According to foreign media reports, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently held a conference call themed "Economic and Linguistic Integration of New Americans." The meeting primarily discussed the research, plans, and experiences in helping immigrants integrate into American society since the establishment of the White House-led "New Americans Task Force". At the same time, the task force is soliciting "good ideas" from the public to help new immigrants integrate into American society, hoping to present a satisfactory report to President Obama on the first anniversary of the announcement of the executive order on immigration reform.
President Obama announced several executive orders on immigration reform on November 20 last year, and announced the establishment of the "New Americans Task Force" the following day in response, noting that the purpose of the task force is to "create welcoming community environments and opportunities for deep integration" for new immigrants. The task force is a "collaboration" of 16 government departments, with the list composed of the "heads" of these 16 departments, each of which is significant, including the Secretary of State, Attorney General, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Labor, and Secretary of Health and Human Services, among others.
At the meeting that day, all 16 departments sent representative officials to attend. The participating immigration officials pointed out that the two most important aspects of new immigrant "integration" are economic integration and linguistic integration. Economic integration refers to new immigrants engaging in work suitable for them, obtaining appropriate vocational training opportunities, identifying their own career paths, achieving economic self-sufficiency for themselves and their families, and becoming a resource for U.S. economic development. Linguistic integration refers to providing new immigrants with limited English proficiency the opportunity to receive professional, step-by-step language instruction, and to integrate into American society and culture by mastering English.
The official emphasized that the 16 collaborating departments of the "New Americans Task Force" must perform their respective duties. For example, the Department of Labor should launch more training programs for immigrants, the Small Business Administration should support new immigrants in starting their own businesses, and the Department of Justice should ensure the basic rights of immigrants, among others.
White House officials announced that immigrant integration requires policies at the federal level, as well as frontline suggestions and feedback from communities, hoping that communities, local governments, and immigrant groups will all contribute their ideas. The White House-led "New Americans Task Force" will draw from these, release a comprehensive plan in March to help new immigrants integrate into American society economically and linguistically, and submit a report on the status of new immigrant integration to President Obama on the eve of the first anniversary of the November immigration reform executive order.
