Hometown Associations: An Untapped Resource for Immigrant Integration?

WASHINGTON – With global migration rates at historic highs, the informal associations that immigrants create for social, economic development and political empowerment purposes are becoming more numerous and better networked. Though much of the policy and research focus on the immigrant organizations, known as hometown associations, is on their development potential for their home countries, a new Migration Policy Institute (MPI) report concludes that the groups play an important – and underexamined – role in immigrant integration.