Discussion Papers

ANALYSIS OF RESPONSE TO CENSUS 2020 AND SUB-COUNTY VARIATIONS
These are companion documents. The presentation and paper were based on analyses Ed and Gregg undertook of response rates and the consequential implications for use of those data. They focus specifically, the Fresno County Westside sub-county region, as an example of the kind of area where there will be a great deal of inequity in census-driven funding for Title I Compensatory Education due to varying levels of self-response to Census 2020 and even lower response to the American Community Survey.

In the course of doing the presentations and discussions with Census colleagues, we were excited to learn of the efforts of a number of census researchers and planners within the Bureau to innovatively confront the challenge of enumerating “hard to count”/“historically undercounted” populations. The energetic network of researchers concerned about equitable representation of undercounted populations seems to be eager to explore pathways toward solutions that will really work in vulnerable, where there are many crowded houses with several families share one dwelling (“complex households” and properties with “back houses”, backyard trailers, etc.


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J. Gregory Robinson, Independent Researcher, Edward Kissam, Werner-Kohnstamm Family Fund, William O’Hare, O’Hare Data and Demographic Services LLC, presented at the 78 th Annual Conference of the Amer. Assoc. for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), May 2023.
This paper analyzes patterns of census response in California showing that state-level tabulations conceal substantial variations in self-response that, in turn, determined undercount in historically- undercounted communities. It provides a basis for more fine-grained reporting of deep pockets of undercount—since Census Bureau research shows a strong correlation between level of self-response and eventual undercount.


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Edward Kissam, Werner-Kohnstamm Family Fund and J. Gregory Robinson, Independent Researcher, presented at the 2023 ACS (American Community Survey) Data Users Conference, May 2023.


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Ed Kissam and J. Gregory Robinson, presented at the ACS Data Users’ Conference, Washington, D.C., May 2023


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Ed Kissam, Comments submitted to the Census Bureau in response to their request for input, November 1, 2022 (39 pages)
This document presents the comments Ed submitted in response to a Federal Register notice asking for public input on efforts to improve census quality in Census 2030. He addressed each of the 5 topic areas the Census Bureau asked about.  Discussion of a number of the suggestions is continuing as planning moves forward.


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Ed Kissam, PowerPoint, presented to local community officials in Western Fresno County and California state legislative staff, 15 Nov 2024 (11 slides)
In this presentation Ed analyzed the extent, nature and location of undercount in undercounted communities in Western Fresno communities, and the implications of the differential undercount.


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Ed Kissam, Cindy Quezada and JoAnn Intili, in Statistical Journal of the IAOS 34 (2018) 605–619 605 DOI 10.3233/SJI-180480 IOS Press
The article documents a novel approach used to improve the census address list in California in the Local Update of Census Address (LUCA) phase of the decennial census. Local government and community- based organizations partnered to conduct in-field address canvassing to identify hidden housing previously omitted from the list and not included in local administrative records used for in-office address LUCA review of address lists. Areas with about 1 million housing units were canvassed and 13,000 newly-identified housing units were added to the Census Bureau’saddress list. The tract-level “yield” of newly[-identified hidden housing units varied but overall return on investment was high. Adding 1.3% newly-identified housing units to the pre-LUCA address list means that about 46,000 California low-income residents who otherwise would have only a slim chance of being enumerated could be counted in 2020. This represented a significant contribution toward overcoming the longstanding undercount of minorities and immigrants in these neighborhoods. This strategy, occasioned by the U.S. Census Bureau’s decision to limit its own in-field address canvassing to only 30% of the nation, has particular relevance for census enumeration in less-developed communities. It demonstrates the efficacy of drawing on social, cultural, and civic capital in communities with limited financial resources to ameliorate the negative impact that budget constraints on central government funding have on fair and accurate census enumeration.


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Ed Kissam and J. Greggory Robinson, Standard Deviations Blog Posts, The Census Project, 16 June 2023
The Blog post discusses patterns of differential undercount within counties, in comparison to state-level differences in state response, and the factors which affect it.

COVID POLICY, PUBLIC HEALTH AND BORDER SECURITY
Ed discusses Customs and Border Patrol’s (CPB’s) use of Title 42, a very problematic attempt originally put in place by the Trump administration to justify summary deportation of all migrants, including asylum seekers. to Mexico or their country of origin based on public health grounds.  Use of Title 42 was terminated in May, 2023.


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Ed Kissam, Op Ed, Opinion, AZCentral, published 8 January 2023, 7a.m.


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Ed Kissam, background paper presented to Ethnic Media, (10 pp)


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Ed Kissam, PowerPoint, presented to the NIH-Funded COVID-19 Evidence Academy: Translating Innovations in Testing, NIHCEAL, 24 Feb 2021 (7 Slides)
In this PowerPoint Ed discusses the concept of ‘Trusted Voices” and how a messaging campaign has to be crafted to support and enliven those voices. This national conference focused on improving access to COVID-19 testing at a point when vulnerable populations encountered serious difficulties in accessing testing. The principles discussed were used also to inform campaigns to promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake among farmworkers.

THE COSTS OF AN INACCURATE CENSUS
These opinion pieces discuss how efforts to cut Census Bureau funding in FY24 will undermine data accuracy in North Carolina and rural areas throughout the U.S., and cost the These states billions of dollars. Ed’s discussion explains how the changing demographics of the rural U.S, along with decreasing public response to surveys requires adequate funding for promising Census Bureau efforts to overcome longstanding patterns of undercount of racial minorities and low-income families.


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Ed Kissam, disseminated by The Foundation for Health Leadership & Innovation, September 6, 2023.


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Ed Kissam, Opinion Contributor, OpEd, AZCentral, September 7, 2023

CENSUS 2020 AND IMPLICATIONS FOR UNDERCUTTING SUPPORT TO LOW INCOME COMMUNITIES
These three papers report the results of a study of 600 immigrants in the San Joaquin Valley in 2018 willingnes to respond to the census in order to assess the likely impacts of anti-immigrant politicians’ efforts to include a question on citizenship status. Research methods employed both quantitative and qualitative methods, collected from a stratified random sample. The findings showed that going forward with a decennial census including the citizenship question would have short term and long- lasting negative impacts on census and American Community Survey response for years to come. The papers are also available through San Joaquin Valley Census Research Project reports: www.shfcenter.org/sjvhealthfund www.cirsinc.org/publications/current-publications


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Ed Kissam, Richard Mines, Cindy Quezada, JoAnn Intili, and Gail Wadsworth. Paper commissioned by the San Joaquin Valley Census Research Project, San Joaquin Valley Health Fund, Sierra Health Foundation. January 2019


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Gail Wadsworth, Ed Kissam, Cindy Quezada and JoAnn Intili, Paper commissioned by the San JoaquinValley Research Project, San Joaquin Valley Health Fund, Sierra Health Foundation. February 2019


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Ed Kissam. Paper commissioned by the San Joaquin Valley Census Research Project, San Joaquin Valley Health Fund, Sierra Health Foundation. January 2019

SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
In these PowerPoints Ed discusses the need to build on existing insights regarding how housing and neighborhood impact farmworkers’ health. He emphasizes the importance of decreasing stressors that undermine farmworkers’ psychological well-being and the need for more strategic advocacy to plug holes in current service delivery systems. The presentation includes analysis of COVID-19 transmission in crowded households.


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Ed Kissam, PowerPoint presented at the webinar ”Farmworker Housing: Implications for Health Providers,” Farmworker Justice, 26May 2016. (15 slides)


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Ed Kissam, PowerPoint presented at the National Farmworker Law Conference, 11 November 2016 (15slides)


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Ed Kissam, PowerPoint with documentary photography by David Bacon, for Farmworker Justice: Farmworker Housing as a Social Determinant of Health, 30 Nov 2021 (21 slides)

COMBATTING COVID-19 AT THE LOCAL, STATE, AND FEDERAL LEVELS
The COVID-19 pandemic continues, even while the virus appears less virulent and people are tired of public health guidance. In this environment, while new resources are available, as of Summer 2022, for combatting the pandemic, it’s increasingly clear that better local, state, regional, and federal strategies are (still) not well-designed or adequately funded to more equitably help vulnerable sub-populations. In a series of Opinion pieces for different media audiences, Ed has tried to nurture strategic discussion, planning, and action to promote constructive efforts as we move into Fall and Winter seasons, when they may be yet another surgel. In these posted pieces, Ed addresses local level issues (in the Fresno Bee); state level issues (in The Arizona Republic/azcentral); issues along the border (also in The Arizona Republic/azcentral); and nationally, given Congressional inaction (Ethnic Media Services). While each is aligned with our overall perspective, the focus on different specific levels, offers textured recommendations for moving forward.


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Combatting COVID-19 at the Local Level
“Only half of Fresno County’s Latinos are vaccinated for COVID. Here are ways to do better.”
Ed Kissam, The Fresno Bee, OPINION AND COMMENTARY- Other Opinions, 16August2022, 10:27am
In this opinion piece, Ed discusses the level of protection against COVID that Latinos have been able to achieve in Fresno County, and how to bolster health outcomes in Fresno county. While Fresno has done better in serving Latinos (and farmworkers in particular) than some other counties, the levels of access to vaccination and anti-viral treatments still vary a lot. He briefly documents this and makes some suggestions for how to move forward.

https://Fresnobee.com/opinion/op-ed/article264564196.htm


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Combatting COVID-19 at the state level
“Arizona needs antivirals to combat COVID-19. But not everyone has easy access.”
Ed Kissam, AZCENTRAL, OP ED, Opinion, 9 August 2022, 6:00 am
In this opinion piece, Ed discusses the challenges Arizona and similar states face in making the “Test-to-Treat” approach work effectively in rural contexts with population subgroups who do not speak English and have different cultural backgrounds. Going beyond the challenges, he suggests strategies to move forward, given that the pandemic is not over.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2022/08/09/covid-antiviral-treatment-paxlovid-uneven-access-arizona/10252158002/


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Combatting COVID-19 at the Border, a Regional Strategy
“Title 42 is more than a border distraction. It puts your health at risk.”
Ed Kissam, AZCENTRAL, OP ED|Opinion, 7 July 2022, 6 am
In this opinion piece Ed discusses how Title-42 (the Trump administration effort to close the border to asylum-seekers) has functioned for the US, and how the provisions have ended up replacing a science-driven strategy with a politically-inspired mythology. He goes on to discuss what has failed with the implementation of the Title-42 initiative, its impact both on the US and the population to whom it is applied, and what it would take to improve it/align it with meaningful public health objectives.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2022/07/07/title-42-doesnt-stop-covid-19-border-healthier-response/7815314001/


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Nationally, Overcoming Political Gridlock in Congress
“'Commercializing’ Covid-19 Response is Bad News on All Fronts.”
Ed Kissam, Ethnic Media Services, Op-Ed, 24 August 2022
The dire consequences of political warfare in Congress leads to expedient policy that increases health disparities for vulnerable populations. In this opinion piece, Ed discusses the newest shift in national strategy, moving to ‘commercialize’ COVID-19 response, putting the burden on the individuals to make the right choices and leaving uninsured families out in the cold. This discussion focuses specifically on the plight of the rural poor, and brings light to the issues for those who are farmworkers, many of whom often have neither health insurance, or time, or access to health care or the organizations which provide it.

https://ethnicmediaservices.org/covid-19/commercializing-covid-19-response-is-bad-news-on-all-fronts/


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Ed Kissam – Presented to the Susatainable Agriculture and Food Systems Conference, Kansas City, on June 20, 2022
The efforts to address healthcare issues during the COVID-19 pandemic mobilized the public health system in the U.S., engaging communities in many different ways. Some strategies worked better than others - in some communities there was collaboration among public health agencies and community organizations, and in some communities philanthropic organizations had a direct hands-on approach fostering health care. In this presentation, we shared with fellow funders concerned about sustainable agriculture what we’ve learned in efforts to improve local response to the COVID-19 pandemic in California’s agricultural communities. (PDF file, 8 slides) June 20, 2022

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This presentation discusses some specific challenges in responding effectively to the COVID 19 ‘Community Crisis’, what a vision for moving forward in fostering well-being in rural ag. communities might look like, and an analysis of the kinds of differences effective collaboration among community organizations and agencies and leaders actually achieved.


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IOSPress Link
Ed Kissam - Published in Statistical Journal of the IAOS 36 (2020); pp 867–898 867; DOI 10.3233/SJI-200763 IOS Press
This paper focuses on ways in which improved data collection, analysis, and reporting by local public health departments could improve strategic response in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic in farmworker communities. The paper shows that COVID-19 impacts farmworker communities much more heavily than non-farmworker ones and that impact is explained not only by workplace exposure but, also, by living in a crowded household. These insights will be helpful in efforts to make COVID-19 testing more accessible to farmworkers and in rolling out a national vaccination campaign that will recognize the vulnerability of farmworker communities. (PDF file, 32 slides) December 3, 2020

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Public health agencies confront a variety of challenges in developing the broad and diverse community networks needed to effectively combat the COVID-19 pandemic. It is argued that expanded “whole household” testing, more granular data analysis, along with systematic and user-friendly public reporting can enhance local strategic response. Such reporting is well aligned with good government efforts recognizing the importance of transparency to allow the public to assess local agency efforts and hold them accountable for effectively serving even the most disadvantaged neighborhoods and communities.


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Ed Kissam - Presented to UCLA Latin American Institute, Center for Mexican Studies
California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) has broadened its oversight of labor relations as one to include assessment of agricultural employers COVID-19 response and efforts to find practical ways to improve workplace safety. This is in stark relief to the narrowly-framed U.S. Department of Labor response which simply signed on to rudimentary CDC guidance about best practices to safeguard the well-being of farmworkers. This document has the comments submitted by Ed Kissam to in preparation for its hearing on COVID-19 strategy in California on 11 Aug 2020. (PDF file, 4 slides) October 7, 2020

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Ed’s comments submitted to the ALRB hearing identify crucial steps we believe ALRB should consider to improve the outcomes of farmworkers confronting the COVID-19 pandemic. He suggests that agricultural employers’ own contact-tracing can and should identify workers at a worksite who are close contacts of a COVID-19+ individual— taking into account specific tasks and types of interaction among workers. In his comments he argues that proactive response to an outbreak at a worksite, in contrast to current efforts to hide COVID-19 clusters will actually improve profitability and that fostering peer discussion and sharing of best practices can make a significant contribution to decreasing workplace transmission of COVID-19.


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Executive Summary



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Full Paper
Ed Kissam
The guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), for agricultural employers and farmworkers, incorporates a fair amount of useful advice and insights, but fails to provide advice that actually improves employer and worker behavior/practices in combating COVID-19. An Executive Summary of the full paper (2pages) is posted along with the paper itself (23+ w pages), which provides more detail.

In brief, we observe that CDC’s guidance is vague and more oriented to bureaucratic realities than human realities and shows no recognition about what the demographic and socioeconomic realities of U.S. farmworker life and labor-intensive agricultural production imply for strategies to control COVID-19 transmission in the workplace, in farmworker households, or in agricultural communities.

If CDC fails to provide adequate information about the risk of COVID-19 transmission and about the probability of serious consequences for those who are infected, it cannot expect to secure an adequate level of compliance with social distancing, self-isolation, and self- quarantining or to catalyze other still more innovative strategies to reduce transmission and improve health outcomes in farmworker families. July 5, 2020

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This paper documents deficiencies in guidelines on responding to COVID-19 that CDC/DOL issued on June 1 for agricultural employers and workers, and seeks to identify what additional steps might be needed to assure that CDC’s advice to agricultural community stakeholders would actually have a significant positive impact on the trajectory of the pandemic.

The paper is based on our review of the epidemiological and clinical research to date on the coronavirus, tracking of outbreaks in farmworker communities around the U.S., and discussions with a range of stakeholders engaged in efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19. As of the current date – 7 July 2020 – the virus appears to be winning. To stem the tide, the paper argues that CDC must seek to better understand farmworkers and their families, labor-intensive agricultural employers and then reorient its efforts toward catalyzing action-oriented discussion, nurturing collaboration among diverse stakeholders in agricultural communities, and sharing of “best practices”.


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Ed Kissam - Presented to UCLA Latin American Institute, Center for Mexican Studies
This is a PowerPoint presentation by Ed Kissam on the specific strategic usefulness of Community-based COVID-19 Case-tracing for the San Joaquin Valley. (PDF file, 17 slides) June 4, 2020

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This PowerPoint reviews why COVID-19 is such a pressing problem in farmworker communities and discusses the strategic usefulness of community-based case-tracing. It includes information on cumulative confirmed cases in farmworker communities where there have been “hot spots” of COVID-19.


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Ed Kissam and Jo Ann Intili
This “working paper” is a detailed examination of how a Community-based approach differs from the system currently being rolled out in California for COVID-19 case investigation and tracing; and how such a component is crucial for accelerating statewide progress while, at the same time, improving accuracy/reliability of data secured in the process. This paper then continues to explore the challenges to be confronted in recruiting, training, and deploying the case-investigation/contact-tracing workforce needed to function effectively in minority and immigrant communities. It builds on the rapidly-evolving epidemiological analysis and presentations by teams in Massachusetts and San Francisco, regarding the process they use and the problems they have faced. (PDF file, 24 pages) May 8, 2020

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In order to effectively combat COVID-19 resurgence in the neighborhoods and populations most at risk, the implications of health care disparities in the real-world, day-to-day life of communities, have to be considered up front. Four out of five (79.6%) of California’s low-income minority and immigrant families are working poor—whose overall exposure to COVID-19 has been and will continue to be particularly high because so many are employed in essential businesses. This paper details the challenges in ensuring that case tracing, investigation and management takes into account and actively addresses the impacts of this inequality in healthcare and access, in order to avert death and spread of the disease.


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Ed Kissam
There is general consensus among epidemiologists on the need for contact or case-tracing. Beyond the general issues of staffing and broad organizational capacity to conduct the level of case-tracing needed to permit systematic opening-up of counties, states, and regions of the U.S., there needs to be focused attention to the demands of case-tracing in communities with linguistically and culturally diverse and densely housed populations. This paper discusses the criteria for building such a Corps. (PDF file, 11 pages) April 21, 2020

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This paper builds on the framework discussed by Scott Gottlieb and his colleagues; and responds to the real world observations of case-tracers already in operation in the US. It discusses the benefits a community-based Corps could contribute in terms of overall management and efficiency.


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Ed Kissam
Carefully considering the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic and how to reduce R0 has important implications for initiatives designed to help keep farmworkers and their families safer. The strategy recommended in WKF paper 2, Keeping Farmworkers Safe At Work and At Home In The COVID-19 Pandemic, points to crowded housing as a major problem. We argued that, at the same time, steps could be taken to address the housing and that these provide a promising “pressure point” for reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the vulnerable farmworker community. This 3rd paper, focuses on that issue. (PDF file, 9 pages) April 6, 2020

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This paper takes off from epidemiologist Paul Delamater’s advice by looking specifically at the nature of the “built environment” in farmworker communities, i.e. housing accommodations for farmworkers and their families, as a key factor in overall spread of COVID-19. It focuses more deeply on the reasons why crowded farmworker housing is such an important issue in U.S. farmworker communities and suggests some solutions.


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Ed Kissam
This paper discusses what needs to be done to mitigate the workplace risks faced by agricultural workers. Starting from the point that following the CDC guidelines is important, it goes on to address what else needs to be done to defeat COVID-19. It emphasizes that decreasing the risk cannot be the responsibility of any single stakeholder, that federal, state, local government, agricultural employers, farmworker advocates, and local health care providers need to work together. (PDF file, 13 pages) March 30, 2020

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California cannot succeed in its battle to suppress COVID-19 unless it brings statewide coronavirus transmission down from the currently estimated R0 of 2.2-2.4 to below an R0 of 1 to halt the pandemic’s exponential growth. But the pace of transmission in any jurisdiction is made up of individual transmission rates within diverse communities and populations. Farmworkers are one of those diverse communities in California, and they are on the frontline of essential workers, along with medical and other food system and delivery workers exposed to COVID-19 in the workplace. This paper – following the one estimating the impact of COVID-19 on farmworkers and their families unless a sound strategy is adopted – moves on to examine principles for crafting practical strategies required to protect farmworkers, their supervisors, their families, farm labor contractors, producers, and rural agricultural communities.


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Ed Kissam
As the coronavirus pandemic progresses, and agricultural workers continue work, it’s imperative to look at the extent of risk they face and how to mitigate it. This paper utilizes data from the early epidemiological analysis to provide an estimate of worst-case impact as the basis for identifying strategies tailored to work well in addressing the specific aspects of farmworkers’ lives which puts them at risk. Subsequent papers discuss key issues and describe some strategies in more depth. (PDF file, 9 pages) March 23, 2020

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As Governor Newsom’s COVID-19 strategy wisely recognizes, agriculture is an essential business for California —generating more than $50 billion in receipts annually. The health and well-being of California’s farm labor force is critical to California’s overall labor-intensive agricultural production. This paper presents an initial estimate of the possible impact of COVID-19 pandemic on farmworkers, their families, the communities the live in, and the industry face. After several weeks in place, California’s strategy is paying off—so the estimate presented here represents a worst case scenario.Follow-on papers will discuss strategies tailored to helping farmworkers and their communities. Rapid progress has been made—but there’s still urgent need for developing still more effective approaches.

CENSUS RESEARCH, ANALYSIS OF CENSUS OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES, AND IMPLICATIONS
In these papers Ed analyzes the impact of census operations on the count and undercount of minority populations, specifically Latin American immigrants.


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Ed Kissam and JoAnn Intili
This paper is an analysis of the likely impact of the inclusion of a citizenship question, used as proposed by the Census in their operational plan, on the privacy of the data they are legall required to protect, under Title 13. (PDF file, 17 pages) 2018

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Secretary Wilbur Ross, Department of Commerce, has proposed adding a citizenship question to Census 2020 based on the argument that this was necessary in order to accommodate the Department of Justice’s request for tabulations of CVAP (the citizen voting-age population) at the census-block level; and that this data would be used in order to better enforce the Voting Rights Act. This change, however, bears significant risks for breaches in data confidentiality – 6.7% of the blocks in California have one house on them; 31% of the blocks have fewer than 10 houses on them. Block-level tabulations will either be inaccurate or violate privacy or both. This destroys the entire rationale for the unwise decision.


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by Sierra Health Foundation
These papers draw on in-person interviews with 600 first and second generation immigrants in the San Joaquin Valley, conducted from September through December 2018, to ascertain the impact of including a question on citizenship would be likely to have on immigrants' participation in the 2020 Census. (Link to 3 papers, fourth due late April, 2019)

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The San Joaquin Valley Health Fund, with a consortium of funders, undertook a research and action initiative to examine first-hand the likely impact of an addition of a question on citizenship to Census 2020 on suppression of response. The reports linked here show in depth the question’s impact on first and second generation immigrants’ census participation. The first 3 reports analyze survey responses and focus group discussions by Latino immigrants living in the Valley; the 4th report will include also other immigrants who live in the 8 counties comprising the San Joaquin Valley of California. The bottom line is that there is a marked negative impact that cannot be overcome. The data presented here provide the research basis for amicus briefs prepared by the National Immigration Law Center and submitted to the U.S. District Court-Northern District of California and Supreme Courts in support of litigation to prohibit the citizenship question.


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by Ed Kissam and JoAnn Intili
A worksheet prototype for pro-census network to use in planning procedural advocacy and outreach campaigns to promotecensus participation, to enhance traditionally hard to count households overcome the response barriers they face, and for California and other states to prepare to push back in the event of a seriously inaccurate census . Prepared for a presentation to San Joaquin Valley policymakers and census activists on 4 April 2019.

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As part of the San Joaquin Valley Health Fund’s initiative to enhance regional networks’ ability to improve Census 2020 participation, Ed prepared a worksheet of strategic initiatives that, if implemented, would contribute to census accuracy—whether or not the census includes a question on citizenship. This is not a ‘be-all-and-end-all’, but is designed to help policymakers, local government, and community-based organizations think creatively and strategically about what can be done, and how to get it done—in efforts to assure the most accurate possible census and to be prepared in case there is a serious differential undercount of minorities and immigrants in Census 2020.


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by Ari Berman / Mother Jones
Ari Berman,senior reporter at Mother Jones, covering voting rights. and the author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America., contributed a piece on the issue of the making the 2020 Census representative of the American population. He covers the pilot community-based address canvassing supported by WKF. April 5, 2018

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Description of the barriers the 2020 Census faces in bring accurate and fair. It discusses housing not included in the Census, and a strategy for updating the Census 'master address file' to give people an opportunity to respond to eather Census. If the address is not in the file, there is no opportunity.


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by Ed Kissam
Census undercount of low-income minority and immigrant families deprives communities of equitable representation and their fair share of census-driven program funding. There is a one-time opportunity during March-June, 2018 for cities and counties to take a major step toward addressing this problem by incorporating community-based address canvassing into the their efforts as part of the Census Bureau’s LUCA (Local Update of Census Addresses). This report details the results from highly successful pilots designed to test this strategy in three California cities: San Jose, San Francisco, and Fresno. It also includes practical resources developed in the pilot to help cities move forward rapidly to implement the strategy in the short time available. (pdf, 21 pages) March 7, 2018

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Living in unconventional housing (converted garages, basements, backyard trailers, sheds, and add-ons) is a major source of census undercount of minorities and immigrants. When the place a family lives is left out of the Census Bureau’s Master Address File they don’t receive an invitation to respond and the entire household is usually left out. The pilots mobilized grassroots community organizations and volunteers from hard-to-count neighborhoods to identify these places people live which lack a mail address and are not in standard administrative records. They added more than 1,500 housing units so that about 5,000 low-income minority people now have a good opportunity to be counted in Census 2020. The pilots showed that the community canvassing successfully identified and added 4%-6% to the Census Bureau address list in the targeted neighborhoods—representing more than twice the official census undercount of Hispanics and Blacks. The pilots show that these partnerships can do the address canvassing very rapidly (in less than 2 weeks) once there is a decision to go forward. The strategy is efficient and affordable because only the 5-15% of any community with the worst housing conditions needs to be canvassed. And it is rapid because local canvassers are well-prepared to identify even the most marginal housing accommodations. Neighborhoods with about 15,000 housing units were canvassed in San Jose in one day.


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by Ed Kissam
A review of the evidence for undercount of Mexican immigrant-headed households in past censuses (more than 6 times the most-commonly reported Census Bureau estimate of Hispanic undercount). Published in The Statistical Journal of the IAOS (the International Association for Official Statistics), 33 (2017) 797–816, the paper discusses the causes of undercount, and suggests approaches to address this chronic problem in Census 2020 (pdf, 20 pages) August 29, 2017

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The accuracy of census-derived data is crucial for allocation of almost $600 billion per year in federal funding for health, education, nutrition, and community development programs as well as for political reapportionment(note there was a typo in the publication – it’s billion, not ‘million’). Yet the decennial census has a chronic problem in accurately enumerating low-income minority and immigrant households. This paper shows that the undercount of Mexican immigrant-headed households is six times higher than the Census Bureau’s 2010 estimate for undercount of “Hispanics”). The analysis shows that historically one-third to one-half of undercount in this population is due to families living in low-visibility “unusual” housing accommodations not in the Census Bureau’s Master Address File. The paper also looks at other factors affecting undercount and suggests strategies for Census 2020.


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by Ed Kissam
A summary review of the causes of Census undercount and strategies to address the issue. (pdf, 14 pages) August 1, 2017

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This paper describes an innovative strategy for California to improve the systematic undercount of minority and immigrant households. This is a crucial social justice issue—because census undercount attenuates minorities’ political voice and decreases support for programs where funding is driven by census data. A statewide investment of about $2 million to support local government (cities and counties) in partnering local with community-based organizations to identify low-visibility, "unusual" housing accommodations where low-income families live and adding them to to the Census Bureau’s Master Address File as part of the 2018 national process of Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) would result in more than a $1 billion increase in federal support for health, education, housing, and job training programs for Californians during the decade from 2021-2030. The paper was prepared to build funders', local governments', community organizations’ awareness of the minority undercount problem and the importance of taking a bold step forward in 2017-2018 toward overcoming it.


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by Ed Kissam
A Summary Review of Research Relevant to Housing Units Missing from the Census Bureau’s Master Address File (MAF), written and disseminated to inform stakeholders in Census 2020. (pdf, 15 pages) October 3, 2016

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This summary review of research on differential undercount in the decennial census focuses on a specific cause of undercount—the undercount that results when the place where individuals or a family live has not been identified and included in the Census Bureau’s Master Address File (MAF), its list of census addresses.


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by Ed Kissam
This paper is a companion piece to the strategy paper. It details the analysis of level of impact for Ca. from Census-driven funding achieved through improving Census master address files (MAF). (pdf, 14 pages) October 10, 2016

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The paper presents a bird’s-eye view of the most obvious and direct financial benefits to California and Californians from MAF improvement. The level of impact on Census-driven funding is analyzed in terms of 2 models – one which focuses on population characteristics and the other which focuses on housing characteristics. The specific research and findings from earlier Census undercount studies are reviewed in terms of what they imply for the value of the proposed effort.


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by Ed Kissam
This paper presents a strategy to improve the 2020 California Census by reducing undercount among California’s poor and immigrant residents. (pdf, 12 pages) September 2, 2016

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An accurate decennial census is of critical importance to California, to assure fair political representation and equitable receipt of federal funds. Very large amounts of federal funding, more than $550 billion each year, are now distributed using formulas driven by census data. With 12% of the U.S. population, California’s "fair share" of federal census-driven funding is at least $66 billion per year currently and should increase to about $83 billion in 2021. This paper presents two models for improving the Master Address File the Census uses as the basis for the count through the Census LUCA process.

IMMIGRATION AND IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION – ANALYSIS OF ISSUES THAT AFFECT WORKFORCE SUCCESS
These are a series of older papers Ed and colleagues have contributed related to improving pathways for immigrants to be integrated into their communities and contribute to them and advocate for themselves and their families.


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by Ed Kissam
This paper describes a more cost-effective and flexible way to balance the needs of both agricultural employers and current U.S. farmworkers and, at the same time, decrease abuses of newly-admitted foreign workers. It advocates a new immigration program to replace H-2A and H-2B. (pdf, 18 pages) September 6, 2016

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This short paper describes a new immigration program – the North American Agricultural Worker Visa (NAAV) program to replace the antiquated provisions of the H-2A and H-2B guestworker programs. H=2A and H-2B would be combined into a program allowing capped annual admissions of foreign-born workers. Our analysis and proposed policy approach takes into account the impact a CIR-based legalization program would have on the agricultural labor market—on agricultural employers, current agricultural workers, and newly-admitted workers from Mexico and Central America. This paper builds on an earlier analysis by David Runsten in February 2013, also posted on this site.


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by Ed Kissam
A summary document submitted to OMB regarding the Participant Data and Reporting Formats. Comments identify specific shortcomings for making use of the data collected and reporting provided to track and improve services to priority participant subgroups receiving workforce development and skills training. (pdf. 16 pgs) May 2016

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Having tracked federal employment training policy, adult education, and vocational rehabilitation research and program evaluation for several decades, the comments reflect deep concern about the national workforce skills development system’s very limited success in effectively responding to the workforce skills development needs of the more than 5 million work-authorized WIOA-eligible immigrant workers in the U.S. labor market who are limited in English and who have only an elementary-level or less than a high school education. Proposes specific changes to the reporting format and variables to enable adequate monitoring, program improvement and impact analysis. These comments were submitted to OMB, 23May2016.


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by Ed Kissam and JoAnn Intili
A position paper arguing for a ‘full scope’ implementation model to launch DACA and DAPA applicants through and beyond the process to fulfill its promise for them, their families, and their communities. (pdf, 12pgs) April 2016

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This paper starts from an optimistic presumption that the US Supreme Court will allow DACA and DAPA to proceed. Moving on from this, while we argue that continued assistance for application is required, our assessment is that it will be crucial in the course of planning for DAPA, as well as in any subsequent legalization program, to design an application assistance network which will also take advantage of this unique opportunity to launch applicants into a rapid and rewarding process of economic and civic integration. Providing “enhanced” DAPA application assistance, i.e. information, counseling, and advice about securing the full benefits of lawful presence and work authorization once an application is approved, is feasible—but only if legal service providers and immigrant advocacy acknowledge that they cannot go it alone and commit themselves to developing broad and diverse organizational partnerships to move forward.


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by Ed Kissam
A PowerPoint presentation highlighting the potential impact of DAPA and DACA, if the Supreme Court allows them to continue, for farmworkers, the agricultural workforce in general, the rural communities in which they live, and employers; and what employers need to do to leverage that impact. Presented at UC Davis Water, Labor and Immigration Conference, 15 April 2016 (pdf 20 slides) April 2016

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Information presented utilizes data from MPI, NAWs, and the Center for Migration Studies to estimate the size and nature of the impact of the DAPA and DACA Presidential initiatives on the farm labor workforce. The presentation goes onto discuss what will be required from employers to leverage the desired engagement with DAPA and DACA and ensuing benefits for the workers themselves and the communities in which they live.


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by Ed Kissam
A brief describing concretely the costs and benefits of applying for DACA authorization. Designed as part of a marketing packet and discussion (pdf 10pgs) February 2016

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The information presented aims to provide a concrete estimate of the benefits that a “typical” DACA applicants will get from applying and the “typical” costs. The paper is meant to be a tool for the applicant, him or herself, for thinking about their own individual situation and whether it’s worthwhile for you to apply. It’s always worthwhile to at least take the time to find out what the economic benefits and costs are—and this aims to inform a potential applicant about the payoff from their investment.


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by David Runsten, Policy Director, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, Richard Mines, Ph.D., and Sandra Nichols, Ph.D
February 2013

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This is a draft position paper discussing strategies for meeting the need for manually-skilled immigrants. It reviews the adequacy of existing and envisioned guestworker programs and proposes an alternative approach - the North American Visa Program (NAVA). NAVA program elements, requirements and benefits are discussed and contrasted with current proposals included as part of immigration reform and attempts by agricultural producers to stabilize their workforce.


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by Rachel Unruh and Amanda Bergson-Shilcock, National Skills Coalition
January 2015, funded in part by WKFamilyFund.

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The paper briefly discusses what is necessary to realize the economic and social benefits from immigration reform; and the need for policy makers to address the infrastructure and investments necessary to support job-driven training leading to middle-skill credentials - crucial skills which are in short supply in the U.S. (18 pages)
For more information on the National Skills Coalition, click here.


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by Ed Kissam & Jo Ann Intili
Describes the status of the Werner-Kohnstamm Family Fund, as of December 2014.

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Describes the status of the Werner-Kohnstamm Family Fund, as of December 2014 (1 page)


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by Ed Kissam & Jo Ann Intili
Description of a planning tool for crafting effective and efficient delivery strategies for implementing DACA and DAPA assistance.

Click here for a PowerPoint abstract of the tool, and how to use it.

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Description of a planning tool for crafting effective and efficient delivery strategies for implementing DACA and DAPA assistance. The planning tool - the "DAPA/DACA Service Difficulty Index" (D-SDI) –is meant as a contribution to help shift discussion from its current focus on average "cost per case" toward development of a broad menu of service models and business plans where more attention is given to who needs what level of service, and who might be left out if a single "cookie cutter" strategy is adopted.(24 pages), December 29, 2014.


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by Ed Kissam
This is a short report with the number of undocumented farmworkers in in the United States likely to be eligible for deferred action under the DACA and DAPA programs, December 12, 2014.

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This is a short report with the number of undocumented farmworkers in in the United States likely to be eligible for deferred action under the DACA and DAPA programs announced by President Obama on November 20, 2014 as part of his Executive Action to fix our broken immigration system. The report also provides a summary profile of methodology used for the analysis in an appendix. The report also includes an estimate of the state-by-state distribution of the DAPA and DACA eligible farmworkers.


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by Ed Kissam
Powerpoint Presentation to the 2014 Western Forum for Migrant and Community Health; Seattle, Washington, February 26, 2014.

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Presentation of analyses of impacts of the ACA on farmworkers access to affordable health care, based on recent regulatory developments as of February 15, 2014. (22 slides)


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This is the first of three reports on the lives of 12 immigrant households: mostly farmworker, mostly indigenous, families in Fresno County. It is based on 2 years of ethnographic research by CBDIO's field researchers, Anna Garcia and Jorge San Juan,(44 pages) September, 2013.

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This is the first of three reports on the lives of immigrant, mostly farmworker, mostly indigenous, families in Fresno County based on 2 years of ethnographic research by CBDIO's field researchers, Anna Garcia and Jorge San Juan. The report focuses on the ways in which current immigration laws affect families' lives and their prospects after immigration reform. Our hope has been that the finding from the study will deepen and broaden program planners' and policymakers' understanding of the real-world day-to-day lives of rural immigrants. Accompanying the report are Ed's comments on our rationale for supporting this research and several key implications. There is also a link to the Univision coverage of CBDIO's community meeting/press release.


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by Ed Kissam
These are Ed Kissam's comments on our rationale for supporting this research and several key implications for current policy delivered at a community meeting/press release, September, 2013, at Sierra Vista Clinic, Fresno California . On the panel also were Rick Mines and Hugo Morales. Also please see the link to the Univision coverage of CBDIO's community meeting/press release.

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This is the first of three reports on the lives of immigrant, mostly farmworker, mostly indigenous, families in Fresno County based on 2 years of ethnographic research by CBDIO's field researchers, Anna Garcia and Jorge San Juan. The report focuses on the ways in which current immigration laws affect families' lives and their prospects after immigration reform. Our hope has been that the finding from the study will deepen and broaden program planners' and policymakers' understanding of the real-world day-to-day lives of rural immigrants. Accompanying the report are Ed's comments on our rationale for supporting this research and several key implications.


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COMING
SOON
by Ed Kissam
Presentation by Ed Kissam to the 2013 Migrant Education National Forum of Migrant Recruiters, October 2013. PowerPoint

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This is a PowerPoint presentation by Ed to the 2013 Migrant Education national forum of migrant recruiters held in Tampa, FL Oct. 1-3, 2013. The presentation examines why Migrant Education programs should get involved in helping potential DACA applicants qualify and why the program is an excellent launching pad for migrant students' continuing education and career advancement. It includes summary information on the Central Valley DACA Collaborative's work and insights re "best practices".


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by Ed Kissam
Preliminary technical notes presented to Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR) to stimulate discussion of funding strategies, at a meeting in October, 2013.

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Not all immigrants will need assistance to legalize if immigration reform legislation is passed and implemented. However some sub-populations immigrants will need more assistance. This is a short technical note on a proposal to take service difficulty into account in allocating funding cost-effectively, given the daunting challenge of helping about 2.9 million currently undocumented immigrants in California achieve legal status.


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by Ed Kissam and JoAnn Intili, June 2, 2013

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This paper reviews the current situation of DREAMers pursuing health-related careers and discusses strategic approaches to assure that the benefits of positive changes in federal immigration policy accrue not simply to individuals, but also to communities and the fabric of American society at large. 6 pages.


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by Rick Mines and Ed Kissam, February 22, 2013
In English and Spanish on the New America Media website

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This commentary on the push by agribusiness to have Congress include a guest worker program as part of any comprehensive immigration reform bill, is based on analyses of 20 years of national survey data which provides the best empirical basis for understanding the extent to which farmworkers legalized in 1986 under IRCA remained in or left agriculture and, thus, for assessing the impact of current immigration reform on agriculture. 3 pages.


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by Edward Kissam
Published online in Proceedings of the Conference on Survey Methods for Hard-to-Reach Populations, American Statistical Association, December 2012

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This study of 2010 decennial census efforts to accurately enumerate rural immigrants is relevant to planning for a broad spectrum of social programs –because the American Community Survey (ACS), the source of detailed demographic and socioeconomic data on population and housing, relies on core survey methodology, management, and operational procedures similar to those utilized in the decennial census. This paper reports the results of a study of rural undercount in hard-to-enumerate census tracts in 10 California counties. 13 pages.


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by Ed Kissam, June 2012

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The federal government, recognizing language access as an important facet of civil rights, recently outlined its expectations of agencies receiving federal funds in a webinar co-hosted by the Migration Policy Institute and the U.S. Department of Justice (May 8, 2012).

Based on consultation with leading researchers and practicioners, this paper proposes a practical approach to develop and demonstrate "best practices" to achieve this objective in rural communities–a pilot project to prepare young Mexican and Guatemalan indigenous immigrants to move into careers as interpreters and translators. 7 pages.


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by Edward Kissam, 2012

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Making Good on the Promise: There are more than 300,000 out-of-school immigrant youth and young adults who are potentially eligible for DACA (President Obama's program of immigration relief for unauthorized immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children). This paper explores the problems they face in accessing the adult learning classes they need to enroll in so as to qualify and argues that it will be strategically important to work community-wide, particularly in rural areas with concentrations of farmworkers, to build adult education service capacity which contracted by more than 50% during the 2008-2011 recession. 14 pages.

See also the commentary published in EdSource : Transforming 'deferred action' for young immigrants into true opportunities: http://www.edsource.org/today/2013/transforming-deferred-action-for-young-immigrants-into-true-opportunities/26694#.UcCLStfn85s


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by Edward Kissam and David Griffith, August 1, 2006
Aguirre Division, JBS International 555 Airport Blvd. - Suite 400, Burlingame, CA 94010

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The "New Pluralism" project, initiated in 2001 immediately after the traumatic events of 9/11, looked at the ways immigration is transforming rural communities throughout the United States. This summary report describes what immigrants' experiences settling in the U.S. have been and how communities have responded to the challenges of social, cultural, and civic transformation. This multi-year research in 6 communities across the US contributes to overall understanding of rural community development, immigrant integration policy and highlights effective practices. 22 pages.