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OCR for page 143
Recommendations
Without
This chapter brings together the recommendations made by the panel
throughout the report. They are organized here by the body or agency to
which they are directed. The discussion of and justification for each
recommendation is included in the chapter indicated in parentheses beside
the recommendation.
Most of our recommendations are general in nature, concerned with
process rather than the particular, and intentionally so. It is the
panel's belief, after extensive study of the present situation and how it
has arisen, that superficial local patching will not solve the problem.
__ major changes in direction from the top policy-making levels and
focused interest within the key agencies, the immigration statistics
system will never produce reliable, accurate, and timely statistics that
permit rational decision making concerning immigration policy. Even the
few specific recommendations made by the panel in order to fill
particularly important gaps in the statistical picture require that they
be implemented in a new context in order to be effective, one in which
quality and timely statistics are seen as priority functions of agencies
involved with aliens and foreign-born residents. Establishing this new
context requires profound and basic changes of attitude in both the
legislative and executive branches of government.
The panel recommends that Congress:
0 Strongly affirm the importance of reliable, accurate, and timely
statistical information on immigration to the needs of the Congress and
direct the Attorney General to reexamine the organizational structure of
the Immigration and Naturalization Service as it relates to statistics,
with a view to placing greater priority on this important task;
0 Require that the Attorney General prepare and submit by June 30
each year an annual report to the President and the Congress, presenting
data on aliens admitted or excluded, naturalizations, asylees, and
refugees' describing their characteristics, and containing an analysis of
significant developments during the preceding year in the field of
immigration and emigration; and
o Mandate that a study be initiated and conducted among new
· e
Immigrants over a 5-year period' in order to develop information for
policy guidance on the adjustment experience of families and individuals
143
(4)
(4)
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144
to the labor market, use of educational and health facilities, reliance
on social programs, mobility experience, and income history. (8)
The panel recommends that the Attorney General:
o Issue a strong policy directive asserting the importance of
reliable, accurate, and timely statistical information on immigration to
the mission of the INS and unequivocally committing the agency to
improving its existing capabilities.
The panel recommends that the commissioner of the INS:
o Issue an explicit statement clearly setting forth that the
collection, cumulation, and tabulation of reliable, accurate, and timely
statistical information on immigration is a basic responsibility of and
inherent in the mission of the agency;
o Establish a Division of Immigration Statistics, reporting directly
to an associate commissioner or an equivalent level, with overall
responsibility:
--for ensuring the use of appropriate statistical standards and
procedures in the collection of data throughout the agency;
--for ensuring the timely publication of a variety of statistical
and analytic reports;
--for providing statistical assistance to all parts of the Service
to help in carrying out their mission;
--for directing statistical activities throughout the agency;
0 Direct and implement the recruitment of a full complement of
competent, trained professionals with statistical capabilities and
subject-area expertise;
o Initiate a review of all data-gathering activities to eliminate
duplication, minimize burden and waste, review specific data item needs
and uses, improve question wording and format design, standardize
definitions and concepts, document methodologies, introduce statistical
standards and procedures, and promote ef ficiencies in the use of staff
and resources;
o Establish an advisory committee composed of experts in the use and
production of immigration-related data to advise the associate
commissioner and the proposed Division of Immigration Statistics of needs
for new or different types of data; to review existing data and data
collection methodology; to advise on the statistical implications and
potential of ADP plans; and to provide the agency with independent
evaluation of its statistical products, plans, and performance;
o Establish formal liaison with other federal and state agencies
involved in the collection or analysis of immigration-related data;
o Establish both a program to enhance and stimulate research into
the various effects of immigration and a fellows program, which would
bring to the agency for a period not to exceed 2 years outstanding
scholars and experts to undertake original research using published or
unpublished data from the INS or other sources;
(4)
(4)
(4)
(4)
(4)
(4)
(4)
(4)
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o Authorize the proposed Division of Immigration Statistics to
initiate a program of contract research. This research, which may be
either extramural or intramural, should be focused on the evaluation of
data production and data quality;
0 Strengthen the annual report, presenting data on immigrants,
nonimmigrants, naturalizations, a~ylees, parolees, and refugees,
describing their characteristics, and analyzing significant developments
during the previous fiscal year. The report should be published annually
by June 30;
o Establish a process ensuring adequate discussion and consideration
both within and outside the agency of changes in forms and data
collection procedures;
o Institute such other activities as are necessary and desirable to
ensure:
--understanding at all levels of the agency of the commissioner's
commitment to high-guality, timely statistical data;
--agreement with, and support for, the commissioner's policy
directive; and
o Initiate the planning for and establish a longitudinal study of
aliens to be conducted for a minimum 5-year period, to guide and assist
future amendment of legislation and for continuing administration of
programs. Data would be collected from a sample of:
--persons admitted legally under the regular immigrant preferences
--persons granted entry visas as nonimmigrants
--aliens given legal status under any amnesty program
and would focus on:
--the geographical dispersion and subsequent migration
--income and labor market experience
--program participation and service use.
The panel recommends that the director, Office of Management and
Budget (OMB):
o Ensure that OMB exercise its responsibilities to monitor and
review statistical activities and budgets concerning statistics on
immigration and emigration, and particularly those of the INS, to
minimize duplication and ensure that appropriate procedures are used,
standards met, and priorities observed in the collection, production, and
publication of such data;
0 Require and establish an interagency review group responsible for
direction and coordination in the field of immigration and emigration
data; the group would examine consistency and comparability in concepts
and definitions used by individual organizations in the collection of
such information including due regard for the recommendations of the
United Nations in this field; and oversee the introduction and use of
standardized approaches; and
(4)
(4)
(4)
(4)
(8)
(4,5,8)
(4,5,8)
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146
0 Actively encourage and support the timely publication and
dissemination of data on immigration, emigration, and refugees, the ready
availability of fully documented public-use data tapes, including, when
feasible, samples of individual records (with identifiers removed)
conforming to the requirements of the Privacy Act, and data summaries.
The panel recommends that the U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs:
o Establish an interagency task force, representing all federal
offices responsible for or concerned with refugee issues. The task
force, supplemented by persons with appropriate statistical and data
processing competence, would undertake to review the statistical program
for refugees and asylees and provide recommendations:
--on maximizing the utility of data currently being collected;
--on establishing standard definitions and resolving existing
contradictions on the data;
--on a priority ranking of data needs and where responsibility for
each should be placed;
--on which data items or series should be deleted;
--for institutionalizing coordination among the participants in
the area of data compilation; and
--on resources and time required to Implement control and other
appropriate statistical methods designed to ensure the maintenance
of a data base of adequate quality.
Regarding other government and nongovernment sources of immigration data,
the panel recommends that:
o The State Department become an active participant in interagency
discussions on improving immigration statistics, in order to enhance its
own understanding of the need for and uses of such information;
o The State Department establish its own review group to assess the
statistical potential of its programs, to review such actions as it might
take to improve its statistical performance, and to make appropriate
recommendations to the department;
0 The Department of Labor collect and publish summary information
for employers who petition for the admission of foreign workers,
including those requested under the H-2 provisions;
o The Census Bureau restore a question on place of birth of parents
to the 1990 census form;
o The Census Bureau make every effort to maintain consistency in
question wording and tabulation detail froth. one decennial census to the
next in areas relating to the foreign-born, so that immigrant cohorts
recorded in successive censuses can be linked or compared on a consistent
and common basis in order to assess adjustment experience;
o The Census Bureau initiate a program of research leading to
improved estimates of emigration. As one approach, the panel strongly
endorses the testing of an emigration module involving the collection of
information on the residence of close relatives, as a supplement to the
Current Population Survey;
(4,5,8)
(7)
(5,7)
(5, 7)
(5)
(5)
(5)
(5)
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o The U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration explore alternative
data collection approaches for the measurement of tourism in order to
obtain more reliable information;
o The Social Security Administration (SSA) incorporate data on
nativity, country of birth, and, when possible, citizenship and visa
status into its series of tabulations on workers and beneficiaries;
0 SSA develop a program of special tabulations to be available on a
cost-reimbursable basis to support analyses of the integration of
immigrant groups into domestic economic and social sectors;
0 SSA develop appropriate mechanisms for evaluating and, if
necessary, improving the quality of data on country of birth and legal
residence status that are captured in its statistical system;
o SSA explore with the Statistical Policy Office of OMB approaches
to permit the sharing of Continuous Work History Sample files with
researchers and analysts outside SSA;
o The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) initiate the
coding of the country of birth for vital events;
o NCHS routinely prepare analyses and publish tabulations of vital
events for immigrant populations;
0 NCHS institute a program to evaluate and improve the quality of
data on place of birth; and
o All the agencies and organizations involved with statistics on
immigration undertake a review of their data-gathering efforts in order
to:
--minimize duplication and burden and maximize quality and utility
of the collected inflation;
--develop approaches leading to timely publication and
dissemination of such data including, where appropriate, the
preparation and release of fully documented micro-data public-use
tapes; and
--establish and maintain formal liaison with other federal
agencies involved in the collection or analyses of immigration
related data;
(5)
(5)
(5)
(5)
(5)
(5)
(5)
(5)
(5)
0 Insofar as is feasible, official government data on immigrants and
refugees should be made available to researchers outside the government; (6)
o The proposed Division of Immigration Statistics in the INS
identify and consult with the user community and keep it informed about
the availability of data and changes in procedures. This recommendation
also applies to all other agencies that produce data; and
o Government agencies that provide funds for research should be
encouraged to give particular attention to the need for well-done studies
of immigration.
(6)
(6)
In making its recommendations, the panel has been mindful of costs.
Many of its recommendations fall within the scope and margin of
administrative discretion, and, if they require additional funds, the
amounts are relatively small. Two of the panel's major recommendations
will require new funding, but in both cases implementation will be
gradual, with expenditures spread over a number of years. The major
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148
recommendation for change in administrative structure concerns the
establishment of a Division of Immigration Statistics within the INS,
which will have increased authority, responsibility, and professional
staff. We expect, however, that a period of 3-5 years will be required
for the full development of such a division, in order to locate and
integrate new staff and to acquire new responsibilities and demonstrate
capability on a step-by-step basis. Thus, the initial cost implications
are modest and the cost increments can be viewed in the light of some
initial accomplishments. The major recommendation for a new data
collection initiative, the longitudinal survey of immigrants, also
requires new funding but, again, the estimated cost will be spread over a
number of years and is amply justified in the view of the panel.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
agencies involved
