The USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration just released a new report titled What's at Stake for the State: Undocumented Californians, Immigration Reform and Our Future Together. Funded in part by the Irvine Foundation, the report calculates the potential economic gains to California overall and in specific regions through national immigration reform. The researchers provide as a conservative estimate that the state’s economy could grow by $4.5 billion annually once undocumented residents have access to the greater educational and economic opportunities afforded by authorization and citizenship. The report authors call for California to plan ahead and to learn from existing regional cross-sector collaborations for effective integration of all residents into our society. One of the report authors, Dr. Manuel Pastor, made the case for reform in a compelling op-ed column in the Sacramento Bee. Here is the beginning of Dr. Pastor’s column:

On January 23rd in Sacramento, the Future of California Elections (FOCE) hosted its first public event. FOCE initially formed in late 2011 with help and support from the James Irvine Foundation and is now setting up shop as an independent entity. This meeting was our opportunity to introduce FOCE and its work to the state’s policy community.

As someone who has been helping facilitate the group since its formation in late 2011, and who will be directing FOCE’s efforts going forward, I was both excited and nervous about the event.

I was excited because I believe in the motivation behind the project: identify leaders and practitioners who understand the challenges facing the state’s election system and then help find common ground for policies that will increase participation without sacrificing efficiency or effectiveness. But I was nervous because FOCE was getting ready to expand the conversation beyond its two dozen or so founding members to include policymakers and other advocates from across the state.

Next week I’ll be joining policymakers, elections officials and voter advocates in Sacramento for the first-ever Future of California Elections conference. The event, organized by California Common Cause, will spotlight the collaborative efforts of election administrators, civil rights groups and reform advocates over the last year and a half to expand voter participation and improve the effectiveness of elections in the Golden State.

Working together in 2012, the members of the Future of California Elections successfully advanced same-day voter registration, strengthened the National Voter Registration Act, helped implement online voter registration and improved the state voter guide. Originally brought together by Irvine, the group recently became an independent project to support ongoing collaboration in coming years.

At the January 23 conference, the group will discuss with policymakers and the public opportunities to further improve California elections. Learn more about the conference here, including the full agenda and details about how to register.

The Milken Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank based in Los Angeles, is known for its annual conferences about California. Every year, the institute has brought together influential leaders to examine the range of opportunities and challenges facing the state. Irvine was a sponsor of this year’s conference.

At the all-day event held earlier this month, after sessions on a range of issues – including education, energy and the state’s finances – the focus of the conference turned to leadership. In a panel discussion moderated by Irvine President and CEO Jim Canales, several California leaders from the business, nonprofit and educational sectors offered their thoughts about what inspires them about California today and how leaders can build and shape investments in its future.

Between 2000 and 2010, the Asian American population grew faster than any other racial group in California, increasing by nearly one third to comprise 13 percent of the state’s population. Yet public surveys often do not distinguish the views of this fast-growing population. As Irvine’s California Democracy program is dedicated to advancing public policies that reflect well the preferences of all Californians, understanding the perspectives of different communities is an important component.

Earlier this year, the National Asian American Survey probed the policy priorities and issue preferences of Asian Americans nationally. With support from Irvine, researchers at the University of California at Riverside and UC Berkeley probed further into the policy priorities and preferences of Asian Americans in California. Their report, released earlier this month, highlights interesting findings about how California’s Asian American population views the economy, health care reform, affirmative action, immigration policies and other issues.

Read the report, "The 2012 General Election: Public Opinion of Asian Americans in California".

Visit the National Asian American Survey website.

As we gather this week to see fireworks and enjoy picnics, we also might pause to reflect on what it means to celebrate the Fourth of July in California. In many ways, our state epitomizes the vision of America: a land of immigrants, a place of opportunity, an openness to change and innovation. While the state of California possesses the diversity — in people, landscapes and economies — of a large country, we’re also a place with residents who share many of the same aspirations and values.

A recent series of reports, Looking Forward, from USC’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII) and the California Immigrant Policy Center provide an interesting snapshot of California’s population. I was struck by two facts in particular: 48% of California’s children have at least one immigrant parent and 43% of Californians speak a language other than English at home. It’s also notable that immigrants comprise more than one-third of California’s labor force (34%), they are more likely to be employed than non-immigrants, and they are more likely to create their own jobs through self-employment than native born workers.

On a related topic, CSII’s new report on young adult immigrants engaged in civic organizations reveals that they share the educational and employment aspirations of other young Californians, while expressing greater optimism about their own potential to “make a difference in the broader society” through their civic involvement.

As we celebrate where we live this month, it seems our trademark optimism and entrepreneurial spirit not only endure, but also regenerate.

Social justice organizing is a complex undertaking every step of the way. And as we look back at victories, figuring out which factors contributed to success can be difficult. So, I and many others welcomed the clear, succinct and compelling account of two decades of organizing in Los Angeles after the 1992 civil unrest recently published by the University of Southern California Program for Environmental & Regional Equity and Liberty Hill Foundation.

Their report, “L.A. Rising: The 1992 Civic Unrest, the Arc of Social Justice Organizing, and the Lessons for Today’s Movement Building,” captures how organizing strategies and institutions evolved during these decades, and distills ten innovative elements of the organizing approaches that were critical to their success. While these elements emerge from the realities of Los Angeles, they certainly can be applied to today’s public engagement efforts in the Central Valley, Inland Empire and elsewhere in California. I also was gratified to see that the authors shared implications for funders of social justice organizing, identifying practices that best sustain the ongoing involvement of residents in shaping their communities.