The American Council of Immigration does not approve or oppose candidates for elected offices. We aim to provide an analysis of the impact of elections on the US immigration system.
In May I attended an American welcoming interactive conference in Detroit. There, over 900 leaders gathered to explore what it takes to build a community that everyone feels like they belong to. Set in a city shaped by an industrial boom, investment and strong local activities, the conference was an opportunity to share insights and reflect on the lack of warm welcome from communities that truly welcome the community.
Detroit’s Renewal and Heritage of Community Power
Welcoming an interactive spotlight welcomed a moving narrative of effective practice and immigration inclusion, and hosting it in Detroit made particularly meaningful given how cities are shaped by both the promise of opportunity and the pain of whole-body investment. Once a beacon of economic promises, the same automotive industry that brought jobs also helped lay the foundations of inequality and injustice, especially for black families moving north during major migrations and migrants seeking stable jobs. Investments from automotive companies have devastated working-class neighbourhoods and exacerbated the longstanding history of racial violence, such as redlines and segregation, which already defined urban geography and infrastructure.
Against this background, the welcoming interactive emphasized the need to address the unmet needs of all members in cultivating communities that everyone feels welcome and included. When housing is affordable, low wages and the public system fails, communities become vulnerable to what researchers call zero-sum thinking. Detroit overwhelmingly rejects this false rarity story and instead invests in repair work.
Organizations like the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation are at the forefront and prevent violence through community-driven intervention and investment. The welcome interactive participants met with founder Angie Reyes and visited La Jolla Gardens, a $25 million multi-development residential project that opened in southwest Detroit in early 2025. The project illustrates how long-term blocks can be turned into community anchors, addressing the issue of affordable housing, and how systemic inequality can be addressed that lays the foundation for spaces where community-based development is more welcoming.
Share the bridge building blueprint
While Detroit’s history highlights the harm caused by system failure, each welcome interactive session reveals that leaders are rethinking systems rooted in collective care and shared belonging. Without a clear roadmap, those most committed to repairs are building new paths to bridging the division. To support our collective learning, the Center for Inclusion and Attribution at the American Council of Immigration shared findings from impact assessments of 22 organizations engaged in connecting people across lines of difference through their affiliate Innovation Lab (BIL) Fellowship and Inclusion Innovation Collaborative (IIC).
Our sessions are rooted in trust. The power of local leadership to transform the community shared key points from both BIL and IIC. The strategic use of storytelling to induce empathy and understanding, how to institutionalize bridge construction practices within organizational infrastructure, the importance of flexibility and adaptation based on the specific needs of the community, and the long-term investments (both finance and relationships) needed to maintain overtime for this work were highlighted.
Global Detroit, a Attribution Innovation Lab Fellow, played a central role in welcoming interactive this year. Their project focuses on connecting newly arrived immigrants with the long-standing African-American community. This is an initiative detailed in the report, which communicates theory as a tool to foster social cohesion and provides case studies for relational bridge building and community repair.
Rethinking affiliation as a shared responsibility
Through stories shared in each session, we revealed that communities across the country belong in real time by welcoming interactives through insights exchanged through new connections, or through examples seen throughout Detroit. Not perfect, not without struggle, but with intention and vision.
My first time in Detroit and welcoming interactive reminded me that when the community organizes to meet their needs, immigrants can accept it with solidarity rather than fear or resentment. The question is no longer asked, “Do we have enough resources for more people?” instead, “What would happen if we all had what we needed to thrive and feel like we belong?” and perhaps more importantly, “What role should we play in our respective affiliations?”
Submitted below: Michigan State, Welcome Initiative
