The News-Gazette: Immigration panelists: Integration requires bridging culture-shock gap

In front of a packed room Wednesday, a panel discussed what Champaign County can do with newly-published data on its immigrant population, as well as which efforts are already underway.

The Gateways for Growth Community Data Report, compiled by the University YMCA’s New American Welcome center and the New American Economy advocacy group, breaks down contributions made by the county’s 24,000-strong immigrant population during 2016 — noting that those residents contributed $1.4 billion to the local economy and $57.2 million to the tax base.

A crowd of about 160 — including employees of state and federal representatives — gathered at the I Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign to discuss the report, which uses information from the Census Bureau, federal agencies and public economic data. Immigrant was defined in the study as naturalized citizens, green card holders, temporary visa holders, refugees, asylum-seekers and undocumented people born outside the U.S. to noncitizen parents.

Read the full story on The News-Gazette: “Immigration panelists: Integration requires bridging culture-shock gap”