Three essays on immigrant nonprofit organizations and immigrant use of social services

Abstract

Immigrant populations are moving to new destinations across the country and no longer settling predominantly in established immigrant destinations, causing stress on local governments. Local governments increasingly rely on nonprofit organizations to provide services to immigrant and refugee populations. To contribute to research in this area, this dissertation examines ways nonprofit organizations work with immigrant populations. In Chapter 1, I use qualitative interview data to examine how food bank staff connect immigrant groups to public services. In Chapters 2 and 3, I focus on immigrant nonprofit organizations. I use census and immigrant nonprofit data and regression analysis to examine where immigrant nonprofits may be located. Findings from this dissertation highlight the importance of the local context when initiating strategies to engage with immigrant populations and when examining factors associated with the presence of an immigrant nonprofit.