As the suburban immigrant population continues to rapidly expand, municipal leaders are facing tougher challenges regarding the integration and assimilation of their foreign-born citizens.

“The demographics of the region are shifting,” said Sylvia Puente, director of the Center for Metropolitan Chicago Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies. “This is something that many communities are in the process of transitioning and adapting to.”

According to a 2005 research brief on Illinois immigrants conducted by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the Illinois immigrant population rose by 177,000 people from 2000 to 2005. In contrast, the immigrant population of Chicago dropped 5 percent, meaning almost all of that growth occurred in the suburbs.

The brief also shows that Illinois’ immigrant population is growing by 35,300 persons annually with immigrants and their children representing 26 percent of the population. That number jumps to 33 percent in the suburban Chicago area.

As of 2005, the immigrant population in suburban cities was 984,000, compared to only 590,000 in Chicago. Between 2000 and 2005 many counties experienced a substantial increase in the number of naturalized citizens, including DuPage County with an increase of 30,000 immigrant citizens (49 percent increase) and Lake County with an increase of 20,000 immigrant citizens (56 percent).

In light of this considerable rise in suburban immigrant population, the Metropolitan Mayors’ Caucus held a series of roundtable discussions on Latino integration last November. Out of those talks came a comprehensive report, co-written by Puente, titled “Forging the Tools for Unity.”

“What we did with this publication is, given all of the conversation that is happening nationally around immigration and federal immigration policy, we were able to say, irrespective of what happens at the federal level, these are people who are living in your communities,” said Puente.

“These were really unprecedented, proactive conversations that I think have really planted seeds and given a point of reference on how municipalities can think about immigrant integration.”

The report focused on the three major issues—housing, education and social services—facing Latino communities, the largest immigrant group in Illinois.

Latinos are responsible for 50 percent of the total increase in owner-occupied homes in the Chicago metropolitan region, the report states, yet many still face serious affordability and overcrowding issues.

“One of the problems are absentee landlords,” said Larry Hartwig, mayor of Addison and an attendee at the roundtable discussions. “(Landlords) oftentimes take advantage of the immigrant who doesn’t know any better and give them second-class accommodations at first-class prices.”

Issues in education involve language acquisition and proficiency as well as encouraging parental involvement.

“In the report we wrote about the great example of what the Addison high school district is doing in setting up a Saturday parenting education program for many parents in the community,” said Puente.

Hartwig echoed Puente’s belief in parental involvement.

“One of the problems is the difference in achievements between the Hispanic kids and Anglo kids,” he said. “In cooperation with our school districts, we’re doing things to help the parents understand our education system better so that they can be in a position to encourage their children to achieve higher standards, to set higher goals for themselves.

“We’re working very hard at that.”

On the social services level comes the need for models of service provision that will facilitate immigrant incorporation in the region, the report stated.

“The Schaumburg Business Association and the Village of Schaumburg have been proactive in trying to understand the needs of the immigrant population,” said Laurie Stone, president of the Schaumburg Business Association (SBA).

“To begin that process we received a grant from the Chicago Community Trust to study the needs of the South Asian immigrant population in Schaumburg.”

Currently, South Asians are the largest immigrant group in Schaumburg. The SBA has formed an advisory committee comprised of first and second generation immigrants from various regions of India and Pakistan in order to identify the barriers they face in fully participating in community life, said Stone.

The research will be gathered using a questionnaire that will be distributed to members of the community both on and offline. By April, the SBA will begin gathering the preliminary findings.

“What we understand so far is that there are some real cultural differences that people need to become aware of,” Stone said. “The whole focus of our work is to try and make the process of assimilation easier.”

She said the SBA plans to issue a reference publication with phone numbers, Web sites and other key information for newcomers to area communities.

“If we can come up with a good plan for this particular group of individuals through a resource guide and through better understanding, we’ll be able to replicate the plan with a group from any nation or any part of the globe,” Stone said.

Addison has also taken a proactive approach to the social services needs of its immigrant community.

“We opened up a resource center,” Hartwig said. “We’re encouraging people to come into the center, which is in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood. Through the resource center we are offering things like English as a second language and parenting classes.

“We felt that by putting something in their neighborhood and staffing it and having programs for them, they will feel much more comfortable. They are really taking advantage of it.”

In addition, the Addison school district recently received a state grant for a multi-language computer kiosk that will be available in the resource center, said Hartwig.

“The kiosk is where people can get a quick overview of what they need relative to schools, relative to housing in the community and expectation of the community,” the mayor explained. “We’re trying to do anything we can up front to help educate them on what it is to live in Addison so that they can become integrated into the community as quickly as possible.”

As the roundtable report states, immigrant integration is a two-way process between the immigrants and the receiving community. As such, immigrant leaders must step to the forefront and become spokespersons for their community.

“We are trying to identify more Hispanic leaders,” said Hartwig, “people that are willing to step up, that I can appoint to commissions and different positions so that they become more visible as active leaders in the community.”

Puente said that developing leaders, whether South Asian, Latino or of any other ethnicity, is critical for the assimilation process to be accepted and, ultimately, successful.

“There’s definitely the need to cultivate and identify the leadership within a lot of these municipalities in order to create more formal ways of getting everyday residents to feel that the municipality is theirs as well,” Puente said.