1. PROVIDING MORE LEGAL AID
what the data shows
According to the Berkeley Immigrant Migrant Initiative (BIMI), in San Mateo County there are just five legal clinics that cater specifically to the immigrant population in some way. Of those, their locations do not fully represent the population densities of foreign-born residents. This “spatial mismatch”, as BIMI calls it, can create barriers such as transportation and time availability that get in the way of being able to access the few immigrant-serving clinics in the county.
Recommendation
In order to create better access to legal help, we suggest that the legal aid centers that do exist and couldn’t be counted for in the BIMI data, start to incorporate immigrant-specific initiatives to stay current with a growing immigrant population. In the long-run, San Mateo County should consider creating new legal clinics from the ground up, specifically in the areas where there is a population in need but no convenient availability.