Our Mission

The Merage Foundation for the American Dream is dedicated to helping immigrants join mainstream America. It inspires young immigrants to achieve their American Dream. It helps immigrants become leaders in their communities and in the nation. It encourages Americans to recognize and celebrate the contributions of new Americans and their individual and collective positive impact on the nation. It fosters nonpartisan discussion of key immigration issues facing the United States. The Foundation’s hope is that increasing numbers of immigrants will be able to reach their own and their family's aspirations.
Merage Foundation for the American Dream Brochure
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Foundation News

The Foundation held its sixth annual National Leadership Awards dinner at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on June 3, 2009. The event was held in association with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Foundation honored its 2009 National Leadership Awardees as well as its 2009 American Dream Fellows.  The dinner was preceded by a colloquium at the Wilson Center on the economic effects of immigration.

We invite you to download the Spring 2009 American Dream newsletter covering our 2009 National Leadership Honorees, our 12 new Fellows, updates from our student alumni, and other articles of interest.

The Foundation’s American Dream compilation DVD containing all 9 films and accompanying educational materials in the series was distributed to over 36,000 teachers and students in classrooms across the country in the February 2008 editions of Scholastic’s Upfront®, ScholasticAction®, and Choices® magazines. Press release

You may view the Foundation’s newest American Dream Experience DVD, “The Mexican Immigration Experience” which chronicles the history of immigration to the United States from Mexico beginning with the founding of Santa Fe and Los Angeles, through the Mexican-American War, the Mexican Revolution, the vaqueros, railroad workers, and braceros, Operation Wetback, Cesar Chavez, IRCA and NAFTA, to the present day. 

Our January 2008 update on the status of Foreign Scientists and Engineers in the United States is now available.

The Merage Foundation for the American Dream has published a new Occasional Paper: “Becoming U.S. Stakeholders:  Legalization and Integration Among Mexican Immigrants and their Descendants.”