February 24th, 2011 | For more on this event, please visit: bit.ly/xd4PQZ
Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs | Georgetown University
Immigration reform remains one of the most contested issues in American politics and will likely play an important role in the 2012 presidential campaign. Religious communities, among the most forceful advocates of immigration reform in the last electoral cycle, are reassessing lessons learned and strategies going forward. This symposium brought together representatives of faith communities and researchers to address both their lobbying efforts and strategies used to facilitate immigrant integration into American society. It was sponsored by Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of International Migration, the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, & World Affairs at Georgetown University, and is made possible through the generous support of the Henry Luce Foundation and the Luce/SFS Program on Religion and International Affairs.
Second Panel: Faith Communities and Immigrant Integration
Chair: Katherine Marshall, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University
Alex Stepick, Director of the Immigration and Ethnicity Institute and Professor of Anthropology & Sociology at Florida International University in Miami
Raleigh Bailey, Senior Research Scientist in the School of Human Environmental Sciences at UNCG
Fariyal Ross-Sheriff, School of Social Work, Howard University
Elzbieta M. Gozdziak, Research Director and International Migration Editor, Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University
Key questions:
1. How are faith communities assisting with the social, cultural, and economic integration of immigrants in US society?
2. What role are faith-based educational institutions playing in furthering this immigration?
3. Where are we seeing positive examples of cooperation between local governments and religious organizations in furthering immigration?