A report prepared for the Family and Community Vitality Focus Area of the Innovation in University-Community Research Collaboration Grants by:

The debate over immigration is one of the most politically charged policy issues in the United States (US). Given the charged nature of this topic, it is vitally important to have reliable data on not only the number of US foreign nationals but also the characteristics of this extremely heterogeneous group—a population comprised not only of immigrants but also refugees. There exist a small number of data sources for informing policy and practice at the national level. However, such data are often lacking for smaller geographic areas. The present report describes a recent effort to generate serviceable data on the immigrant and refugee population for a medium-sized metropolitan area: Lansing, Michigan. The authors requested funds from the Family and Community Vitality Focus Area of the Innovation in University-Community Research Collaboration Grants (FACT) Program to support a project intended to acquire the best possible estimates of refugee and immigrant populations in the Lansing area. The goals of this research were two-fold. First, our goal was to provide th