development Associate
Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN)

Estela Villagrán Manancero
Director of Latino Ministry
Archdiocese of Saint Paul & Minneapolis

María del Mar Muñoz-Visoso
Executive Director, Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)

Fr. Patrick Murphy
Director
Centro Scalabrini – Casa del Migrante Tijuana

Dr. Hosffman Ospino
Assistant Professor of Hispanic Ministry and Religious Education
Boston College

Marjean A. Perhot
Director, Refugee and Immigration Services
Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of Boston, MA

Elena Segura
Director, Office for Immigrant Affairs and Immigration Education
Archdiocese of Chicago, IL

Vanna Slaughter
Office of Welcoming Communities and Immigrant Affairs
City of Dallas

Leya Speasmaker
Integration Program Manager, Center for Citizenship and Immigrant Communities
Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC)

Prof. Roberto Suro
Professor of Journalism at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the School of Policy, Planning and Development and Director of the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute
University of Southern California

Carmen Vázquez
Vice President for Student Affairs
University of San Diego

Patricia Zapor
Director of Communications
Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC)

Events

Venue: Santa Clara University School of Law

2019 Catholic Immigrant Integration Initiative Conference

Learn more about the 2019 Catholic Immigrant Integration Initiative Conference held from March 11-13, 2019 in Santa Clara, California.

Venue:

A Catholic Response to Exclusionary Nationalism, the Global Crisis in Refugee Protection, and Recent Developments in US Immigration Policy

This webinar by Donald Kerwin, Executive Director for the Center for Migration Studies (CMS), will be devoted to a discussion of Catholic teaching on migrants, refugees, and newcomers. Mr. Kerwin will discuss the Biblical touchstones of Catholic teaching on migrant and refugees, key principals that guide the Church’s analysis of this timeless issue, recent developments in US immigration policy and refugee protection, and how the Catholic community views and can respond to them. The presentation will draw on CMS’s scholarship and research.

Venue: Loyola Marymount University

2017 Catholic Immigrant Integration Initiative Conference

CMS, Loyola Marymount University, and Mount Saint Mary’s University hosted the 2017 Catholic Immigrant Integration Initiative Conference at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA.

Venue: Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at The University of San Diego

2016 Catholic Immigrant Integration Initiative Conference

CMS, the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of San Diego and the University of San Diego hosted the 2016 Catholic Immigrant Integration Initiative Conference at the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice.

Venue: Cathedral High School

2015 Catholic Institutions & Immigrant Integration Conference

CMS, Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR), Hope Border Institute, and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) hosted a one-day conference in El Paso, Texas about the US-Mexico border with leaders of diverse Catholic institutions, scholars, service providers and immigrant communities.

Venue: Archdiocesan Pastoral Center

At Home Together: The Church and the Immigrant Family

CMS, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the World Meeting of Families, Villanova University, Migration and Refugee Services/US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious hosted an evening event on the challenges facing immigrant families in the United States and the Catholic Church’s response.

Venue: Online

Immigrant Integration: Assessing and Improving the Collective Response of the Catholic Church in the United States

In this webinar, on ‘Immigrant Integration: Assessing and Improving the Collective Response of the Catholic Church in the United States’ Donald Kerwin, CMS’s Executive Director, introduced the Catholic Immigrant Integration Project, and discussed the role Catholic institutions play in fostering civic participation, improving educational outcomes and promoting the socio-economic attainment of immigrants, their children, and their grandchildren. He also outlined a Catholic vision of integration, and discussed the importance of immigrant leadership and participation in Catholic institutions. Mary L. Gautier, Senior Research Associate for the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) and a member of the Advisory Group to the Catholic Immigrant Integration Initiative, spoke on the growing importance of immigrant and minority communities for the US Catholic Church and the misalignment between the Catholic Church’s institutional infrastructure and new immigrant communities.

Venue: Center for Migration Studies

Parish-Based Organizing for Leadership, Service, and Justice

CMS hosted a gathering on organizing parish communities with large immigrant populations for leadership, service and justice. The event featured Elena Segura, who directs the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office for Immigrant Affairs and Immigration Education, and runs an innovative program called Pastoral Migratoria (PM), an “immigrant-to-immigrant ministry...born from the desire of immigrants to assist one another in their plight, to live their baptismal call and be agents of a broader evangelization to newcomers and natives.” .

Venue: Center for Migration Studies

The Shared Parish: Latinos, Anglos, and the Future of US Catholicism

As faith communities in the United States grow more diverse due, in large part, to immigration, increasing numbers of Catholic parishes are being “shared” by distinct cultural groups who retain their own ministries and styles of worship. Today, it is...

Venue: Casa Italiana

2014 Catholic Institutions & Immigrant Integration Conference

The Catholic Church’s institutions and ministries – education, health, charities, labor, legal services, refugee resettlement, community-organizing, pastoral, and others – face critical opportunities and challenges in meeting the needs of today’s immigrants. In 2013 to 2014, a number of leaders from...

The Effects of Immigration Enforcement on Faith-Based Organizations: An Analysis of the FEER Survey

Date of Publication: June 12, 2019 Authors:

Donald Kerwin and Mike Nicholson

The Effects of Immigration Enforcement on Faith-Based Organizations: An Analysis of the FEER Survey

This paper analyzes the impact of the Trump administration immigration policies on Catholic organizations, presenting the results of CMS’s Federal Enforcement Effect Research (FEER) Survey. It finds that US policies in the Trump era have significantly increased immigrant demand for the services provided by Catholic institutions and, in general, that these institutions have expanded their services in response. However, 59 percent of respondents – the highest total for this question – identified “fear of apprehension or deportation” as “negatively” impacting immigrants’ access to their services. In addition, 57 percent reported that immigration enforcement has “very negatively” or “somewhat negatively” affected the participation of immigrants in their programs or ministries. The FEER Survey illustrates the need for broad immigration reform. It shows that the status quo prevents immigrants from accessing the services they need and it impedes people of faith from effectively exercising their religious convictions on human dignity, protection, and service to the poor and vulnerable.

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A Catholic Reflection on Host Communities

Date of Publication: April 17, 2019 Authors:

Fr. Eduardo C. Fernandez, SJ

A Catholic Reflection on Host Communities

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:2, NRSV). As these words from Sacred Scripture indicate, the Judeo-Christian tradition commands the believer to provide a sympathetic welcome to foreigners. Yet, the passage reveals that the giver of......

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Breaking Down Barriers and Welcoming the Stranger: 2019 Catholic Immigrant Integration Initiative Conference

Date of Publication: April 17, 2019 Authors:

Mike Nicholson

Stephanie L. Canizales, a PhD Candidate at the University of Southern California, examines the role of religion and religious institutions in the adaptation of unaccompanied Central American youth in Los Angeles....

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US Catholic Institutions and Immigrant Integration: Will The Church Rise To The Challenge?

Date of Publication: 2014 Authors:

Donald Kerwin, with Breana George

US Catholic Institutions and Immigrant Integration: Will The Church Rise To The Challenge?

US Catholic Institutions and Immigrant Integration: Will The Church Rise To The Challenge? arises from a multi-year process led by the Center for Migration Studies (CMS) and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), to engage the leaders of diverse US Catholic agencies, academics and others on immigrant integration as......

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Multimedia

CMSOnAir | Joanna Williams on the Kino Border Initiative

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Parish-Based Organizing for Leadership, Service, and Justice

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