Community-Based Organisations and Migration in New York City

This article shows how immigrant Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) play a central role during all parts of the immigration process and in the social, cultural, political and economic adaptation and incorporation of immigrants. It is based on interviews, and a survey with immigrant organisations in New York City. I argue that CBOs play a key role in: a) assisting individuals and families in the reunification process by providing advice and legal help to enter the country, change their immigration status, or sponsor relatives to come to the United States; b) providing an array of social services and community programmes that are designed to assist in the socio-economic adaptation and incorporation of immigrants into US society; c) serving as an advocate for their ethnic groups by articulating the social-service needs and representing the concerns of their group in metropolitan-level political and policy processes and, also, by managing the flow of resources from the metropolitan to the community level; and, lastly, d) serving as a liaison between immigrant communities in the US and their country of origin and between the countries of origin and immigrant and other communities and constituencies inside the US.