"We are America": immigrants and social capital in the United States today.

In his 2007 essay "E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-First Century," professor Robert Putnam makes the provocative argument that the increased diversity in the United States caused by immigration has resulted in a decline of "social capital," not only between ethnic groups but also within them. Diversity in a community results in a hunkering down by all, a "turtle effect" that causes immigrants and the native-born alike to retreat to the security of their television sets. Putnam's conclusion is that "immigration and ethnic diversity challenge social solidarity and inhibit social capital."

Although Putnam explicitly states his belief in the positive long-term value of immigration to the United States, the article was seized on by some in the anti-immigrant movement as more proof that immigrants and diversity are the cause of all things bad, from leprosy and urban sprawl to crime and school over-crowding, and now with reduction in social trust added to the list.

It seems odd to write my observations on Putnam's hypothesis in the wake of what I have experienced during my last three years of organizing within the immigrant rights movement. In 2006, millions of Mexican immigrants marched for immigration reform waving American flags and holding signs saying "We Are America." In FY2007, a record number of 1.4 million immigrants applied for U.S. citizenship. Then this past November, a dramatic surge in Latino voting helped to elect a black man as president of the United States of America. By all standard measures of civic engagement, something historic is happening within the immigrant communities of the United States today, and lack of social solidarity does not seem to be an obvious problem.

But Professor Putnam's article is a useful place to start in a conversation about immigrants, Democracy, and social trust in our United States of America. While the marches may be an indication that unrecognized but serious "bonding" social capital networks have been built up within the Latino community, the current hostile tone of the immigration debate may also be a sign that professor Putnam is correct that our nation needs to be intentional about the rebuilding of the "bridging" social capital between immigrants and their new neighbors.

I have been a community organizer in Chicago for thirty-two years. In fact, I met the nation's most famous former community organizer, Barack Obama, when he and I were a lot younger and working Chicago's streets. He went on to become president of the United States, and I am proud to say that I am still organizing. I speak Spanish fluently, and I currently direct one of the larger immigrant rights coalitions in the United States. From my experience, I would like to make several observations, followed by an explanation:

* "Today we march; tomorrow we vote." The massive mobilization of (especially Latino) immigrants in the United States to march, naturalize, and vote during the last three years is both historic and of a scale to potentially change politics in this country.

* Relationships are power. These mobilizations were the product of deep networks of social solidarity within immigrant communities, networks that are being built up continuously and assiduously as newcomers establish roots. It is easy for social scientists and academics to overlook such networks, but they are the foundation on which to rebuild bridging social capital between immigrants and their new neighbors.