Strangers in a strange land: Migrants and disasters in the U.S. Webinar

More than 45 million people living in the United States were born outside its borders. In fact, the U.S. has a higher number of immigrants than any other country. In 2020, due to closed borders and other COVID-19 restrictions, slightly more than 400,000 people crossed a U.S. border to claim asylum. In the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years, that number exceeded 2 million people, many of them unaccompanied minors or families.

In our $1 trillion food and agricultural industry, 73% of workers are immigrants, and about 4% are undocumented migrants. The number of undocumented workers rises to between 50% and 75% in California.

During this webinar, panelists explored issues connected to migrants and disasters. Why do people leave their original country to come to the U.S.? Is there a need for a climate refugee status for asylum seekers? What happens when migrants arrive in the U.S.? What happens to migrant workers during and after disasters?

At the end of the webinar, grantmakers will:

Improve their understanding of the refugee, migrant and asylum seeker pipeline.

Increase awareness of funding opportunities in sending and receiving communities.

Learn how disasters differentially impact migrant workers.

While primarily aimed at funders, it may also interest emergency managers, government staff, academics, disaster responders and nongovernmental organization staff interested in or working on disasters and other crises.

CDP Vice President of Strategy, Innovation and Special Projects Nicole Behnam moderated the discussion.

Panelists:
Eliza Brennan, Senior Program Officer for Education and Migration, International Community Foundation
Cynthia Hernandez, National Training Director, Resilience Force
Zenobia Lai, Executive Director, Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative

This webinar was co-sponsored by Alliance Magazine, Council on Foundations, Giving Compass, United Philanthropy Forum, Philanthropy New York, Hispanics in Philanthropys and National VOAD.

Photo: Strawberry picking in California. Field workers in California are almost exclusively immigrants who work at back-breaking labor to support themselves and their families. Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash