Funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Americas Society and Council of the Americas (AS/COA) Hispanic Integration Initiative is engaging the business community and mobilizing a new generation of private-sector leaders in integrating the Hispanic population both at the workplace and through outreach to an increasingly Hispanic consumer base. The AS/COA works both nationally and in what are referred to as new gateway cities to highlight and build on private-sector efforts to facilitate Hispanic integration while demonstrating how integration programs benefit both business and the community.

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Working Group Publications

• September 2009. Access the working paper Economic Opportunity and Integration: Nashville's Hispanic and Business Communities. This is the first in a three-part series looking at new gateway cities with future working papers to be released on Omaha, Nebraska, and Portland, Oregon.
• July 2008. Access the white paper U.S. Business and Hispanic Integration: Expanding the Economic Contributions of Immigrants. Both a complete version and an executive summary of this AS/COA white paper are available. Released on Capitol Hill with speakers including business executives, along with six Members of Congress, including now-Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and now-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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Context

An estimated 46.9 million Hispanics currently live in the United States, representing the largest minority group in 20 of the 50 states. The Hispanic population accounts for approximately 14.2 percent of the U.S. labor force, and with a collective purchasing power surging to $870 billion in 2008, Hispanics are a potential engine for national economic growth. But many face obstacles such as limited English proficiency, modest financial literacy and lack of cultural familiarity that can impede their socioeconomic advancement. Achieving greater integration of Hispanics into American society is a public policy imperative with benefits for the corporate bottom line. For employers, more effective integration increases worker loyalty, reduces employee turnover, boosts worker productivity, and serves as a bridge to the local Hispanic population. The private sector can play a key role in integrating this country’s largest pool of immigrants.

Current Activities

The AS/COA is working with leaders of corporations in key sectors of the U.S. economy to catalogue and showcase policies that promote the integration of recent Hispanic immigrants while building broad support for the expansion of such practices.

Beyond our national efforts, the initiative is bringing together local business leaders, public-sector officials and community organizations in three new gateway cities—Nashville, Tennessee, Portland, Oregon, and Omaha, Nebraska—to provide an on-the-ground assessment and build on local efforts to promote integration and workforce development. Results serve as a reference point in analyzing corporate programs and are shared in individual cities, across cities, and nationwide. Research and meetings have also been held in Atlanta, Georgia, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

A national Business Council—companies at the forefront of integration efforts—was formed in early 2008 to anchor the initiative and is being expanded to include additional corporate representatives.

Through research, site visits and information exchanges, this project identifies integration programs such as: English language classes, skills training programs, access to higher education, support for financial literacy, access to credit and to the banking system, and promotion of health care options.

In 2010, the AS/COA will synthesize findings and produce a white paper that highlights the contributions of Hispanic immigrants to the U.S. economy and innovative efforts by national and local businesses to facilitate the integration of Hispanic communities and workers.

Building on this initiative, in July 2009, the Carnegie Corporation of New York approved funding for a new project to increase public awareness of the role of the private sector in Hispanic immigrant integration and highlight Hispanics’ contributions to the U.S. economy. A website is currently under construction that will highlight why integration makes business sense, how to start a workforce integration program, private sector testimonials about immigrant workers, and act as a hub for the collation and distribution of data and new developments about immigrants in the United States today. This website will be a resource for the business community, media, policymakers, and others.

Read a feature about the Hispanic Integration Initiative in The Oregonian.

For more information, please contact Jason Marczak, Director of Policy: jmarczak@as-coa.org.