Immigration Statistics A Story of Neglect (1985) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
1 Overview and Major Recommendations
1 Overview and Major Recommendations
Pages 1-12
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To walk around this room is amazing as a spatial experience. Along one wall are endless banks of metal drawers containing cards for immigration files there's no longer room for.
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Yet, at least in theory, the Service now has a computer entry in its Nonimmigrant Information System for every foreign student admitted to the United States. Consider an example more relevant to immigration policy: Do aliens pay more in taxes and unclaimable social security contributions than they use up in social services -- and which levels of government come out ahead and behind?
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From page 3... ...
In essence a history of neglect has afflicted record-keeping concerning one of the most fundamental processes underlying the development of American society: the arrival and integration of new populations into contemporary American social and economic structures. In recent years, the expressions of concern over inadequate, incomplete, and often unreliable information available for use in planning, implementing, or evaluating immigration policy have become both more numerous and more strident: for example, the Select Committee on Population of the House of Representatives (1978:1)
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From page 4... ...
The panel has taken a very broad view of the problems of immigrant populations and has included in its deliberations not only the statistical needs and products of the INS but also those of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a wide variety of other federal offices, and a myriad of nongovernmental sources. The panel's recommendations are sweeping and comprehensive and will require major commitments at several levels in the government if real improvement in the immigration statistics area is to be realized.
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From page 5... ...
Chapter 3 examines the diversity of data needs on immigration. The chapter starts with a description of the data collection required by law, that is, the irreducible minimum information on immigrant populations that should be available according to existing legislation.
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WHAT WE FOUND The one fact that struck the panel repeatedly was that a statistical system to produce immigration data does exist, but it does so in an atmosphere of almost total neglect. We found an extraordinary lack of concern with the situation on the part of many who are key to the operation of the statistical system, an almost total ignorance of its existence on the part of the top management that most needs its products, and, finally, that this neglect extends throughout almost all levels of responsibility and almost all the agencies most directly involved in the system.
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From page 7... ...
The panel approached the issue of defining data needs by identifying layers of data users, starting with officials in the legislative and executive branches of the federal government who make and execute immigration policy. At this level, as the recent debates over immigration reform quickly reveal, the argument revolves largely around the issues of whether and why immigration is beneficial or, in teems of data, who benefits from immigration and who loses.
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From page 8... ...
The second example is a quote from the latest INS Statistical Yearbook, that for 1981, which states, "Data processing problems have resulted in incomplete information on immigrants admitted in fiscal 1980 and 1981, the loss of all nonimmigrant information for fiscal year 1980 and incomplete nonimmigrant information for 1982." In fairness to the INS, it should be noted that a major effort is now under way in the agency to install automated systems that are intended to overcome many of the problems that have plagued it in the past. Planning for these systems was preceded by an extensive study of the information requirements of the agency; unfortunately, the needs for policy information of the executive branch or the Congress, while acknowledged, were considered to be outside the purview of the exercise and were omitted from examination.
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From page 9... ...
, which, by statute and through its review of budget proposals, is ultimately responsible for establishing current statistical agenda and for monitoring progress. It is regrettable that OMB has not adequately exercised its coordinating authority in recent years, but action now is not too late to improve the data base for future policy deliberations.
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From page 10... ...
The panel recommends that Congress: o 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; o 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 fiscal year in the field of immigration and emigration; and 0 Mandate that a study be initiated and conducted among new immigrants over a 5-year period, in order to develop information for policy guidance on the adjustment experience of families and individuals to the labor market, use of educational and health facilities, reliance on social programs, mobility experience, and income history.
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From page 11... ...
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;
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From page 12... ...
Thus, the initial cost implications are modest and the cost increments can be viewed in the light of some initial accomplishments. ~e , ~_ ~ The major recommendation for a new data collection 1nltlatlve, one 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.
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