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Immigrant and Refugee Rights Program

Migration is a central component of the human experience. Throughout history, people have moved within regions and countries and across continents and international borders in response to such things as economic changes, war and violence, and environmental destruction.

Most of these situations are the result of oppression and hardship, and responding to them has been part of the AFSC's history since its beginnings in 1917. Therefore, the Immigrant and Refugee Issues Program and Concentration Network are steeped in the AFSC's long history of "welcoming the stranger" and working with marginalized communities.

This goes back to the AFSC's earliest work with immigrants, refugees, and displaced people during the relief and reconstruction efforts during and after the two world wars. Since then, the AFSC has responded to such needs in as many different ways as there are faces of oppression, continually looking for the underlying causes, addressing them, and raising them to public attention.

In 1994 the AFSC took a more comprehensive approach by establishing a team to work on immigration issues. As this work took shape, it evolved into the Immigrant and Refugee Issues Program, focusing on Latino immigration into the United States. Local programs now are beginning to work on a small scale with other immigrant communities, such as Southeast Asian, African, and Eastern Europeans.

AFSC's regional programs are located in many different parts of the United States, arising from individual circumstances and separated by many miles. Therefore, the Immigration/ Migration Network was launched in 1997 for sharing information on immigration issues between programs and developing a common analysis and strategies for effective outreach.

Collaborative efforts of the Network have focused on two projects:

(1) An Immigrant Rights video for educational and community organizing, and

(2) Project Voice, which will establish a national immigrant-led organization to bring the voices of immigrants directly to the policy debate.

Migrants of all origins have many things in common, such as trying to survive and being the targets of violence, hatred, and economic exploitation. The Issues Program and the Network will strengthen and link AFSC's domestic and international immigration work. This collaboration takes a broader view toward migration as a global phenomenon, relating AFSC's substantial overseas experience with refugees and immigration to the situation in the United States.

Migrants in all parts of the world often go unheard and unseen by government and community groups. However, as marginalized people they are among those with whom the AFSC develops strong partnerships to effect change, raise public awareness, and make the world a more humane place to live.

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