Citizenship Tandas

A credit-building savings program helping immigrants overcome obstacles to establishing citizenship. Rooted in a cultural practice of peer lending found across the world, low-income participants come together to save for citizenship fees and receive a 25% match to help meet their goal.

How did it start?
Without legal citizenship, hard-working members of the American fabric cannot vote or get access to safety net programs. The Census Bureau reports that one in six Americans lives in poverty, or 46.2 million people. As the rate of poverty goes up, the wealth gap between white families and families of color continues to widen. According to the Pew Research Center, while the average white family has $113,149 in assets, the average Latino family has only $6,325. With a surging unemployment rate and the collapse of the housing market, household assets are even more important to sustain families through unexpected hardships. Since 2005, households have seen their assets decrease substantially: 16% for whites, 66% for Latinos, and 54% for Asians.
With more families of color falling behind, the Mission Asset Fund’s Citiezenship Tandas program is a viable approach for narrowing the racial wealth gap in low-income and immigrant communities. Low-wage earners often live from paycheck to paycheck, leaving the $680 citizenship application fee standing in their way of a secure future. We are proud to say we are helping qualified immigrants overcome the financial barriers to establishing US citizenship.

What is peer lending?
A peer lending circle is when people get together to form a group loan. Everyone in the group contributes money to the loan, and everyone gets a chance at taking the loan out. People across the world organize loans between friends or family without a financial institution all the time. This practice is known by many different names across the world: Susus throughout Africa, Paluwagan in the Philippines, Lun-hui in China, and Tandas in Mexico. Participants may not have access to a bank, or may not be a good candidate for a traditional loan, or they may just prefer getting loans from people they know and trust. However, informal lending circles will not help participants build credit. While you may be able to get loans from your neighbors, you still can’t get one from a bank. Without credit, it’s hard to find apartments, build a business or even get a loan for school. Citizenship Tandas helps to address these problems.

The Benefits of Citizenship Tandas:
By staying true to the roots of informal lending traditions found across the globe, this tried-and-true way of providing loans feels very comfortable and familiar, especially to immigrants from other countries. Other benefits include:

• Loans are secure to ensure no participant loses hard-earned savings
• Participants improve credit scores in a short amount of time, an essential bridge to mainstream financial services
• Participants work with local immigration organizations to complete citizenship classes
• Participants receive a charitable match of $170
• All loans are 0% interest and $0 fees