Oregon’s response to a growing immigrant population has lagged behind other states, according to one of the first-ever comprehensive reports on immigrant experience in Oregon, released by the University’s Labor Education and Research Center.
The report, “Understanding the Immigrant Experience in Oregon: Research, Analysis, and Recommendations from University of Oregon Scholars,” drew faculty authors from several disciplines within the University to critically examine the story of immigrants themselves.
Overall, the report found that “Oregon has been slow to respond to the increased presence of immigrants in our communities, workplaces, and schools, especially compared with other states that have taken a more active public policy approach.”
The authors of the report made several recommendations to begin moving in a more proactive way, including extending existing services to immigrants and refugees across the state, expanding bilingual and multilingual services in rural areas, incorporating “the concept of familism into school curriculum” to benefit Latino youths, convening a task force of key stakeholders to design structural ways to help refugees, and creating legislation that would “provide (immigrants and refugees) with a pathway to citizenship or some legal status.”
The report was published in both English and Spanish, an achievement that contributing author Marcela Mendoza, a research associate for the Center for the Study of Women in Society, is very proud of. Mendoza was responsible for editing the Spanish version.
“This is important because it is at the same level,” said Mendoza. “It sends a message.”
Robert Bussel, director of the Labor Education and Research Center, or LERC, who edited the report, said the idea to produce a report like this came a couple years ago.
“We wanted to come together and focus on the experiences of immigrants themselves,” said Bussel.
The hope, Bussel said, was to put together a succinct report that would give policy makers, and other members of the public more information about immigration in Oregon.
Contributing authors to the report include University professors of sociology, psychology, geography, education and anthropology.
The report is divided into six chapters that cover broad trends of immigration in Oregon, urban immigration in Oregon, Latin American immigration in rural Oregon, Latino immigrant children and families, and work and employment for immigrants.
Mendoza, who co-authored the report’s chapter on Latin American Immigration in Rural Oregon, said she got involved because she is personally committed to the topics of immigration.
“The point (of the report) is to produce recommendations and suggest solutions,” said Mendoza, who is an immigrant from Latin America herself. “Policy makers need to make decisions, we are here to provide data for them to make better decisions.”
University Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Charles Martinez, a contributing author and research scientist at the Oregon Social Learning Center, agrees.
“Research like this can arm policy makers,” said Martinez. “A report like this … helps shed light on the experiences of immigrants from many different perspectives; this is really important to the state.”
Though a great deal of the report focuses on Latino immigration, Bussel said that it is important to understand that the number of immigrants from other areas, including Russia and Ukraine, is significant as well.
Bussel said this report is really only the first installment in a larger plan. Bussel and his colleagues hope to transform and expand this report into a book within the next few years.
Bussel said that for the book he will be recruiting additional authors and broadening the scope of the topic.
The LERC has already received invitations from community groups to do presentations on the report’s findings.
“We’re looking now at other ways to take this information to the community,” said Bussel.
Bussel said the Center is also looking at giving orientations to Oregon legislators so that they will have some background knowledge of immigration issues in Oregon.
Bussel added that he is very grateful to the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies for providing part of the funding for the project.
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