Celebrating 2 Years of Cities for Citizenship

About two years ago, Bob Annibale, Global Director of Citi Community Development, and I met with Nisha Agarwal, Commissioner of the New York City Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, to discuss an innovative idea to advance financial inclusion in America's cities: Cities for Citizenship.

At the time, we were collaborating on a New York-focused program that connected eligible immigrants to naturalization resources through their public-school aged children. But we wanted to think even more broadly, because the stakes across the country are high.

There are almost 9 million immigrants eligible to naturalize today, more than half of whom are living on low incomes. But due to financial, legal and language barriers, they have not become citizens. Their situation is limiting economic opportunities not just for them but for their families and the cities where they live. Foreign-born residents who naturalize see up to an eleven percent boost in personal incomes due to access to better jobs, social benefits and educational opportunities. Naturalized citizens are also over four times more likely to have a bank account than non-citizens, providing them with financial security and the ability to more fully participate in the economy. The U.S. is missing out on billions of dollars in tax revenues and earnings due to this naturalization gap. For example, if all eligible immigrants naturalized in Los Angeles, tax revenues would increase by $364 million dollars.

That's why Citi is proud to celebrate the second anniversary of Cities for Citizenship ahead of Citizenship Day on September 17.

As the founding corporate partner, in collaboration with Center for Popular Democracy and National Partnership for New Americans, Citi has worked with municipalities and nonprofit organizations across the country to expand naturalization and financial capability programs and to provide access to legal assistance, microloans and financial counseling for foreign-born residents.

The results have been impressive.

What began as a campaign spearheaded by three mayors – Bill de Blasio of New York City, Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, and Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles – has grown into a bipartisan effort supported by nearly 30 city and county leaders across the country.

More than 10,000 eligible immigrants are now on track to becoming American citizens, while more than 65,000 have been connected to naturalization resources and more than 5,000 have attended financial empowerment classes. Outreach has been conducted in more than 15 different languages, including Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, Creole, Farsi, French, Ilocano, Khmer, Korean, Laotian, Mandingo, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Twi, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

Citizenship is an economic asset – for our cities, its residents, and businesses.

We all come from somewhere. As a daughter of an immigrant, I'm proud to work for a company that brings resources to enable immigrants to build financial identities, and I feel privileged to do this work in memory of my family, and yours.