FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Julian Teixeira
(202) 776-1812
jteixeira@nclr.org
High application fees a major barrier to citizenship, especially for unbanked immigrants
WASHINGTON, D.C.—NCLR (National Council of La Raza) released a report today that addresses financial barriers to U.S. citizenship and highlights innovative loan programs that help eligible immigrants pay costly citizenship application fees, establish credit histories, and develop relationships with mainstream financial institutions. The white paper, “Affording Citizenship and Securing a Sound Financial Future,” describes how naturalization has become unaffordable for many immigrants, who often lack access to credit that could put the American Dream of U.S. citizenship in reach.
The cost of naturalization application fees increased 610 percent between 1998 and 2008, with the number of applicants for U.S. citizenship declining sharply after the most recent increase, from 1.4 million in 2007 to 526,000 in 2008. Immigration advocates estimate that an average immigrant earning the federal minimum wage would have to save eight weeks of full-time earnings to pay the citizenship fees for a family of four.
“With so much anti-immigrant sentiment in our nation, what better solution is there than to help legal permanent residents become citizens? Citizenship opens doors socially, civically and economically to the American Dream, but unfortunately, the application costs to naturalize have risen beyond the reach of most immigrant families,” said Janis Bowdler, Director of the Wealth-Building Policy Project at NCLR. “With fewer people affording citizenship, we are losing the ability to integrate these immigrants into American life and shutting them out of opportunities as well as the more secure financial future that citizenship offers.”
As further evidence of the need for affordable solutions, the report includes early findings from a new NCLR survey of 1,000 Latinos in California that examines how the community meets their daily and long-term financial needs. More than half of eligible noncitizens told NCLR that unaffordability was a primary reason for not pursuing naturalization. In addition, noncitizens represented the majority of the unbanked; 60 percent said they did not have a basic bank account, findings that are in line with the national profile of non-U.S. citizens. The report cites research showing that those who live outside of the mainstream banking system spend as much as $1,000 annually on financial transaction services such as check cashing and bill pay services.
To bring U.S. citizenship within closer reach, the report highlights promising models in the field, including the New American Loan Fund, a project of NCLR Affiliate CASA de Maryland, which offers a microloan that covers the cost of the naturalization application. Through the first nine months of the program, 100 percent of the loans made have on-time repayment. “Affording Citizenship and Securing a Sound Financial Future” also includes recommendations for scaling solutions to make citizenship affordable and help millions of future citizens enter the financial mainstream.
In an accompanying webinar, NCLR featured three community organizations—CASA de Maryland, the Latino Community Credit Union in North Carolina and Mission Asset Fund in California—that run model programs on how to build financial success for immigrant youth and adults. These innovative programs provide social and microloans to immigrants who may typically be unable to access credit, report loan repayments to credit bureaus to help applicants build a credit history, and put immigrants on a path toward a more sound financial future.
“With 8.5 million immigrants eligible for U.S. citizenship, there is an enormous demand for financial information and innovative tools that help them build savings, avoid excessive debt and afford the cost of naturalization. We urge financial institutions to find ways to work with community organizations to improve access to financial products and services that serve low-income families and allow permanent resident immigrants to achieve the American Dream and become citizens,” said Bowdler.
NCLR—the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States—works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans. For more information on NCLR, please visit www.nclr.org or follow along on Facebook and Twitter.
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