The International Institute: An examination of the history, current laws and inner workings of a nonprofit immigration organization

Abstract

In early February of this year, after returning from foreign study in China, I applied far an internship at the International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit, an agency involved with immigration. Even though I carried with me on foreign study what seemed like an inherent curiosity about immigration, traveling to different countries gave me a first hand look into the complexities of the immigration process. Because of this experience, I thought it would. be interesting to learn more about my own country's immigration laws. During my interview, I was surprised to find·out that the International Institute consists of two departments: one focusing on immigration; the other on spreading ethnic tolerance. The more technical immigration department, which is where·I spent my 3 month. internship, deals with naturalizing aliens who wish to become citizens. Because of the short amount of time I had to devote to this internship, I was unable to work too closely in the other department. Because this was an internship SIP, I wrote some of my paper about what I experienced and the other information I obtained from pamphlets and newsletters. In order to organize all of the material, I appended the information. at the end of my paper and these inclusions are outlined in the list of Appendices. In each citation of this material, I refer to the individual paper via its outline number from the List of Appendices.