Statistics on U.S. Immigration An Assessment of Data Needs for Future Research (1996) / Chapter Skim
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3 Effects of Immigration and Assimilation
3 Effects of Immigration and Assimilation
Pages 28-39
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From page 28... ...
It is further assumed that the benefits to society also increase with greater assimilation to American culture. Recent research findings, however, especially in the areas of perinatal health, mental health, and education, raise significant questions about such assumptions.
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From page 29... ...
More specific areas of disagreement include: whether recent arrivals are less skilled than earlier arrivals; whether the pace of socioeconomic assimilation has slowed in recent years and, if so, why; whether the net social and economic impacts of immigration are positive or negative; which social groups and communities are the net beneficiaries (or losers) from the influx of new immigrants; whether legal immigrants, illegal aliens, and refugees face dissimilar prospects for integration in the United States and, if so, why; and whether the criteria currently used to admit immigrants are optimal for achieving social, political, humanitarian, and economic objectives.
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From page 30... ...
Whereas assessments of economic well-being based on national samples are worthwhile for broad generalizations about income inequality among nationality groups, they are inadequate for portraying the contexts within which economic integration processes unfold. Widely discrepant conclusions about the extent and nature of labor market competition between native-born and immigrant people illustrate the need to reconcile findings based on specific labor markets and those based on nationally representative analyses.
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From page 31... ...
Comparing Political and Economic Immigration Because systematic comparisons of political and economic migrants have not been undertaken, a third important area is improving understanding about whether and how the integration experiences of refugees and legal immigrants differ. Refugees undertake politically motivated migration, whereas immigrants have economic motivation, according to a perspective taken by some.
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From page 32... ...
However, the Legalized Population Survey, conducted in 1986 by Westat, Inc., under contract to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, provides a unique opportunity to analyze the income and employment dynamics of recently legalized immigrants. It is a nationally representative survey of immigrants granted amnesty under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act.
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From page 33... ...
are eligible for different federal assistance programs than economic migrants, who enter the United States based on scrutiny of their ability to gain successful employment. A final area that warrants attention is the effect of the legal status, especially legalization, on immigrant adjustment.
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From page 34... ...
were significantly lower than those for the non-Hispanic white population(RumbautandWeeks,1989;WeeksandRumbaut,l9911. The results are noteworthy because the Southeast Asians had the highest rates of poverty and fertility in the state, had experienced very high infant death rates prior to their arrival in the Unites States, lacked English proficiency, and had the latest onset of prenatal care of all ethnic groups.
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From page 35... ...
Moreover, research is needed to identify protective factors that appear to reduce mental health problems within diverse ethnic minority groups; recent findings show that certain immigrant groups exhibit lower symptom levels of psychiatric disorders than do majority group natives. Longitudinal studies are especially needed to characterize and investigate stress and its temporal patterning among immigrant groups, including patterns of immigrant adaptation to specific conditions of life change and their psychological or emotional sequence.
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From page 36... ...
Studying the adaptation process of immigrant children patterns of language acquisition, educational attainment, cultural and psychological adjustment, ethnic identity, and acculturation strategies can best be approached through comparative longitudinal research designs in a variety of community contexts, supplemented by intensive ethnographic field work. Parental socioeconomic status and individual human capital can certainly be expected to have a strong effect on every aspect of the adaptation process, but those characteristics and related demographic variables cannot by themselves provide a completely satisfactory explanation.
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From page 37... ...
First, country of origin is important because some immigrants originate in conditions with high mortality: survivors of high mortality are quite selective and may be seen as healthier in their years after arrival in the United States. Second, the local context of their destination community can influence health outcomes.
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From page 38... ...
The decennial census and the Current Population Survey are not appropriate for collecting immigration status, however, because they are self-administered (respondents often do not know their specific immigrant status) and questions on immigration status on the Current Population Survey could affect the collection of employment data.
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From page 39... ...
The Annual Survey of Refugees was converted to a longitudinal survey beginning with the 1984 interviews, tracking a randomly sampled group of refugees over their initial five years in the country. The survey permits comparisons of refugees arriving in different years and hence allows an evaluation of the relative influence of changing conditions of the period on the process of economic and social integration.
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