When Brazilian immigrants living around Boston answered a survey about their "transnational" habits, the responses amounted to a big neon sign that read: Social Innovation Welcome Here. Contrary to the familiar image of the downtrodden immigrant escaping from an underdeveloped, oppressive "home country," most of the Brazilians use the Internet and cell phones, many of them fly back to Brazil regularly and invest money in real estate and business there, and are willing to contribute some of the money they send--remittances--to family and friends to a philanthropic fund to help the growing immigrant community do better in the US. Other research finds that these behaviors and attitudes characterize the millions of immigrants who live transnationally--"here and there"--but come from other nations. Talk about an underserved market! During the past year we've developed three projects to create real value for transnational immigrants--starting with Brazilians: 1) Diaspora Media. Create Internet platforms that the worldwide immigrant diaspora can use to capture, preserve, and enhance their immigrant experiences, connect with each other across the globe, obtain one-click news and information customized to immigrant interests, and engage in commercial exchange. We're getting close to launching our first Diaspora Media site, so stay tuned. 2) Remittance Development Funds. Partner with financial institutions and money-transfer companies to create philanthropic funds, owned and operated by immigrants, that can be used to stimulate development of immigrant communities in the U.S. We've explored this concept with a half-dozen immigrant communities and hope the first fund will be launched in 2009. 3) Transnational Immigrant Index. With a small grant from the Western Union Foundation, we're developing a methodology that will document the presence and behaviors of transnational immigrants in American communities. 4) English Acquisition. With so many immigrants eager to learn English, why is the "English acquisition" system in the US doing so poorly? We started by looking at what the problems are and then exploring possible innovations to ease the bottlenecks, including a model that's been developed in Europe. Next step: develop an innovation concept that would greatly improve results (without costing more money). As these projects advance we'll post developments at the nuPOLIS site--and read your comments. | 
