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“We are proud that the Commonwealth’s government is
leading the nation in the arena of immigrant integration,” said Eva Millona,
Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy
Coalition and Co-Chair of the GAC. “Here in Massachusetts we are fortunate to have
numerous members of the General Court who are committed to supporting
immigrant families and helping them to better integrate into all aspects of
life in the Commonwealth. And we are doubly blessed to have a Governor
who is doing so much to make this integration agenda a model for others to
emulate.”
The 131 policy recommendations offered for consideration by the Governor are
divided into twelve areas, from Civil Rights to Housing and Community
Development. Many of the recommendations require no further allotment of
general funds from the legislature, and several could be implemented by
simple administrative action. As Zoltan Csimma, vice-president at leading
biopharmaceutical company Genzyme noted in his remarks at the Thanksgiving
luncheon, some of these actions would go a long way toward easing the
transition of newly-arrived professionals into the state’s vibrant
technological economy. “Immigration limitations test every high-tech
organization’s performance,” he said. In recognition, the report recommends
improving access to relicensing for immigrants and refugees with a review of
current licensing requirements, the establishment of a website with centralized
re-licensing information, and the redirection of Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education resources to better inform immigrant professionals on the
process. “Over 50 percent of the Ph.D.s in Massachusetts are immigrants,” Csimma
noted. “We must do a better job of serving that population.”
Of course,
many immigrants who arrive here are children, and the report also makes
low-cost suggestions about easing their transition as well, by recommending
that bilingual guides be made available to inform parents of their children’s
right to request bilingual waivers, to explain school rules and procedures,
and to inform them of graduation requirements. Similar changes, at modest
cost, could be made in the health care arena, including the creation of regulations
that would require posting of tested universal symbols in health care
facilities, and making information about basic services available in multiple
languages. Similar recommendations are also made to strengthen immigrants’
access to capital for business ventures, including improving access to
micro-enterprise loan programs, partnering with groups to improve technical
assistance, and improving the consideration of immigrants in the state
procurement process.
In the arena of Civil Rights, the NAA report
recommends establishing firm policies against racial profiling, restoring the
previously empanelled advisory board on racial profiling, and requiring
police departments to keep demographic records of each stop made by police,
so they could be aggregated yearly to study trends.
Other recommendations would require additional funds
from the legislature in sorely needed areas of state service. The report
recommends increasing funding for English and Adult Basic Education classes
to the levels recommended by the Governor’s Transition Team, an increase that
would finally alleviate the multi-year waiting lists for state-funded
classes, that as of today stands at 17,000 names.
Two of the recommendations have been long-standing
recommendations from immigrants, community advocates, law enforcement
organizations, and education specialists. First, allowing students who
arrived in Massachusetts
as undocumented minors and successfully received their high school diploma or
G.E.D. to pay for state colleges at the in-state rate. This recommendation is
such a simple win-win, generating revenue for the state and rewarding some of
our highest achievers with a simple act of equity, that states from Utah to Texas
have instituted the law without significant opposition. Second, as numerous
law-enforcement and public safety experts have recommended, the report
supports allowing residents to apply for driver’s licenses with other forms
of identification beside social security numbers. The report notes that this
recommendation, however, could not be implemented without the national repeal
of the Real I.D. act.
Much of the rest of the report’s recommendations,
which are as comprehensive as any produced in the nation also would benefit
from comprehensive reform at the federal level of current immigration
policies, a point that the report also stresses. Indeed, the report serves as
a small state mirror for the potentials of that process, which the Obama
administration is currently pushing and Congress in the process of considering.
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