The Integration
of Immigrants
into
AMERICAN
SOCIETY
Panel on the Integration of Immigrants into American Society
Mary C. Waters and Marisa Gerstein Pineau, Editors
Committee on Population
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
This activity was supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, with additional support from the National Academy of Sciences Kellogg Fund. The contribution of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in sponsoring the planning meeting for this activity is also acknowledged. Any opinions, findings, conclusion, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the organization or agencies that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-37398-2
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-37398-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015958960
Digital Object Identifier: 10.17226/21746
Additional copies of this report are available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313; http://www.nap.edu.
Copyright 2015 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2015). The Integration of Immigrants into American Society. Panel on the Integration of Immigrants into American Society, M.C. Waters and M.G. Pineau, Eds. Committee on Population, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21746.
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PANEL ON INTEGRATION OF IMMIGRANTS INTO AMERICAN SOCIETY
MARY C. WATERS (Chair), Department of Sociology, Harvard University
RICHARD ALBA, Department of Sociology, Graduate Center of the City University of New York
FRANK D. BEAN, Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy, University of California, Irvine
IRENE BLOEMRAAD, Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
MICHAEL FIX, Migration Policy Institute
NANCY FONER, Department of Sociology, Hunter College, and Graduate Center of the City University of New York
CHARLES HIRSCHMAN, Department of Sociology at the Daniel J. Evans School of Governance and Public Policy, University of Washington
DANIEL T. LICHTER, Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Department of Sociology, and the Cornell Population Center, Cornell University
DOUGLAS S. MASSEY, Department of Sociology and Public Affairs and the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University
CECILIA MENJIVAR, Department of Sociology, University of Kansas
S. KARTHICK RAMAKRISHNAN, Department of Public Policy and Political Science, University of California, Riverside
AUDREY SINGER, Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings Institution
DAVID T. TAKEUCHI, Boston College School of Social Work
KEVIN J.A. THOMAS, Department of Sociology, Demography, and African Studies, and the Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University
STEPHEN TREJO, Department of Economics, University of Texas at Austin
RICHARD WRIGHT, Department of Geography and Public Affairs, Dartmouth College
HIROKAZU YOSHIKAWA, Department of Globalization and Education at the Steinhardt School and Global TIES for Children Center, New York University
MARISA GERSTEIN PINEAU, Study Director
THOMAS J. PLEWES, Senior Staff Officer
MARY GHITELMAN, Program Assistant
TINA M. LATIMER, Program Coordinator
COMMITTEE ON POPULATION 2015
KATHLEEN MULLAN HARRIS (Chair), Department of Sociology, UNC Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
JERE R. BEHRMAN, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania
VICKI A. FREEDMAN, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan
MARK D. HAYWARD, Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin
HILLARD S. KAPLAN, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico
SARA S. MCLANAHAN, William S. Todd Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Princeton University
EMILIO A. PARRADO, Department of Sociology and Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania
DAVID R. WEIR, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan
JOHN R. WILMOTH, Population Division/DESA, United Nations
THOMAS J. PLEWES, Director
TINA M. LATIMER, Program Coordinator
Preface
In the years since the publication of the institution’s last major report on immigration, The New Americans (National Research Council, 1997), there have been massive shifts in the demographics, legal status, geographic location, and overall impact of immigration. These shifts have raised new concerns about the integration of immigrants in the United States. The aim of this project was therefore to facilitate a more informed and fact-based discussion of this topic.
The panel formally met six times over the period from January 2014 to March 2015 in order to collect information to assist in its deliberations and to prepare this report. During this time, an active national debate over the course of U.S. immigration policy was ongoing, highlighted by the November 2014 announcement by President Obama of the Immigration Accountability Executive Action, intended to provide relief from deportation for parents of citizen children and people who arrived as children and to prioritize the deportation of felons, along with further strengthening border enforcement. These actions could significantly affect the path to integration into U.S. society of millions of immigrants, particularly those in the country without proper documentation. The Executive action also expanded the population eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program and extended the period of DACA and work authorization, from 2 to 3 years and allowed parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents who have been present in the country since January 1, 2010, to request deferred action and employment authorization for 3 years under the new Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) Program. However, the expansion of DACA and establishment of
DAPA were quickly blocked by federal courts. At the time this report was completed, the implementation of the Executive action was unsettled, and its possible effects are unknown.
At the same time he announced the Executive action, President Obama established the White House Task Force on New Americans, an interagency group tasked with reviewing the federal government’s immigrant integration efforts in order to make recommendations to improve these services. The task force released an initial report in April 2015, and its findings and recommendations are cited throughout this report. The Task Force will report its final findings and recommendations to the President in November 2015.
The panel’s charge was to address the questions of immigrant integration in multiple domains. We did this by our own research, by inviting leading researchers to meetings to offer their perspectives on these questions, and by commissioning papers to address specific issues. The presentations and subsequent panel deliberations gave the panel the opportunity to develop the perspectives and articulate the challenges shared here. This volume is the product of that study process, and drafting the report was a collaborative enterprise.
We thank everyone who made presentations to the panel, including Erwin de Leon, The Urban Institute; Roberto Gonzalez, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Robert P. Jones, Public Religion Research Institute; Ali Noorani, National Immigration Forum; Jeffrey Passel, Pew Research Center; Anne Piehl, Rutgers University; Alex Piquero, University of Texas at Dallas; and Veronica Terriquez, University of Southern California. A special note of appreciation is owed to those who contributed commissioned papers: Catherine Barry, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Leighton Ku, George Washington University; and Charis Kubrin, University of California, Irvine. We particularly thank Cristina Rodriguez of Yale University who prepared a paper for us on the legal aspects of immigrant integration that was the foundation of Chapter 2; this report is very much strengthened by her contributions. We also thank Youngmin Yi, Department of Sociology, Cornell University, who prepared three tables for Chapter 6.
This report was authored by the committee. Despite having many other responsibilities, members of the committee generously donated their time and expertise to the project. Members contributed to the study by drafting and revising chapters, providing background readings, leading discussions, making presentations, and critically commenting on the various report drafts. The perspectives that members brought to the table were instrumental in synthesizing ideas throughout the committee process. The committee worked together remarkably well and with a great commitment to balance and to reviewing the available evidence to draw conclusions on a very complex and contentious topic. It was a pleasure to serve with them.
Several members of the staff of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine made significant contributions to the report. The panel was established under the auspices of the Committee on Population, directed by Thomas Plewes, who was instrumental in developing the study and providing guidance and support to the staff throughout the project. We are all greatly indebted to our study director, Marisa Gerstein Pineau, who worked tirelessly, wrote brilliantly, edited ruthlessly, and with great humor and equanimity managed a task that never should have been possible in such a short period of time. Special thanks are due to Danielle Johnson, Tina Latimer, and Mary Ghitelman, who provided logistics and report preparation support throughout the project. Kirsten Sampson Snyder ably guided the volume through report review, Robert Katt served as editor, and Yvonne Wise managed the report production process.
The project was undertaken with the support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Russell Sage Foundation, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Particular thanks go to Geri Mannion of the Carnegie Corporation of New York; Patricia White of NSF; Aixa Cintron-Velez of the Russell Sage Foundation; and Jason Ackleson, Delancey Gustin, Michael Hoefer, Tiffany Lightbourn, Laura Patching, and Nathan Stiefel of USCIS, all of whom represented these sponsoring organizations throughout the study development and information gathering processes and made innumerable contributions to the final product. Patricia White also provided the panel with original analysis of polling data for our report while on sabbatical at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. We are grateful to them and their organizations for their support.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the institution’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.
We thank the following individuals for their review of this report: Claire D. Brindis, Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health and Adolescent and Young Adult Health-National Resource Center, University of California, San Francisco; Katharine M. Donato, Department of Sociology, Vanderbilt University; Elena Fuentes-Afflick, Pediatrics and Academic Affairs, University of California, San Francisco; Tomás Jiménez, Department of Sociology, Stanford University; Michael Jones-Correa, Department of Government, Cornell University; John R. Logan, Spatial Structures in the
Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, Brown University; Emilio A. Parrado, Department of Sociology and Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania; Manuel Pastor, Sociology and American Studies and Ethnicity and Program for Environmental and Regional Equity and Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, University of Southern California; Giovanni Peri, Department of Economics and Temporary Migration Cluster, University of California, Davis; Zhenchao Qian, Department of Sociology and Institute for Population Research, Ohio State University; and David D. Yao, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Columbia University.
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the contents of this volume before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Michael Hout of the Department of Sociology, New York University, and Ellen W. Clayton of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, Vanderbilt University. Appointed by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, they were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the authors.
Mary C. Waters, Chair
Panel on the Integration of Immigrants
into American Society
Contents
Demographic Changes in the Foreign-Born Population Since 1970
American Attitudes about Immigration
2 LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT FOR IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION
History of Immigration Policy in the United States
Modern Immigration Federalism: Enforcement Versus Integration
3 LEGAL STATUS AND IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION
4 POLITICAL AND CIVIC DIMENSIONS OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION
Naturalization and Citizenship
Civic Volunteerism and Community Organizations
“Learning” Civic and Political Engagement
5 SPATIAL DIMENSIONS OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION
Spatial Integration: Background and Theory
State and Local Contexts and Policy Responses
6 SOCIOECONOMIC DIMENSIONS OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION
Changing Conditions in American Society
Educational Attainment among Immigrants
8 FAMILY DIMENSIONS OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION
Intermarriage and Immigrant Integration
Childbearing and Family Formation among Immigrants
Family Living Arrangements among Immigrants
9 HEALTH STATUS AND ACCESS TO CARE
Health and Illness among Immigrants
Immigrant Integration and Health
Access to Health Care among Immigrants
10 DATA ON IMMIGRANTS AND IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION