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© 2009 Wi ley Per iodicals , Inc .Publ ished onl ine in Wi ley InterScience (www.interscience.wi ley.com)Nat ional Civ ic Review • DOI : 10.1002/ncr.235 • Spr ing 2009

A funny thing happened as I was sitting down to write theNote from the Editor to this special issue of the National CivicReview on diversity, social capital, and immigrant integration.A colleague e-mailed me a January 26, 2009, article in News-week about Lewiston, Maine, a winner of the All-America CityAward in 2004. The article is entitled, “The Refugees ThatSaved Lewiston.”

The author, Jesse Ellison, begins by describing how Lewiston,once a “bustling mill town,” had been shrinking since the1970s. Jobs had vanished, the population was aging, and thedowntown area was falling into disrepair.

“That was before a family of Somali refugees discoveredLewiston in 2001 and began spreading the word to immigrantfriends and relatives that housing was cheap and it looked likea good place to build new lives and raise children in peace.Since then the place has been transformed. Per capita incomehas soared, and crime rates have dropped.”

There’s a great quote from Chip Morrison, president of thelocal chamber of commerce. “No one could have dreamedthis,” he says. “Not even me, and I’m an optimist.”

From a cursory reading of this article, it might seem as if everyfading mill town should go out and recruit some East Africanrefugees, but of course, it’s not that easy. Lewiston won theAll-America City Award in part because of its innovative part-nership with the City of Portland, Catholic Charities, and theState of Maine to deal with what was initially considered a bigproblem: an entirely unexpected influx of Somalis.

Immigrant integration efforts are springing up all over the coun-try, as towns, cities, states, and regions that were mostlybypassed by earlier waves of immigration are finding themselvespart of our new gateways. Recently, the National Center onImmigrant Integration Policy instituted an “E Pluribus UnumAward” for some of these exceptional initiatives. For at leastthree years, the program will give out four awards annually.

The award program, says Margie McHugh, co-director of thecenter, is the result of years of conversation among leaders inthe field on the new need to recognize the work that is hap-

pening out in states and localities “so the people who aredoing great work would be able to find one another and getboth inspiration and program models of initiatives around thecountry.”

“We recognize,” she adds, “that it’s not easy to take an ini-tiative that’s working in one place and simply drop it intoanother, but we think there is real value in having people learnabout work that is under way. I think a lot of people who areworking on these issues at the local level often feel isolatedand are doing this work against great odds.”

Another benefit to increasing awareness of these initiatives,notes McHugh, is to correct the public perception that inte-gration isn’t happening with the current generation of im-migrants.“In fact,” she says, “all of the data indicate that thisgeneration of immigrants, and particularly their children,appear to be integrating, for example, learning English, atmuch higher and faster rates than past generations. We alsowanted to raise the visibility of this work and its outcomes tobetter inform the public.”

We hope the articles in this issue of the Review will similarlyadd to the store of public knowledge and inspiration aboutwhat is going on in the field of immigrant integration, stimu-late conversation and lead to more articles on this subject infuture issues.

I would like to thank the Carnegie Corporation of New Yorkand The Colorado Trust for their support in planning and pro-ducing this special issue of the National Civic Review.

I would also like to thank Robert Putnam for his introductionto the issue and Lori Villarosa of the Philanthropic Initiativefor Racial Equity, john powell of the Kirwan Institute, JoeWismann-Horther of the Spring Institute for InterculturalLearning, Lisa Thakkar of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrantand Refugee Rights, and Daranee Petsod of GrantmakersConcerned with Immigrants and Refugees for their insightsand advice.

Michael McGrathEditor

Note from the Editor