UB Receives $500,000 Mellon Grant to Analyze Immigration’s Effects on Local Democratic Norms

The faculty of the University at Buffalo’s Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) program has received a $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation. The grant supports a research project examining how inclusive immigration practices in a Rust Belt city, like Buffalo, affect democracy and democratic norms.

The innovative project will test whether new immigrants and refugees create opportunities for democratic revival, identifying promising innovations that could be developed further and shared with other communities. The findings aim to provide policymakers, civic leaders, and others deeply invested in immigration with empirical and qualitative data on how new arrivals can strengthen democracy at the local level.

According to Dr. Alexandra Oprea, an assistant professor of philosophy at UB and the principal investigator of the grant, immigration has rarely been as politically significant in the U.S. as it is now. “Our project’s goal is urgent, given the high levels of political polarization that have eroded national-level democratic norms and made it more difficult for people to address long-standing issues like poverty, racial segregation, and xenophobia,” says Oprea, an expert in democratic theory. “At the local level, if a community can accommodate and embrace people from very different backgrounds, it signals the health of that community and makes positive change possible.”

While much research has focused on immigration and democracy at national and state levels, Oprea’s project focuses on the local level, particularly in cities, which she views as crucial sites for shaping democratic identities.

Buffalo, like many Northeastern industrial cities, experienced a long-term decline beginning in the 1950s and 1960s. However, in Buffalo’s case, immigration and the city’s willingness to welcome new arrivals may be key factors in its revival. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 10% of Buffalo’s population was born outside the U.S., with nearly half of these immigrants arriving since 2010.

“Buffalo can serve as an important test case for other cities,” Oprea says. “It’s precisely Buffalo’s openness to immigration that we hypothesize is driving the new opportunities we’re seeing in areas previously in decline.”

The PPE research team will study three types of communal spaces—the bazaar, the museum, and local civic organizations—by conducting focus groups, showcasing local organizations, and interviewing community leaders. This will allow the team to gather first-hand perspectives on immigration and democracy, which are not typically available from traditional democratic power centers like political party conventions, polling places, or courtrooms.

“We will focus on the West Side Bazaar, the Buffalo Museum of Science, and local civic organizations that work with immigrants and refugees,” says Oprea. “In each case, our goal will be to listen, observe, and understand.”

The grant will also fund the hiring of a full-time civic engagement coordinator to oversee the project and recruit volunteers, as well as a postdoctoral fellow to help share the project’s findings with a wider audience.

Oprea notes that the bazaar is often an overlooked space for democratic engagement. It provides low-stakes encounters through activities such as sharing food, swaying to music, and contemplating art, fostering a foundation for further democratic cooperation. The museum, which emphasizes participation by families with young children, provides a distinctive democratic space for learning through exploration and free play. Finally, civic organizations are often the first point of contact for new arrivals, shaping how they see themselves and their community.

“As we hear these stories and learn about local problems that require group input to solve, we can begin to see templates for collective action, which is a hallmark of local democracy in the Tocquevillian sense,” Oprea says.

In addition to Oprea, project team members include Justin Bruner, PhD, associate professor of philosophy; David Gray, PhD, associate teaching professor of philosophy; Ryan Muldoon, PhD, professor of philosophy; Jacob Neiheisel, PhD, associate professor of political science; and Alexander Schaefer, PhD, assistant professor of philosophy.

About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom they provide. Through its grants, the Foundation seeks to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.