Assistant Professor of the School of Social Work Richard Smith, PhD is continuing his research on urban places, policies and people. He is following up on recent work that found that one-third of low immigration communities included discussions of immigrants and immigrant entrepreneurs in their community economic development strategies for neighborhoods. Furthermore, both Mayor Bloomberg of New York City and Governor Richard Snyder have endorsed welcoming immigrants as a solution to regional economic development and to stabilize neighborhoods. While many scholars are conducting research on how local governments are enforcing immigration policy, Smith has applied for funding to compile a list of current local government policies to attract immigrants. He will also analyze the reasons immigrants have been choosing the neighborhoods that they do to determine to what extent local government can be realistic in its efforts.

For more information on other projects that Richard Smith is working on, click here.