Racial Equity Impact Analysis (REIA)

The Racial Equity Impact Analysis helps the City consider racial equity outcomes when shaping policies, practices, programs and budgets.

Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs update - REIA

Section 1: Background

Does this impact one of the City's Goal Areas

Policy Goals

Operational Goals

Public Safety	Yes
Housing	No
Economic Development	No
Public Services	No
Environmental Justice	No
Built Environment & Transportation	No
Public Health	Yes
Arts & Culture	No

Workforce	No
Spending	Yes
Data	Yes
Community Engagement	Yes

Describe the impact on selected goal areas.

One of the City of Minneapolis 2040 goals is to “see all communities fully thrive regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, country of origin, religion or zip code, having eliminated deep rooted disparities in wealth, opportunity, housing, safety and health.” The purpose of this presentation to Council is to highlight select immigration developments, identify progress to date on analysis of current work and opportunities touching the immigrant and refugee community in Minneapolis, and highlight the support of immigrant and refugee inclusion through the City’s partnership with nonprofit providers offering free immigration legal services to the City’s residents.

Who participated in completing this analysis?

This analysis was conducted in consultation with selected staff within the Neighborhood and Community Relations Department. Consultations informing the presentation itself were held with staff with the four immigration legal service organizations which are participating in the presentation: Advocates for Human Rights, Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, Mid Minnesota Legal Aid and Volunteer Lawyers Network. Additional individuals providing insight relevant to the presentation include staff from the State of Minnesota Department of Human Services and Black Immigrant Collective.

Section 2: Data

LIST THE SPECIFIC GEOGRAPHIES THAT WILL BE IMPACTED AND THE RACIAL DEMOGRAPHICS OF CONSTITUENTS IN THOSE AREAS:

Immigration policy, analysis of the City’s efforts relating to immigrant and refugee communities and reporting on the City’s support of immigration legal service and the work of the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs impacts the entire geographic area of Minneapolis as well as the City’s population of immigrant and refugee residents, loved ones, neighbors and friends.

The estimated total population of the City of Minneapolis is 429,954 people. According to the 2019 American Community Survey, the racial demographics of Minneapolis are as follows:
- White: 63.8%
- Black or African American: 19.4%
- American Indian and Alaskan Native: 1.4%
- Asian: 6.1%
- Two or more races: 4.6%
- Hispanic or Latino: 9.6%
Source: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/minneapoliscityminnesota

The estimated population of Minneapolis born outside of the United States is approximately 63,300 which is 14% of the population of the City. This population includes approximately 15,000 residents who do not hold secure immigration status and approximately 10,000 residents who are eligible to obtain US citizenship through naturalization, but have not yet taken the steps to become US citizens. Source: https://research.newamericaneconomy.org/report/new-americans-in-minneapolis-2/

What does available data tell you about how constituents from BIPOC communities currently relate to the desired outcome as compared to white constituents?

A desired outcome of the City’s work relating to immigrant and refugee populations is that our immigrant and refugee resident community is immigration secure (no longer at risk of deportation) and able to participate in our democracy and city life.

The benefits of acquisition of US citizenship include increase in income as naturalized US citizens experience increase in income within 5 years of acquisition of US Citizenship. Sources: https://www.newamericanscampaign.org/top-6-benefits-of-citizenship/

What data is unavailable or missing? How can you obtain additional data?

At this time, while some disaggregated data on the nationalities and ethnicities represented in the City of Minneapolis can be found, it is not readily available. Additional disaggregation challenges result from the broad categories implemented in the Census, which can make it hard to discern between communities which are grouped in the same category but who may have vastly different life experiences, for example the Census category African-American/Black, which does not distinguish between individuals who were born and have roots in the United States and people who were born in Africa and who subsequently made their home in Minneapolis. Source: https://mn.gov/admin/assets/the-economic-status-of-minnesotans-chartbook-msdc-jan2016-post_tcm36-219454.pdf

The Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) also does not have reliable data relating to the transgender, queer and gender non-conforming identities within the immigrant, refugee and new American Community within the City of Minneapolis.

Section 3: Community Engagement

Using the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) Public Participation Spectrum, which participation strategy(s) was used when engaging those who would be most impacted?

Inform	Yes
Consult	Yes
Involve	Yes
Collaborate	Yes
Empower	No

Describe the Engagement and what have you learned?

In addition to collaborating closely with the service providers presenting today, the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs has held approximately 15 one on one conversations and has also co-facilitated 2 virtual meetings (approx. 20 individuals in attendance per meeting), in August and September to elicit insight on the topic of immigrant and refugee inclusion strategies. The participants represented a variety of immigrant advocacy organizations, from community-based organizations, to nonprofit immigration legal service organizations to multijurisdictional partners focused on engagement with immigrant, refugee and new American communities.

This engagement with representatives from multiple cultural communities including East African, Hmong, Latino/a/x, and South Asian has clearly shown that communities have a desire and need for greater access to information, including information about resources that exist to address challenges created by the COVID pandemic. The engagement has also shown that areas of concern for immigrant and refugee residents include: secure housing, culturally informed health care, mental health and chemical health care, food insecurity and the need for culturally appropriate food, financial instability, digital literacy, and public safety.

Section 4: Analysis

How does the outcome for this ordinance, amendment, or policy help the city achieve Racial Equity?

The outcome of this presentation is that the City and its residents will have concrete information regarding 1) the impact of the City’s support of access to immigration legal services through partnerships with nonprofit immigration legal service organizations and 2) the City’s progress on conducting a comprehensive review of work touching immigrant and refugee residents and identifying recommendations to strengthen the relationship between immigrant and refugee residents and the City to ensure that our immigrant and refugee community feel a sense of belonging in the City of Minneapolis.

Section 5: Evaluation

How will impacts be measured? What are the success indicators and process benchmarks?

The immigration legal service providers with which the City contracts submit an annual report documenting the impact of their work. Additionally, the partnership between the Minneapolis Regional Chamber and the City of Minneapolis in the Gateways for Growth initiative to develop immigrant and refugee inclusion strategies, referenced in today’s presentation, will contain goals, strategies, and metrics in alignment with the City’s SREAP and Comprehensive Plan goals, which will assist in assessing progress and success.

How will those who are impacted be informed of progress over time?

The Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs is housed within the Department of Neighborhood and Community Relations (NCR), which has a robust engagement system that uses both structured and unstructured engagement practices to ensure stakeholders and impacted residents are informed regarding immigration developments and opportunities.

Since its inception in July 2018, OIRA has used various communication tools to keep all Minneapolis residents informed. These tools have included the OIRA newsletter, NCR newsletter, email communication specifically to immigrant advocacy supporters and organizations, the OIRA website, City Council newsletters, in-person/virtual meetings, City social media, radio programs, outreach to community partners and one-on-one conversations. Since March 2021, OIRA, in conjunction with the St. Paul Immigrant and Refugee Affairs program, has held a biweekly immigration forum to ensure community is aware of immigration developments and additional updates. OIRA will continue to use these outlets.

The Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs also uses the OIRA website (http://www2.minneapolismn.gov/ncr/oira/) to share information of importance to our immigrant and refugee community, and will continue to update the website to reflect progress relating to the initiatives addressed during today’s presentation. OIRA also reports periodically to City Council on immigration developments, and information regarding OIRA activities are included in NCR’s Results Minneapolis report to Council.

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