Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA)
Every year, over 30,000 Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) settle in Massachusetts to make a new life in America, however less than 20,000 eligible LPRs from Massachusetts become citizens annually. Many do not become citizens because of the difficulty of the naturalization exam, the prohibitive cost of application fees, or the confusing nature of the application materials. Others fail to apply simply because they do not understand the benefits of citizenship and how vital it is to creating new opportunities for social, economic, and civic advancement.
The Massachusetts Citizenship Campaign (MCC) aims to address all these issues through a variety of approaches including public education campaigns, increasing service capacity, and application assistance.
Working in partnership with our 140+ member organizations throughout the state, the MCC seeks to expand the direct services available at no cost to immigrants who are or soon will be eligible to naturalize:
- Our coordinated media campaign allows us to connect with the state’s nearly 1,000,000 immigrant residents to help them understand the advantages of naturalizing and informing them of competent service providers in their areas.
- Through our legal expertise and our strong relationships with federal agencies and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, we are able to build capacity around the state for naturalization services through a training program aimed at direct service providers and community organizations interested in becoming BIA recognized and providing quality legal assistance to their communities.
- Our regional citizenship clinics give hundreds of eligible LPRs the ability to access free application assistance, dramatically expanding the services that are available to low-income immigrant populations throughout the state. This includes assistance applying for the fee waiver, allowing those who would otherwise find the application fee too costly a chance to become a U.S. Citizen.
Find out more about the Massachusetts Citizenship Campaign.