Re-Imagining Migration’s mission is to advance the education and well-being of immigrant-origin youth, decrease bias and hatred against young people of diverse origins, and help rising generations develop the critical understanding and empathy necessary to build and sustain welcoming and inclusive communities. We achieve this by enriching our understanding of human migration, leveraging educators as pivotal agents of change, and empowering young people as civic agents.

Established in partnership with leading scholars at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Harvard’s Project Zero, we have since evolved to become an independent 501c3 in 2020.  Our research exposed the issues that immigrant origin children face and led to the creation of a systems change framework focused on eradicating educational barriers foundational to our work. Our vision is to eliminate the educational inequities faced by immigrant-origin youth and prepare all youth to support and sustain a just and equitable society.

Through our lens of migration, we seek to make systemic, universal, and sustainable change to uplift immigrant-origin youth, decrease bias, and promote equity and inclusion.  We believe that migration—the shared experience of humans across time and space—is a powerful topic to carry this message.  Teaching about the similarities and differences in these experiences prepares learners to recognize and respond to inequities.

Why does this matter now?

The values of inclusion, belonging, welcoming, and true integration are not simply aspirational ideals, they are essential dispositions for a world in which working with and living with people whose ideas, experiences, cultures, and accents are increasingly likely to be different from our own will be the norm.

We are in a very dangerous moment, nearly 70% of majority white schools report anti-immigrant harassment and yet only 36% of those same schools communicate to their students and faculty about the need to be tolerant and respectful toward immigrants.

Immigrant origin youth are one of the fastest growing sectors of the US population accounting for 23% of children and 33% of young adults. Eighty-five percent are people of color. While the children of immigrants arrive in classrooms eager to learn, their positive attitudes are undermined by social hostility, divisive rhetoric, and anti-immigrant bigotry. While some manage to flourish, many more struggle as they move through the educational pipeline.

Educators are struggling too. The vast majority of school faculty have never received training on how to best serve immigrant origin students, build bridges between students, teach about human migration, create culturally supportive classrooms, or manage difficult conversations about immigration.

When educators are unprepared to support immigrant students, they disengage. We can help. Learn how.