A girl waves an American flag while participating in a rally for jobs and immigration rights in New York. AP File Photo
LOS ANGELES—The federal government will run a national advertising campaign to encourage more immigrants to become American citizens and become more integrated into society, officials said on Wednesday.
The multilingual effort aims to reach roughly 7.9 million immigrants who are eligible to file applications to naturalize but haven’t done so. Many immigrants work, raise a family and go to school while holding green cards and only think about citizenship when they need to travel or abroad or when elections roll around and they can’t vote, immigration officials said.
The campaign in print, radio and digital media that will run primarily in California, New York, Florida and Texas between May 30 and Labor Day aims to put citizenship in the forefront of people’s minds and give them personal stories of immigrants who have naturalized.
“You’ve got to create that sense of urgency, and until they’ve reached that sense of urgency, they’ll just coast,” said Nathan Stiefel, division chief of policy and programs for the Office of Citizenship at US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
It is the first time the immigration agency has launched a paid advertising campaign to promote American citizenship, said Mariana Gitomer, an agency spokeswoman. The effort—which will cost $3.5 million over three years—is part of an $11 million allotment by Congress to encourage greater immigrant integration.
Immigration experts say many immigrants don’t apply for citizenship because they fear they don’t speak English well enough or because they haven’t felt a pressing need to do so.
About 64 percent of immigrants naturalize and it takes them on average nine-and-a-half years to apply to do so, Stiefel said.
The ad campaign includes portraits of immigrants born in China, Vietnam, Mexico, Dominican Republic and the Philippines who indicate they are “proud Americans” and share snippets of their personal stories starting a business, educating their families and even running for office.