This is a revised version of a piece originally prepared for posting on the SSRC web site along with other comments and analyses regarding 9/11. It will be published in an volume edited by Craig Calhoun, to be published by New Press, New York.

    In November 2001, Suzette Brooks Masters and Ted Perlmutter hosted a symposium at the International Center for Migration, Ethnicity and Citizenship at New School University to discuss their recent report, Networking the Networks:  Improving Information Flows in the Immigration Field (ICMEC, September 2001).

    The report analyzes certain problems relating to information retrieval and use by organizations in the immigration field and makes recommendations to address them. While some of the recommendations concern specific unmet information needs, such as the demand for more detailed breakdowns of demographic data, most are concerned with general weaknesses in communication plaguing the field as a whole.  The lack of a central clearinghouse serving a wide range of constituencies, particularly during times of crisis when rapid response and accurate information are paramount, is both a symptom and a cause of these communication problems.

    During the symposium, Ms. Brooks Masters and Mr. Perlmutter administered a short survey to determine the institutional response of immigrant advocacy and service organizations to the events of September 11th.  They also sent the survey to a number of other groups who had participated in the research study underlying Networking the Networks.  Approximately twenty surveys representing fifteen organizations were completed. While this sample size is modest and has a New York bias, the consistency of survey responses suggests that the survey results are instructive.