The New Americans Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration (1997) / Chapter Skim
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2 Background to Contemporary U.S. Immigration
2 Background to Contemporary U.S. Immigration
Pages 20-75
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From page 20... ...
And fears about illegal immigration are not confined to the United States; other developed countries have experienced large, and often organized, flows of illegal immigrants. These developments highlight the need for a better understanding of the historical context for the global changes that form the backdrop to U.S.
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Most people who enter the United States legally do not intend to become permanent residents. These people, referred to as nonimmigrants by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
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From page 22... ...
Many foreign-born persons enumerated in the decennial census are immigrants, but some are nonimmigrants and some are illegal immigrants. Census data also do not designate the visa status at the time of arrival in the United States, so we do not know whether a person may have entered the United States as a legal immigrant, as a refugee, or as a nonimmigrant who subsequently adjusted his or her status to permanent resident.
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From page 23... ...
The Immigration Act of 1891 broadened the role of the federal government in monitoring and regulating immigration. Creating the Office of Immigration, the precursor to today' s Immigration and Naturalization Service, this act directed the superintendent of immigration to enforce immigration laws under the supervision of the secretary of the treasury.
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Initiated a 7-category visa system for family unification and skills. Set a quota for Western Hemisphere immigration for the first time and set a country limit of 20,000 immigrants for the Eastern Hemisphere.
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Expanded restrictions on access of legal immigrants to welfare benefits. Increased border enforcement.
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Others had entered in previous decades from Mexico, although many Mexicans were deported from the United States in the 1930s during the Great Depression. An unintended consequence of the 1920s legislation was an increase in illegal immigration.
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Applications for legal admission into the United States increased following World War II and so did illegal immigration. It was also clear by the late 1940s that many of the old immigration laws were outdated.
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Of refugees and legal immigrants entering the United States from the nations of the former Soviet Union are counted together, then this group would also rank as one of the top 10 sending countries in the l990s.
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A major focus of recent legislation has been how to deal with problems associated with illegal immigrants, including the large numbers already living in the United States. The primary purpose of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA)
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From page 30... ...
First and foremost, during the first five years of their residence in the United States, it restricts access to and use of public assistance programs for legal immigrants who are not citizens. It also bars noncitizen immigrants who have been here for more than five years from some federal welfare programs.
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From page 31... ...
This period, one of rapid urbanization and industrialization in the United States, saw especially large immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. The peak year for admission of new legal immigrants to the United States was 1907, when almost 1.3 million immigrants entered and added more than 3 percent to the U.S.
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The 1965 liberalizing changes in immigration legislation prompted even further increases, as the United States began to receive new immigrants from Asia and Latin America. At the same time, illegal immigrants began appearing in significant numbers.
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FIGURE 2.2 Average annual number of legal immigrants into the United States per 1,000 residents, 1820-1995. data that is arrayed in Figure 2.1, but expressing the annual number of immigrants relative to 1,000 U.S.
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From page 34... ...
Even though immigration is now at a much lower rate than it was at the turn of the century, it plays a greater role in population growth than it did then 37 percent compared with 28 percent for the 1900 to 1910 decade. The reason lies with the other contributor of population growththe number of births to the resident population, which has dropped with the decline in overall fertility rates.
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With the continuing heavy immigration of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the foreign-born population grew steadily, reaching a peak of about 14.4 million in 1930. At the same time, it increased as a proportion of the U.S.
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From page 36... ...
at e ca Europe 1825 1835 1845 1855 1865 1875 1885 1895 1905 1915 1925 1935 1945 1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 Period (labeled by midpoint) FIGURE 2.5 Average annual number of legal immigrants into the United States by region of last residence, 1820-1995.
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From page 37... ...
In the 1980s, Latin America accounted for 2.4 million of legal immigrants. Mexico is the largest single source of legal immigrants, accounting for 12 to 14 percent of the flow during each of the past four decades.
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From page 38... ...
grants admitted into the United States since 1945 have been refugees and asylees. Refugee admissions as a proportion of total immigration, including illegal immigration, has decreased in recent years, now accounting for about 15 percent.
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, a high proportion of Mexican illegal immigrants return to their original villages after one or more prolonged periods of working in the United States. These caveats aside, available estimates suggest that between roughly 35 and i6Little is known on these topics because the data on emigration are weak: the United States does not record and link departures of individual immigrants with original arrival data; it does not have, at present, any ongoing longitudinal surveys of immigrants that would provide information about emigration; and, finally, information on illegal immigration is scanty.
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From page 40... ...
immigration policy sets a flexible annual limit on the number of new legal immigrants, and then uses a complex preference system to decide which applicants will be given visas. The baseline annual limit now stands at 675,000 immigrants, down from 700,000 during the 1992-94 fiscal years.
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From page 41... ...
It is also not an absolute limit, in that the number of immigrants in a given year can exceed the cap because some categories of immigrants have no numerical limits spouses, minor children, and parents of adult U.S. citizens; children born abroad to legal permanent residents; refugees and asylees who are adjusting their status to permanent resident; and a few other groups such as Amerasians and persons eligible for legalization under IRCA.
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From page 42... ...
citizens none 220,360 Children born abroad to permanent residents none 1,894 Refugee and asylee adjustments to permanent resident none Miscellaneous categories (IRCA legalization, Amerasians, parolees) Total none 12,563 720,461 IRCA = Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 Sources: Data from U.S.
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From page 43... ...
citizens 11,219 9,636 Children of those unmarried adult children 3,963 3,183 2nd Spouses of permanent residents 38,828 43,033 Children of permanent residents 59,574 41,450 Children of those spouses or children 12,558 14,121 Unmarried adult children of permanent residents 24,174 23,221 Children of those unmarried adult children 9,401 6,483 3rd Married adult children of U.S. citizens 5,719 6,475 Spouses of those married adult children 5,052 5,667 Children of those married adult children 10,105 11,243 4th Brothers and sisters of U.S.
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From page 44... ...
Under these amendments, an immigrant who is admitted based on his or her recent marriage to a U.S. citizen or permanent-resident alien receives a conditional visa and must show the Immigration and Naturalization Service that the marriage was and is still intact at the end of two years, a condition that 94 percent of the cases reviewed in 1994 satisfied.
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From page 45... ...
In the employment-preference categories, the majority of admissions are of skilled workers or those admitted on the basis of high levels of education, along with their dependents. Executives and managers of multinational corporations are also an important component of these admissions, accounting for 58 percent TABLE 2.5 Immigrant Waiting List, January 1994 Type of Preference Number Family Preferences, total 1st Unmarried adult children of citizens Total Spouses, minor children of permanent residents Unmarried adult children of permanent residents 3rd Married adult children of citizens 4th Brothers and sisters of citizens Employment preferences, total 1st Priority workers 2nd Professionals with advanced degrees, aliens of exceptional ability 3rd Total Skilled workers and bachelor's degree holders Unskilled workers 4th Special immigrants 5th Employment creation ("investors")
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From page 46... ...
The higher level of immigration in 1993 was due in part to special provisions for particular immigrant groups: the allocation of 55,000 additional visas specifically for the spouses and children of IRCA-legalized permanent residents in fiscal years 1992-94; the allowance for certain Chinese nationals to adjust their status to permanent resident as employment-preference immigrants, put in place by the Chinese Student Protection Act in October 1992; and provision of visas for Amerasians, for whom admissions peaked in 1992. The difference between admissions in the two years also reflects changes in the number of admissions in certain categories; the number of immigrant spouses and parents of U.S.
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From page 47... ...
Figure 2.7 divides the federal government spending into four categories: national defense, interest on the public debt, veterans benefits (largely veterans of the Civil War in the early periods) , and other government expenditures.
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From page 48... ...
Because these effects are potentially so much larger, we will devote two chapters in this volume to them. Nonimmigrants Although this report concentrates on the economic and demographic effects of legal immigrants, two other groups of foreign-born people enter this country and ultimately affect attitudes toward immigration: nonimmigrants and illegal immigrants.
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From page 49... ...
Most nonimmigrant categories are subject to no restrictions on the total number of admissions, but length of stay or of employment is often limited. Consequently, the number of nonimmigrants admitted in recent years far exceeds the number of legal immigrants.
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Figure 2.8 shows the average annual number of legal and illegal immigrants by decade. During the 1980s, illegal immigration accounted for about 225,000, or about onefifth, of the 1.4 million average annual immigrants.
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Data for the l990s from the Immigration and Naturalization Service for legal immigrants and from the Bureau of the Census for illegal immigrants. The characteristics of illegal immigrants emerge in studies about those who sought amnesty in 1986 under the general provisions of IRCA (as distinct from those who applied as agricultural workers)
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From page 52... ...
IRCA was designed to reduce illegal immigration through several means: by using employer sanctions to weaken the magnet of work for illegal immigrants, by legalizing formerly illegal immigrant farmworkers and thereby providing a legal labor force for agriculture, and by increasing the resources available for detection and apprehension of those trying to cross illegally into the United States from Mexico. Implementing the amnesty conditions of IRCA has been widely regarded as successful (Gonzalez Baker, 1990~; following the 1986 legislative program, the flow of illegal entries appeared to decrease for several years (Passer et al., 1990~.
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From page 53... ...
Since the 1930s, cohorts of immigrants the successive groups of immigrants who arrive in a given period of time have been more equally split between men and women (Carter and Sutch, 1996~. In 1995, for example, women accounted for slightly over half of all legal immigrants 54 percent.
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This shift has mirrored changes in immigration policy, especially as family unification moves to center stage. In addition, longer lifespans and easier travel made migration more attractive to older people.
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For example, it affects whether immigrants will be eligible for many public assistance programs, how much they will work, and the costs of educating their children. It may also be relevant to such cultural concerns as trends in marriage and in extramarital childbearing.
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From page 56... ...
This image of a family-oriented immigrant is reinforced by examining the kind of families in which immigrants live. As Table 2.8 reveals, consistent with their higher rates of marriage, recent immigrants have a greater likelihood of living in family households (people living together related by blood or marriage)
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From page 57... ...
Immigration and Naturalization Service (1997:Table 14)
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From page 58... ...
Type of Household 1980-1990 Immigrants United States Total Nonfamily households Family households, total With own children under 18 With own children under 6 Type of family Married-couple families With own children under 18 With own children under 6 Family with female householder, no husband present, total With own children under 18 With own children under 6 Family with male householder, no wife present 21.0 79.0 52.1 19.6 59.2 41.7 16.1 10.8 7.2 2.0 9.0 29.8 70.2 33.6 15.5 55.1 25.6 12.4 11.6 6.6 2.6 3.4 Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census (1993:Foreign Born Population of United States, Table 2; General Population Characteristics, Table 36)
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From page 59... ...
Figures 2.12 and 2.13 show the state of residence for newly arriving legal and illegal immigrants in 1994. By and large, recent immigrants are going to the same places that immigrants went to 10 and 20 years ago the majority to those same six states.
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1 ~ ~3 bob 0-100 1 00-1 ,ooo 1 ,000-5,000 FIGURE 2.13 Illegal immigrants entering the United States in 1996 per 1 million resi dents by state. Note: net illegal immigrants entering the United States in 1996 estimated to be 275,000.
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. The mix of illegal and legal immigrants appears to reflect the balance of demand for farmworkers (attracting illegal immigrants)
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On the major issues of immigration policy the numbers of immigrants to admit, who they shall be, how to treat them during their stay the solutions adopted vary widely. This variety can be used to test the wisdom or limitations inherent in U.S.
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From page 63... ...
The flow of Aussiedler increased from 1986 to 1992, before Germany established a ceiling of 225,000 per year in 1993, with a waiting list for the remaining Aussiedler who wish to come to Germany. bin addition to the 656,000 nonlegalized immigrants in 1990, there were 880,000 persons who adjusted their status to permanent resident under the terms of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act.
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Several European countries use a "guest-worker" system in addition to permanent residence immigration. Germany, for example, has received a large number of temporary guest-workers from Turkey, who entered Germany on specific work contracts for a limited time.
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A comparison of the United States and Canada illustrates how immigration selection works in another country. It is not meant as an endorsement or criticism of the Canadian immigration system, nor that the United States should place more weight on a point-based preference system that stresses employment skills.
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66 E-° o to c,;)
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First, Family Class immigrants are sponsored on the basis of family reunification by Canadian citizens and permanent residents who are living in Canada. Second, Independent Immigrants, including those under the Business Class, are selected for their special occupational skills and experience, assessed in a point-based preference system.
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The 1965 act replaced national-ongin, race, and ancestry quotas with a preference system based on family reunification and special occupational skills or training. The 1965 act also was the first legislation that placed numerical limits on immigration from the Western Hemisphere.
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From page 69... ...
1990 The Cautious Welcome: The Legalization Programs of the Immigration Reform and Control Act. Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute Press.
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Commission on Immigration Reform U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service 1975 Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1974.
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Canadian citizens and permanent residents, age 19 years and over and living in Canada, have the right to sponsor certain close relatives who wish to immigrate to Canada. Relatives eligible for Family Class sponsorship include wife or husband; fiancees; dependent son or daughter (under 19 and unmarried, full-time student, or with disability)
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From page 72... ...
Groups of at least five Canadian citizens or permanent residents, 19 years of age or greater, or local organizations that are legally incorporated may sponsor Convention Refugees. Refugees are not subject to a formal point system for evaluation.
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From page 73... ...
Skilled workers are evaluated on all the factors. Assisted relatives are assessed on the same factors as other independent immigrants, but they receive bonus units of assessment if they have a relative in Canada.
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From page 74... ...
0 points if there are no listed occupations for which the candidate is qualified; if the applicant scores zero on this factor, then then are automatically refused a visa Intermediate points awarded on the basis of the candidate's qualified occupation (for example, an aerospace engineer and a locksmith both receive 5 points) 10 points if the candidate has arranged employment in Canada or has a designated occupation with high specific occupation preparation value 0 points if no arranged employment or a designated occupation 10 points if the person has arranged employ ment or a designated occupation with high specific vocational preparation 10 points for a member of the clergy with a congregational position offering employment 10 points for full-time employment in a family business approved by the Canada Immigration Centre The points are calculated based on the specific vocational experience (factor 3)
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From page 75... ...
Personal 10 Suitability (10) Relative 5 in Canada 75 These points are set by the federal government to adjust the volume of annual immigration; 8 points are awarded in 1996 These points are awarded based on a personal assessment of a Canadian visa officer; the points are based on adaptability, motivation, initiative, and resourcefulness; the purpose is to predict whether the applicant and family will be able to settle successfully in Canada 5 points are awarded if the applicant has a brother, sister, mother, father, grandparent, aunt, uncle, niece, or nephew as a permanent resident or Canadian citizen living in Canada
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