Institute for Immigration Research (IIR)
The Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE) recently discussed the work of Institute for Immigration Research (IIR) with its director, Dr. James Witte. Dr. Witte highlighted the central goals of IIR, the ways in which IIR contributes to research-based action towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and how IIR engages stakeholders and communities.
What are the central goals of Institute for Immigration Research?
Created in 2012 in partnership with the Immigrant Learning Center, Inc. (ILC) of Malden, MA, The Institute for Immigration Research (IIR) is a multidisciplinary research institute at George Mason University. The IIR’s mission is to produce valid, reliable, and objective multidisciplinary research on immigrants and immigration to the United States and to disseminate this information through peer-reviewed academic journals, as well as in print and digital formats that make this research easily accessible to policy-makers, the media, the business community, and the general public.
Along with the IIR’s signature project, Immigration Data on Demand (iDod)—which has provided free, customized data fact sheets to over 300 local stakeholders about immigrants in their communities—research conducted by the IIR highlights how New Americans contribute to the nation in areas as diverse as science, sports, entrepreneurship, and the growing Green Economy. In addition, our Immigrant Stories project provides rich data and interviews about immigrants from 10 countries of origin in the Washington, DC and Baltimore metropolitan areas.
Through our work with graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, an important goal for the IIR is to create the next generation of immigration researchers. Surveying the global landscape, issues of migration and immigration are only going to grow in importance. Whether motivated by political conflict or other violence, climate change, or simply the desire for a better life, unprecedented numbers of the world’s population are on the move. Managing, mitigating, and maximizing the benefits resulting from future migration requires the sort of data and policy skills offered at the IIR.
How does the work of the Institute for Immigration Research contribute to research-based action towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? And in what ways is the institute engaging stakeholders and/or communities?
Looking at immigration issues in the United States, immigrants and refugees are tied to each of the SDGs. In some instances, for example if we look at the Southern border, unaccompanied minors, or refugees from Afghanistan, addressing challenges posed by the 17 SDGs offers a hand up to the Newest Americans. In other instances, though, as top scientists, technology innovators, and essential workers in health care and agriculture, immigrants and refugees are making important contributions in the pursuit of these goals. Across the board, the research of the IIR seeks to foster smoother integration of immigrants and refugees into the United States, while building and maintaining ties to their home countries, serves to highlight the extent to which pursuit of the SDGs requires a global effort. Migrants not only raise challenges highlighted by the SDGs, but are also the human bridge necessary for a global effort to address these challenges.
IIR core faculty and students, as well as IIR faculty affiliates, are active participants in the 17 Rooms-U initiative at Mason, which seeks to facilitate progress toward each of the SDGs. Ongoing efforts by the IIR growing out of this initiative focus primarily on Mason and the surrounding local community. However, at the IIR we also see the SDG framework as a means to engage with international collaborators. A recent IIR proposal involved collaboration with scholars in France, Germany, Brazil, Colombia, and Pakistan to study recovery, renewal and resilience in a post-pandemic world. This proposal used the SDGs to focus on the proposed analysis on issues of food security, employment, and evidence-based policymaking. The SDGs offered a cross-national analytical scheme to guide the proposed analyses. In the course of collaboration around this proposal it was interesting to see the extent to which the SDGs are widely known in the international academic community. It is to the credit of the ISE fostering the use of this framework among Mason faculty and student researchers.
Specifically, the work of the IIR contributes to several SDGs. First, our work relates to Goal 10, Reducing Inequalities. We are aware of the inequalities between U.S. citizens and non-citizens, and the inequalities that exist because of the type of immigration status individuals have or the lack of immigration status. Our work also relates to Goal 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth because immigrants make up a large segment of the U.S. workforce and U.S. employers and entrepreneurs. We recently did work on immigrant essential workers during the pandemic and the role of immigrant scientists in creating the vaccines. We also looked at immigrants in the “green” economy and learned that immigrants are over-represented in several green jobs that are expected to grow in coming decades. However, despite their many contributions, many immigrant workers are often subjected to very poor working conditions, often because of their immigration status. Finally, our work relates to Goal #13, Climate Action. Climate change is causing migration in many parts of the world, and the US is not prepared for this type of migration nor the numbers that may arrive. The IIR is training the next generation of immigration scholars who can take on all of these issues.
Center Director
James Witte
Executive Director
Institute for Immigration Research
jwitte@gmu.edu
703.993.2993