Corona’s Research Leads to Advocacy and Action

In 2024, Juntos Community engaged Corona Insights to conduct research and draft a white paper aimed at exploring how Colorado could remove barriers for immigrant and refugee career mobility. Juntos had already conducted many interviews and collected many surveys on this topic, but were struggling to synthesize this information into a report that presented a clear picture of career mobility barriers and potential solutions for institutions supporting newcomers to our state.

To support this project, we analyzed survey and interview data to understand the barriers and support systems immigrants experienced when attempting to obtain professional licenses and enter the Colorado workforce. Additionally, we reviewed dozens of sources to establish the current need for immigrant labor in Colorado’s labor market, developed a catalog of existing resources supporting immigrant job seekers in Colorado, and analyzed policies adopted by other states to remove barriers to credentialing and employment. This work culminated with the publication of a report that provided a series of recommendations and a call to action to the state’s policymakers, government agencies, nonprofits, and employers. The Strengthening Colorado’s Workforce: Addressing Barriers and Creating Professional Pathways for Immigrant Talent report can be found here.

Journey Map from the Juntos Community’s Strengthening Colorado’s Workforce Report

Juntos has continued to use this report to remove barriers immigrants face when pursuing educational opportunities and workforce credentials in Colorado. One specific example is HB26-1143, which Juntos introduced to the Colorado legislature through legislative sponsors (Rep. Ricks, Rep. Joseph, and Sen. Weissman) in February 2026. This piece of legislature is designed to remove one acute barrier faced by many immigrants seeking professional credentials—the need for a social security number to complete a background check. You can learn more about Juntos’ Safety, Not Status campaign here.