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Is Minnesota Welcoming Immigrants with Open Arms or Resentful Stares?


https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/11/15/ground-level-on-immigration-issues-minnesota-shows-deep-divides
Organizations are influenced by their environment and are forced to adapt to the changes around them. Nonprofit organizations especially need to have a comprehensive relationship with their environment in order to implement successful policies. Nonprofits go through a constant cycle where they interact with incoming resources, change accordingly and send back new resources into the environment. Nonprofits like Minnesota's Lutheran Social Services (LSS), who specialize in immigration have a complex relationship with their environment. Their environments could be the community members or the local and federal government. 

In the United States, immigration has always been a controversial topic; however, in recent years, immigration has been a stressed and debated topic among many Americans. Historically immigration has been seen as a negative threat to societies. However, according to a report by the Pew Research Center (2015), 51% of Americans think that immigrants strengthen the nation while 41% of Americans believe that immigrants worsen the economy and wished immigration would decrease. If there is an overall negative perception of immigration in a nonprofit’s environment, then the feedback of this nonprofit’s actions to integrate immigrants into the environment will be negative.  Research shows that many attempts for nonprofits to influence policy, especially government policy, is seen in a negative light to the government. Local governments are major funders for LSS so the organization spends a lot of time and resources changing their policies to fit government guidelines.  

Nonprofits can only adapt and react to the change in their environments and usually have little influence on the public perception of immigration. For example, how successful LSS immigration policies is often dependent on the community's reaction. The communities surrounding LSS in St. Cloud, Twin Cities, and the Fargo-Moorhead area all have different demographics and views on immigration. The Twin Cities has more diversity and urban areas while St. Cloud is just becoming more diverse but has a predominantly white population. Eight percent of Minnesota is composed of immigrants and that number is growing. Understanding how public perception of immigration affects the organizations trying to help them integrate can help to foster positive change.

 A survey done in November 2018 by MPR News and APM Research Lab asked residents in Minnesota about immigration policies. The survey asked if the state was on the right or wrong track in welcoming immigrants and refugees. The survey found that people in larger urban areas stated that Minnesota was on the right track, while rural areas thought the opposite.


Views on immigration and refugees   
found at https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/11/15/ground-level-on-immigration-issues-minnesota-shows-deep-divide
The survey also found that 38% of Trump supporters believe that Minnesota is on the wrong track with immigration. Of those who disapprove of Trump, 70% believe that the state is on the right track. Having just 85 miles between them, St. Cloud and the Twin Cities seem so far away on the debate about immigration.  In comparison to the Twin Cities, St. Cloud’s residents have pushed back harshly on the growing number of immigrants in their community. There have been many reported cases of discrimination against the growing Somali population, which has made LSS reflect on how successful their integration process has been. Several residents are accusing Lutheran Social Services of not being completely transparent on where taxpayers dollars are going and even tried to put a temporary halt on refugees.
Ultimately it is up to a nonprofit’s environment to set the stage for inclusion or exclusion for immigrants. Depending on how the communities react to increasing immigration largely dictates how successful the organization will be in integrating them into local communities. It is important to look at the trends and local attitudes regarding immigration because the number of immigrants trying to call America home is increasing. In order for the most successful integration nonprofits and communities need to work together to create an environment that is supportive and helpful for immigrants.



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Comments

  1. nsiedeDecember 1, 2018 at 12:37 PM

    I'm a little confused as to how the roles of nonprofits and communities interfere with each other here, since it's supposedly up to the nonprofits to ease transitions into communities, but the communities have the upper hand in terms of their pushback and attitudes. I really enjoyed the way you applied the nonprofit communication concepts to this important topic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 4, 2018 at 8:13 PM

    I like how you are able to give background knowledge on the topic before you focus on Minnesota. The statistics that you give as well flow well together because while reading the post, I would think of something that I was curious about and often you would link the article to that later in the paper. What do you think individual homes can do to make a difference in their community?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lily OlsonDecember 6, 2018 at 11:50 AM

    I think the statistics and information about immigration into Minnesota is so interesting. There are several communities that have high populations of immigrants, but there is not much research on how these immigrants are treated while immersing in our culture. It made me think about how we are "Minnesota Nice", but why is there not much conversation about how we can be more welcoming to new people to our communities?

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