Our Mission
The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MIMA) strives to ensure the community well-being and inclusion of Baltimore’s foreign-born residents and their families. MIMA partners with City agencies and community-based organizations to strengthen their capacity for providing services and resources that are sensitive to the needs of immigrant Baltimoreans. Through its initiatives, MIMA confronts systemic barriers unique to immigrant residents, such as workplace and other discrimination, disparities related to immigration status, language barriers, and unfamiliarity with or fear of government. Our office works to advance local institutions and culture toward a future in which immigrants can fully participate in the social, economic, and civic life of Baltimore.
Our Roles
Our office serves many important functions such as:
- Providing services to immigrant residents: Through Safe City Baltimore and the Baltimore New American Access Coalition, we fund and coordinate legal, health, and human services for vulnerable immigrant families.
- Assisting other City agencies: We work with other City agencies to ensure they are being inclusive of immigrant residents. This work includes managing the City's translation and interpretation services and advising on other City policies affecting immigrant residents.
- Connecting with immigrant communities: Our team meets our community where they are, going out to neighborhoods all over Baltimore to share multilingual resources and information. We also bring our community into City Hall through civic engagement initiatives that give immigrants a voice in City government.
Our Community
As of 2024, Baltimore City was home to an estimated 53,397 New Americans, almost 10% of the City's population. Our immigrant communities are an important driver of Baltimore City's recent population growth, helping to reverse decades of population decline.
The five most commonly spoken languages among residents with limited English proficiency are Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, and Korean. Additionally, the Baltimore City government regularly engages with residents in 35 other languages.
Our History
In the summer of 2013, the Office of the Mayor convened a New Americans Task Force to develop a plan to retain and attract immigrants to Baltimore City.
To determine the direction and priorities for the New Americans Task Force, the Office of the Mayor collaborated with stakeholders from City agencies, non-profit organizations, private partners, foundations, financial institutions, and many others.
At the conclusion of twelve weeks, the New Americans Task Force presented a series of thirty-two recommendations to strengthen efforts to make Baltimore City a welcoming place of economic opportunity and inclusion.
The task force's full report was released to the public in September of 2014. As per the report's recommendations, the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MIMA) was established that year.