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The Program for Immigration and Democracy was established in 2007 to explore the challenges and opportunities arising from increased levels of immigration to New Jersey and the nation. The Center analyzes the dynamics of immigrant inclusion and highlights policies and practices conducive to immigrant civic participation, equality of opportunity, democratic pluralism, and social cohesion. Our name derives from our belief that immigration and democracy are closely entwined in the American experience. Throughout our history, immigrants fleeing oppression and injustice in their home countries renewed the nation’s commitment to democratic principles. Democracy provided a framework permitting the growth and development of the individual, as well as the flowering of communities rooted in the past but nourished by the diversity of the present. At the same time, immigration tests the limits of democracy, by constantly expanding the body politic, upsetting the cultural and economic status quo, creating intergroup tensions, and forcing change on both immigrants and the larger society. To be successful, immigrant integration must be multi-directional in nature, involving adaptations to an ever-changing human landscape on the part of immigrants, established residents, government, and non-governmental organizations. Within the United States, few states have been shaped in such profound and enduring ways by migration as New Jersey. New Jersey currently ranks third in the nation, behind only Hawaii and California, in the percentage of immigrants to total population. According to the Global Commission on International Migration, the movement of people across national boundaries is likely to increase in the years to come, as advances in communication, education, transportation, and global commerce create opportunities for geographic and social mobility that never existed before in human history. Those nations and regions of the world best positioned to harness the creative force of human migration and control its combustibility are likely to achieve positions of leadership in the global economy. Through the establishment of the Program on Immigration and Democracy, we hope to build the infrastructure of knowledge and practice essential to the growth and prosperity of our state, region, and nation.
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