Strengthening the Middle Class

As Congress again prepares to debate comprehensive immigration reform before the end of 2009, the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy releases “Principles for an Immigration Policy to Strengthen and Expand the American Middle Class: 2009 Edition,” building on our earlier immigration research.

In the depths of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, Americans have nevertheless rejected the impulse to blame immigrants for their economic woes and instead show strong and growing support for legalizing undocumented immigrants. This report was written to encourage a new immigration reform package driven by the needs of the nation’s middle class and low-income American workers striving to stay afloat through the economic crisis and earn a middle-class standard of living.

We reveal that the American middle class relies on the economic contributions of immigrants both authorized and undocumented, but also that the exploitation of undocumented immigrant workers threatens to drive labor standards down for current and aspiring middle-class workers. Based on these findings, we propose a two-fold litmus test for evaluating immigration policy.

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Climate of Fear - Can it be Changed?


The Southern Poverty Law Center recently published a report describing and documenting the climate of fear that exists in Suffolk County on Long Island in New York.

READ THE REPORT

You may also be interested in reading Suffolk County Executive Levy's response to this report that appeared in The Southampton Press on Sept 17, 2009.

MR. LEVY'S RESPONSE

WHAT IS OUR ROLE?

The challenge to our organization and to our communtiy as a whole is how can we play a role is bringing the end points of the continuum defined by this report at one end and by Mr. Levy's response at the other closer together?

Immigrants Buy Into American Dream

Immigrants worldwide “are overwhelmingly choosing to stay put in their adopted countries, rather than return home,” in the face of the economic crisis, and those in the U.S. continue to “strongly buy into the American Dream,” said a couple of reports released this week.

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