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Loyola University Chicago will launch an ambitious new initiative supported by a $6-million anonymous gift to better prepare students and professionals across disciplines to meet the multifaceted challenges faced by migrant families in the U.S. and around the world.
Guided by Loyola’s Ignatian values and a pressing need for skilled immigration professionals, the Holistic Immigration Hub will bring together experts from law, health care, education, and social work to train future attorneys and judges, social workers, educators, and health practitioners in a first-of-its-kind effort by an American university.
The Hub’s scope and approach build on the work of Loyola Law’s CIVITAS ChildLaw Center founded in 1993, and the Center for Human Rights of Children established in 2007. It solidifies Loyola’s standing as a top destination for training immigration professionals and as a national thought leader in immigration law.
The Hub will prioritize these initial strategies:
- An Interdisciplinary Immigration and Human Rights Clinic to bridge seminar training and experiential learning and infuse curricula for both with expertise from Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine, Parkinson School of Health Sciences and Public Health, the Schools of Education and Social Work. By cross-training future immigration attorneys, social workers, educators, and health practitioners, the clinic will help develop new approaches to the range of issues migrants face.
- An Immigration Law Lab to respond to the migrant community’s legal needs by recruiting and training students from Chicago-area law schools to supplement the work of partner immigration organizations and facilitate training for self-representation.
- An Immigration Innovation Incubator to convene students, professionals, and community stakeholders around pressing topics related to migration and strategies to recognize and restore human dignity in addressing the crisis. Students and experts together will conduct applied legal and policy research to narrow the gap between academia and practice.
“The Holistic Immigration Hub represents a bold and groundbreaking step in how we approach immigration justice,” says Michèle Alexandre, dean of the School of Law. “By taking this distinct approach, Loyola is uniquely positioned to address today’s complex challenges. This Hub will develop the next generation of immigration lawyers and interdisciplinary experts–professionals capable of the nuanced thinking and collaboration required to create pathways for meaningful, systemic change that upholds the dignity of all migrants.”
