Citizenry exclusion theory: understanding why immigrant-serving nonprofits emerge

ABSTRACT

Nonprofit organizations play a critical role in addressing social problems and the needs of marginalized populations. They emerge at different rates across regions. To understand the factors that motivate the creation of new nonprofits, nonprofit theories have focused on explanations such as failures of government, market and nonprofit sectors. Little is known to what extent nonprofit theories apply to immigrant-serving nonprofit organizations (INOs), however. The present study critiques nonprofit theories of government failure, market failure and interdependence theories by arguing that INOs emerge due to what this study calls citizenry exclusion, or exclusion related to legal status, race, ethnicity, nationality, culture and rights. The role of citizenry exclusion in explaining INO emergence is relevant for organizations that serve or advocate on behalf of immigrants. To evaluate this theoretical postulation, I draw upon 30 interviews with INO practitioners operating throughout the US. I conclude with theoretical, empirical and nonprofit practice implications.

KEYWORDS:

• Nonprofit
• nonprofit theory
• immigrants
• exclusion
• citizenship
• immigrant-serving nonprofits

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical statement

This study followed ethical standards as established by the author’s institutional review board at the University of California, Irvine. The author obtained all necessary ethical approval from the said institutional review board to conduct this study (protocol #20205933).

Notes

1 See https://nccs.urban.org/publication/irs-activity-codes.

2 The organization must have an immigrant related classification in IRS activity code (A23, R21, R22, Q71, M23, P84, Q71); Be in scope (OUTNCCS = IN); Have an immigrant related name or mission statement; Be active or recently active; Activities target immigrants in the US.

3 https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/maps/reference/us_regdiv.pdf.

4 Interview with founder 11/20/20.

5 Interview with founder 11/10/20.

6 Interview with founder 11/3/20.

7 Interview with founder 10/29/20.

8 Interview with president 11/10/20.

9 Interview with board of director 11/23/20.

10 Interview with founder 11/5/20.

11 Interview with founder 10/12/20.

12 Interview with director 11/10/20.

13 Interview with director 11/5/20.