Graduation Term
2024
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Department of Sociology and Anthropology: Sociology
Committee Chair
Michael L Dougherty
Abstract
The election and subsequent immigration policies of the Trump Administration 2016-2020 had implications for how local governments and communities responded to immigration legislation proposing tighter control of immigration enforcement in the interior United States. Executive Order 13768 authorized the hiring and training of an additional 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to enforce immigration policy in the interior. Among many other responses of local governments to federal immigration policies, a Georgia-based, Tennessee-founded national non-profit, Welcoming America, offers communities and local governments certification as official welcoming cities based on standardized criteria. Since 2017, Welcoming America has recognized local governments and communities that have taken steps to become compliant with its frameworks and criteria as immigrant inclusive. In 2022, Welcoming America introduced a new system of certifying welcoming places that widened the requirements of welcoming cities through a starred or tiered system. Champaign, Illinois, was one of three communities nationwide to pilot the second standard of Welcoming America in 2022. With eighteen certified welcoming places in 2022, Welcoming America had the outlook of certifying fifty localities, or thirty-two more, by 2026 via the new standard. Perhaps more cities in Illinois will be persuaded by a welcoming certification in the future.The case of Welcoming America presents an opportunity to apply the theories of private governance, systemic change, and place commodification. Welcoming America is a non-profit third-party organization of local governments and community organizations with the goal of immigrant inclusion. Most literature on private governance and systemic change deals with agricultural products, while the most recent and relevant place commodification literature focuses on tourism. Focusing on Welcoming America, where "the products" are immigrant inclusion and the community, diversifies the analyses of private governance, systemic change, and place commodification. Bloomington-Normal in McLean County, Illinois, and Urbana-Champaign in Champaign County, Illinois, were ideal cases to compare through the lens of Welcoming America. Despite having commonalities such as geographic proximity to each other, both being home rule municipalities in their respective regions and twin cities, just fifty miles away from each other in the “Downstate” region of Illinois, the question remains: What differences led to divergent outcomes through the processes of Welcoming America? In 2022, Champaign was certified by Welcoming America as the first and only welcoming city in Illinois. What began as an interfaith, interdisciplinary social movement concerned with unlawful arrests of citizens based solely on immigration status lacked follow-through from local government and the community in the context of Bloomington-Normal and McLean County. To contrast the situations and outcomes of Champaign with Bloomington, I employed a mixed qualitative method: document analysis, observation, and semi-structured interviews with participants from four population categories and three geographical locations. In this thesis, five characteristics Champaign and other welcoming cities possess that allowed them to work effectively with Welcoming America: organizational density, communication network, horizontal structures, networking for competitive advantage, and interagency collaboration. On the other hand, I propose five traits contributing to the lack of success certifying in Bloomington: organizational diffusion, individualization, lack of a communication network, working in isolation, and cultural separation, with the goal of a best-practices document for future leaders and officials of welcoming cities. I introduce nine community-organizing and community-building prescriptions for leaders, officials, and advocates in Bloomington and beyond to maximize assets and participation in the community in support of the frameworks of Welcoming America.
Access Type
Thesis-Open Access
Recommended Citation
Murphy-Pociask, Ian, "Clarifying the Welcoming Certification Process; Contrasting Two Central Illinois Communities" (2024). Theses and Dissertations. 2051.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/2051
DOI
https://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2024.20250211063116032624.999997
