Report cover featuring a colored image of Black person holding up
Immigrant Inclusion & Racial Justice

January 2009

By Manuel Pastor and Rhonda Ortiz

Please note: reports dated earlier than June 2020 were published under our previous names: the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) or the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII).

Immigrant Integration in Los Angeles: Strategic Directions for Funders stressed how foreign-born and native-born Angelenos can work together for a stronger region. In Los Angeles County, one third of residents are immigrants, nearly half of the workforce is foreign-born, and two-thirds of those under 18 are the children of immigrants, 90 percent of which are U.S. born. 

“Southern California’s social stability and economic prosperity is directly tied to what happens to our immigrant workers, families and children,” said Antonia Hernández, president and CEO of the California Community Foundation. “We’re in this together. So it is in our mutual interest and obligations to help our immigrant neighbors integrate into society…We are investing not just in their future, but in Southern California’s as well.”

 The report outlined specific strategies to:

  • Increase opportunities for economic mobility for immigrants, their families and their communities,
  • Enhance opportunities for civic participation by immigrants, and
  • Foster openness in society towards immigrants and their families.

PERE created the report using both demographic data and collective input from immigrants rights advocates, business and workforce development leaders, planners and government agencies, funders, labor unions, and community builders. The California Community Foundation funded the project.

Download report

Immigrant Integration in Los Angeles: Strategic Directions for Funders

Read our other publications by research area

    Immigrant Integration & Racial Justice

    Our work on immigrant integration and racial justice brings together three emphases: scholarship that draws on academic theory and rigorous research, data that provides information structured to highlight the process of immigrant integration over time, and engagement that seeks to create new dialogues with government, community organizers, business and civic leaders, immigrants and the voting public to advance immigrant integration and racial equity.

    Economic Inclusion & Climate Equity

    In the area of economic inclusion, we at ERI advance academic theory and practical applications linking economic growth, environmental quality, and civic health with bridging of racial and other gaps; produce accessible and actionable data and analysis through the data tools; and establish research partnerships to deepen and advance the dialogue, planning, and actions around racial equity, environmental justice, and the built environment.

    Social Movements & Governing Power

    ERI’s work in the area of governing power includes: conducting cross-disciplinary studies of today’s social movements, supporting learning and strategizing efforts to advance dialogues among organizers, funders, intermediaries, evaluators, and academics, and developing research-based social change frameworks and tools to inform—and be informed by—real-world, real-time efforts towards a vision of deep change.

    Publications Directory

    In 2020, the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII) merged to form the USC Equity Research Institute (ERI).

    The full list of publications published under our previous and current names can be found in our publications directory.

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