"Immigration and Integration: The Challenge for the Private Sector"

Last month the Americas Society received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to work with business leaders in three key U.S. cities (Atlanta, New Orleans, and New York) to promote private and public sector initiatives to support the integration of immigrant communities. The AS/COA will work with business leaders to catalogue and showcase initiatives that promote immigrant integration and adjustment while building broad support for the expansion of these activities.

The project will convene national and local business leaders and engage public sector officials and community-based organizations in Atlanta, New Orleans and New York. Through research, site visits and information exchanges, the initiative will identify successful examples of private sector programs such as: English language classes, skills training opportunities, assistance in documentation, tools to build financial literacy, and access to credit and the housing market.

Examples and best practices will draw from national activities, but the primary focus will be on those in Atlanta, New Orleans, and New York. This initiative will not advocate or weigh in on the ongoing national debate on immigration reform. Instead, it will focus on the integration of documented immigrants already in the United States. Periodic working papers and a final report detailing the depth and breadth of recent immigration, the economic and social benefits of immigrant worker integration, and best practices in facilitating integration will be shared with media, policymakers, business leaders, and U.S. presidential candidates.

America Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA)

As the leading organizations for hemisphere-wide debate, AS/COA public policy programs engage opinion leaders from the public and private sectors in positive dialogue at their forums throughout the Americas to exchange ideas and develop solutions to the challenges facing the Americas today. Their signature programs, which promote economic and social development, the rule of law, democracy and free trade throughout the Americas, include the annual Latin American Cities Conferences and the Presidents of the Americas Conference, the premier platform for Latin American leaders to discuss pressing hemispheric issues. Our working groups, comprised of experts and leading private sector representatives, address issues such as Rule of Law and Energy, and focus on specific countries such as Brazil and Cuba. Working group findings are published for the benefit of all in the Americas.

Christopher Sabatini oversees the AS/COA’s research and publishing programs. He joined the AS/COA in November 2005. In his capacity at the AS/COA he has managed working groups and published reports on the rule of law in the hemisphere and Cuba. In April 2008, Dr. Sabatini launched the AS/COA’s policy journal, Americas Quarterly, and he is now the Editor-in-Chief of the journal.

From 1997 to 2005, Dr. Sabatini was the Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the National Endowment for Democracy, and previously was a Diplomacy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, working at the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Center for Democracy and Governance. He has also served as an advisor to the World Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Dr. Sabatini has published numerous articles on Latin America, democratization, security and defense, political parties, and the effectiveness of international programs to support democratic development. He has a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Virginia and has been an adjunct professor at American University.