Immigrant Relations and Integration Services, Santa Clara County and San Jose, California

This initiative has been identified as a good immigrant integration practice by the NLC. Click here to find all about the other programs!

Located in the southern end of the San Francisco Bay, San Jose has an ethnically diverse population of 905,180 people, of whom thirty nine percent are foreign-born.

The Office of Human Relations of Santa Clara County has an Immigrant Relations and Integration Services (IRIS) office that promotes the full inclusion of immigrants in Santa Clara County and works on projects that promote positive immigrant relations and integration services. IRIS strives to improve the lives of immigrants and all residents by recognizing and appreciating the contributions of immigrants, educating all county residents about the backgrounds of and challenges affecting immigrants and fostering a multicultural community.

In 1996, Santa Clara County established a Citizenship Initiative program with the goals of empowering low-income permanent residents and re-establishing eligibility for the safety net of services affected by welfare reform. Since then, IRIS has established a number of programs and projects that assist immigrants with the naturalization process. These services include:

• Free Citizenship Days and educational forums
• Citizenship class search on Immigrantinfo.org
• A guidebook entitled ”Immigrant Rights, Responsibilities, and Resources”
• Representation with the Immigrant Survivors of Domestic Violence Committee
• Immigrant Cultural Proficiency Initiative
• Citizenship & Immigration Pride Day with free orientations, free initial legal assessments, a resource fair and other critical information about the citizenship process
• Save for Citizenship Program to help immigrants with financial challenges pay naturalization filing fees through financial education and matching funds

For more information about the Immigrant Relations and Integration Services, please contact Milina Jovanovic at (408) 792-2342 or milina.jovanovic@ohr.sccgov.org.