Nonprofit organizations and the contemporary politics of immigrant incorporation in San Francisco

My dissertation examines the role of immigrant-serving 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations as agents of immigrant political incorporation in San Francisco. Specifically, I consider their role as institutional advocates that interact with local government to bring meaningful representation to non-U.S. citizen immigrants, as well as those who may be undocumented, limited-English proficient, and/or poor. Because 501(c) (3) nonprofits are subject to government regulations that restrict the amount and types of political work they can do, this dissertation considers how these regulations affect nonprofits' activism in local politics as well as their influence over policy outcomes that benefit vulnerable immigrants.;I argue that government regulations do not form a barrier to nonprofits' level of political activism. Indeed, immigrant-serving nonprofits have broad political presence and they use an arsenal of advocacy tactics to advocate for immigrants' interests with local government. However, government regulations can limit the influence nonprofits have over policy outcomes. Whether or not they do depends on the organizational landscape in which these nonprofits operate. Nonprofits' influence over policy outcomes is more limited when they share the advocacy spotlight with advocacy organizations that have fewer restrictions on their political activities, such as labor unions. Because of their expertise on administrative issues and because they enjoy a near monopoly over the attention of city administrators, immigrant-serving nonprofits are particularly effective in advocating for immigrant-friendly policies and practices with the city bureaucracy, which in turn fosters the bureaucratic incorporation of urban immigrants.;The evidence for these arguments draws on qualitative and quantitative data. For the qualitative analysis, I completed 114 interviews with the staff of immigrant-serving nonprofit organizations, local government officials, and leaders from other types of community organizations. I also conducted two policy case studies, one on San Francisco's language access policy from 2001 and another on three recent San Francisco ordinances that have raised wages for the city's lowest paid workers. The quantitative analysis draws on a unique survey of immigrant-serving nonprofits in San Francisco.