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Equity Research Institute (ERI)

Website:

dornsife.usc.edu/eri%20
Location:

Los Angeles, CA
Formation:

2020
Type:

University Research Center
Director:

Manuel Pastor

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The Equity Research Institute (ERI) is a think tank housed within the University of Southern California (USC). ERI focuses on issues related to race in social policy, supports increased welfare spending, endorses fundamental changes to United States immigration policy, and espouses environmentalist positions on climate.

Background

Equity Research Institute was formed in 2020 when two separate think tanks housed within USC, the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII), joined together into one organization. 1

Activities

Equity Research Institute focuses on issues related to race-centric social policy, advocacy for increased welfare spending, fundamental changes to United States immigration policy, and climate alarmism.

Race-Focused Climate Policy

ERI makes various alarmist claims relating to climate change, including the notion that because “every aspect of our economy and our society is dependent upon fossil fuels,” society must make fundamental changes to how people work and live  to achieve significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. 2

ERI acknowledges that many high-paying jobs will be lost in transitioning from non-weather dependent to weather dependent sources of energy, 3 and believes that the appropriate policy response to this outcome is to ensure that new weather dependent jobs go to low-income communities of color, referred to as “environmental justice communities” as opposed to communities that have traditionally worked in the energy production sector. 4

ERI also advocates for government intervention in energy policy and corporate welfare for weather deponent sources of energy. 5 ERI highlights that the average job in California pays an annual salary of $50,014, whereas the average annual salary in the energy sector is $87,785. 6

ERI reasons that the transition to weather dependent sources of energy can potentially lead to lower paying jobs in the energy sector. 7 In addition, ERI highlights, by comparing solar panel installation jobs to traditional energy production jobs, that a lower percentage of solar panel installation jobs constitute full-time work compared to jobs available in the non-weather dependent energy sector. 8 ERI argues that the government should intervene and provide funding to weather-dependent energy producers to maintain the income and quality of benefits available to workers in the energy sector. 9

Immigration Policy

ERI argues that structural changes must be made to the United States’ immigration policy to increase immigration rates, and characterizes concerns related to negative outcomes of drastic and rapid demographic changes as nothing more than “racism, nativism,” and “mobilized fear.” 10

ERI argues than one of the key initiatives that California has adopted, and which other states should adopt to increase immigration and integration, is to extend state benefits that are traditionally limited to citizens to immigrant populations. 11 The state-funded benefits which ERI argues should be extended to immigrant populations include public health care, low-income housing, and in-state tuition rates irrespective of immigration status. 12

ERI advocates that state funded benefits should be provided not only to legal immigrants, but also illegal immigrants, and that other states should follow California in issuing drivers licenses to illegal immigrants and allowing them to vote in local elections. 13 ERI refers to this broader schema as the “California Package,” which acts as a workaround against federal immigration laws by extending the same or nearly the same rights to immigrants as United States citizens through state laws. 14

ERI argues that government sponsored housing for immigrants is another method that states should adopt to increase immigration and assimilation. 15 Under California law, state sponsored housing facilities cannot discriminate between citizen, immigrant, and illegal immigrant applicants. 16 In addition, ERI has praised California’s SB 600 as an example of good immigration and assimilation policy. 17 SB 600 stipulates that private landlords in California cannot discriminate based on immigration and citizenship in providing housing. 18

ERI has praised California for adopting policies that seek to evade and obstruct efforts by the federal government to uphold United States immigration laws. 19 These efforts include laws preventing employers from utilizing the federal E-Verify program that determines eligibility for work in the United States, California’s Transparency and Responsibility Using State Tools (TRUST) Act (AB 4) which prohibits local law enforcement from reporting illegal immigrants detained for low level non-violent crimes to the federal government for deportation proceedings, and the Truth Act, which provides illegal immigrants within the state of California the right to refuse to answer questions during Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE) questioning. 20

ERI opposes seasonal work visas, stating that they are policies “[b]usiness leaders encourage” only out of a desire “for cheap and exploitable labor,” 21 and advocate instead for policies that would transition seasonal agricultural workers to full-time legal residents on the path to naturalization. 22

Leadership

Manuel Pastor is the director of ERI and professor of Sociology and American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. 23 Pastor’s research focuses on economic and environmental issues relating to low-income urban communities and solutions to challenges faced by those communities that require more welfare spending and government intervention. 24

References

  1.  “Mission and Values” Equity Research Institute. https://dornsife.usc.edu/eri/mission-vision-values/
  2. “A ROADMAP TO AN EQUITABLE LOW-CARBON FUTURE:FOUR PILLARSFOR A JUST TRANSITION” The Climate Equity Network. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2019_JUST_TRANSITION_Report_FINAL_12-19.pdf
  3. “A ROADMAP TO AN EQUITABLE LOW-CARBON FUTURE:FOUR PILLARSFOR A JUST TRANSITION” The Climate Equity Network. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2019_JUST_TRANSITION_Report_FINAL_12-19.pdf
  4. “A ROADMAP TO AN EQUITABLE LOW-CARBON FUTURE:FOUR PILLARSFOR A JUST TRANSITION” The Climate Equity Network. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2019_JUST_TRANSITION_Report_FINAL_12-19.pdf
  5. “A ROADMAP TO AN EQUITABLE LOW-CARBON FUTURE:FOUR PILLARSFOR A JUST TRANSITION” The Climate Equity Network. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2019_JUST_TRANSITION_Report_FINAL_12-19.pdf
  6. “A ROADMAP TO AN EQUITABLE LOW-CARBON FUTURE:FOUR PILLARSFOR A JUST TRANSITION” The Climate Equity Network. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2019_JUST_TRANSITION_Report_FINAL_12-19.pdf
  7. “A ROADMAP TO AN EQUITABLE LOW-CARBON FUTURE:FOUR PILLARSFOR A JUST TRANSITION” The Climate Equity Network. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2019_JUST_TRANSITION_Report_FINAL_12-19.pdf
  8. “A ROADMAP TO AN EQUITABLE LOW-CARBON FUTURE:FOUR PILLARSFOR A JUST TRANSITION” The Climate Equity Network. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2019_JUST_TRANSITION_Report_FINAL_12-19.pdf
  9. “A ROADMAP TO AN EQUITABLE LOW-CARBON FUTURE:FOUR PILLARSFOR A JUST TRANSITION” The Climate Equity Network. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2019_JUST_TRANSITION_Report_FINAL_12-19.pdf
  10. “THE FUTURE OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION” The California 100. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2022_CA_100_The-Future-of-Immigrant-Integration-ISSUE-REPORT-1.pdf
  11. “THE FUTURE OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION” The California 100. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2022_CA_100_The-Future-of-Immigrant-Integration-ISSUE-REPORT-1.pdf
  12. “THE FUTURE OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION” The California 100. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2022_CA_100_The-Future-of-Immigrant-Integration-ISSUE-REPORT-1.pdf
  13. “THE FUTURE OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION” The California 100. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2022_CA_100_The-Future-of-Immigrant-Integration-ISSUE-REPORT-1.pdf
  14. “THE FUTURE OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION” The California 100. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2022_CA_100_The-Future-of-Immigrant-Integration-ISSUE-REPORT-1.pdf
  15. [1] “THE FUTURE OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION” The California 100. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2022_CA_100_The-Future-of-Immigrant-Integration-ISSUE-REPORT-1.pdf
  16. “THE FUTURE OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION” The California 100. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2022_CA_100_The-Future-of-Immigrant-Integration-ISSUE-REPORT-1.pdf
  17. “THE FUTURE OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION” The California 100. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2022_CA_100_The-Future-of-Immigrant-Integration-ISSUE-REPORT-1.pdf
  18.  “THE FUTURE OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION” The California 100. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2022_CA_100_The-Future-of-Immigrant-Integration-ISSUE-REPORT-1.pdf
  19. “THE FUTURE OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION” The California 100. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2022_CA_100_The-Future-of-Immigrant-Integration-ISSUE-REPORT-1.pdf
  20. “THE FUTURE OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION” The California 100. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2022_CA_100_The-Future-of-Immigrant-Integration-ISSUE-REPORT-1.pdf
  21. “THE FUTURE OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION” The California 100. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2022_CA_100_The-Future-of-Immigrant-Integration-ISSUE-REPORT-1.pdf
  22. “THE FUTURE OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION” The California 100. https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/1411/docs/2022_CA_100_The-Future-of-Immigrant-Integration-ISSUE-REPORT-1.pdf
  23. “Professor Manuel Pastor” University of Southern California. https://dornsife.usc.edu/eri/manuel-pastor/
  24. “Manual Pastor Bio” University of Southern California. https://dornsife.usc.edu/eri/manuel-pastor/
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Equity Research Institute (ERI)


Los Angeles, CA