Note from the editor.(Editorial)

A funny thing happened as I was sitting down to write the Note from the Editor to this special issue of the National Civic Review on diversity, social capital, and immigrant integration. A colleague e-mailed me a January 26, 2009, article in Newsweek about Lewiston, Maine, a winner of the All-America City Award in 2004. The article is entitled, "The Refugees That Saved Lewiston."

The author, Jesse Ellison, begins by describing how Lewiston, once a "bustling mill town," had been shrinking since the 1970s. Jobs had vanished, the population was aging, and the downtown area was falling into disrepair.

"That was before a family of Somali refugees discovered Lewiston in 2001 and began spreading the word to immigrant friends and relatives that housing was cheap and it looked like a good place to build new lives and raise children in peace. Since then the place has been transformed. Per capita income has soared, and crime rates have dropped."

There's a great quote from Chip Morrison, president of the local chamber of commerce. "No one could have dreamed this," he says. "Not even me, and I'm an optimist."

From a cursory reading of this article, it might seem as if every fading mill town should go out and recruit some East African refugees, but of course, it's not that easy. Lewiston won the All-America City Award in part because of its innovative partnership with the City of Portland, Catholic Charities, and the State of Maine to deal with what was initially considered a big problem: an entirely unexpected influx of Somalis.

Immigrant integration efforts are springing up all over the country, as towns, cities, states, and regions that were mostly bypassed by earlier waves of immigration are finding themselves part of our new gateways. Recently, the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy instituted an "E Pluribus Unum Award" for some of these exceptional initiatives. For at least three years, the program will give out four awards annually.

The award program, says Margie McHugh, co-director of the center, is the result of years of conversation among leaders in the field on the new need to recognize the ...