Who We Are
Our group embarked on this project as peers in a Contemporary Immigration Course taught by Sociologist Dr. Bloemraad at University of California, Berkeley. Throughout the course we studied migration waves in US history and in the contemporary, analyzed at theories of assimilation for immigrant in the United States through a national and local lense
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Our Project ​
Our final project was to create this informative website about a county within the Bay Area. We were interested to see the resources that are made available to the Greater San Mateo County, resources that specifically promote civic integration in the County. By “civic integration”, we mean how San Mateo is creating an inclusive environment through access to health resources, legal clinics, and political engagement. Through exploring what civic engagement and integration of immigrants could look like in our community and in San Mateo County we hoped to understand if the county's resources were sufficient, effective, accessible. We did this by reaching out to CBO's, county officials, and community members to hear the local perspective. We also used resource mapping tools created by the Berkeley Migration Initiative to locate resource centers throughout the county.
Why This Matters
The Census
The census provides information that is essential to the allocation of funds county to county. These funds are essential to the functioning of CBO's and other immigrant resource centers that work to meet the needs and empower immigrant communities within the county. Improper data can be exemplified in inaccurate reporting of immigrant populations and county demographics, this directly affects the levels and accessibility of immigrant resources within a county (refer to the chart below). The data that we collected throughout this project can aid in our assessment of funding for immigrant resources to the county which could be a byproduct of gaps in census reporting.
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San Mateo County and the Larger Bay Area
Along with out group's work and assessment of the resources in San Mateo County, additional groups in our class looked at other counties in the greater bay area. This included Sonoma County, Alameda County, and Marin County. The data collected from each of these groups is essential in the larger picture of resource allocation and accessibility in the greater Bay Area. Our projects go hand in hand and we have linked pages below of where to access their findings and research.
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Sonoma County
Alameda County
San Francisco County
Marin County
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We'd Love to hear from you! Do not hesitate to reach out whether you have a question, a resource that could be used on this webpage, a comment, feedback and advice on the improvement of this page, etc. One of us will get back to you as soon as we can!