International Migration Review

Using large-scale census data and adjusting for sending-country fixed effect to account for changing composition of immigrants, we study relative immigrant selection to Canada and the U.S. during 1990-2006, a period characterized by diverging immigration policies in the two countries. Results show a gradual change in selection patterns in educational attainment and host country language proficiency in favor of Canada as its post-1990 immigration policy allocated more points to the human capital of new entrants...

The 1990s marked the beginning of a new era of immigration in terms of volume and settlement patterns and also witnessed significant changes in the social contexts confronting immigrants. These changes could have significant repercussions for immigrant youth. While previous research on high school dropout behavior suggests immigrant youth are faring better in US schools, our research provides a less optimistic outlook. Using the National Educational Longitudinal Study (1988) and Educational Longitudinal Study (2002), we use multivariate analysis, regression decomposition and fixed effect models to examine how reading and math test scores of children of immigrants changed during the 1990s...

Even though women have long participated in Mexico-U.S. migration studies assessing the labor market implications of international mobility for women are rare. Especially lacking are studies that follow a life-course approach and compare employment trajectories across contexts and in connection with other transitions. Using life-history data collected in Mexico and the United States, we explore the impact of migration on women's employment, focusing on how the determinants of employment vary across contexts...

We combine two approaches to gauge the achievements of the Mexican-origin second generation: one the intergenerational progress between immigrant parents and children, the other the gap between the second generation and non-Latino whites. We measure advancement of the Mexican-origin second generation using a suite of census-derived outcomes applied to immigrant parents in 1980 and grown children in 2005, as observed in California and Texas. Patterns of second-generation upward mobility are similar in the two states, with important differences across outcome indicators...

Prior work has documented the remarkable decline in the real wages of Mexican immigrant workers in the United States over the past several decades. Although some of this trend might be attributable to the changing characteristics of the migrants themselves, we argue that a more important change was the circumstances under within Mexican immigrants competed for jobs in the United States. After 1986 a growing share of Mexican immigrants were undocumented, discrimination against them was mandated by federal law, and enforcement efforts rose in intensity...

This research note examines response and allocation rates for legal status questions asked in publicly available U.S. surveys to address worries that the legal status of immigrants cannot be reliably measured. Contrary to such notions, we find that immigrants' response rates to questions about legal status are typically not higher than response rates to other immigration-related questions, such as country of birth and year of immigration. Further exploration of two particular surveys - the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (LAFANS) and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) - reveals that these data sources produce profiles of the unauthorized immigrant population that compare favorably to independently estimated profiles...

In the 1990s, the immigrant population in the United States dispersed to non-traditional settlement locations (what have become known as "new immigrant destinations"). This paper examines whether the allure of new destinations persisted in the 2000s with a particular focus on the internal migration of the foreign born during the recent deep recessionary period and its aftermath. Three specific questions motivate the analysis. First, are immigrants, much like the US-born population, becoming less migratory within the country over time? Second, is immigrant dispersal from traditional gateways via internal migration continuing despite considerable economic contraction in many new destination metropolitan areas? Third, is immigration from aboard a substitute for what appears to be declining immigrant internal migration to new destinations? The findings reveal a close correlation between the declining internal migration propensity of the US-born and immigrants in the last two decades...

Using data from Malawi, this study situates the discourse on migration, entrepreneurship, and development within the context of Africa's social realities. It examines self-employment differences among three groups of migrants and corresponding group differences in agricultural and non-agricultural self-employment. International migrants are found to be more engaged in self-employment than internal-migrants. However, our results suggest that previous findings on the development-related contributions of returning migrants from the West need to be appropriately contextualized...

In many rural regions of developing countries, natural resource dependency means changes in climate patterns hold tremendous potential to impact livelihoods. When environmentally-based livelihood options are constrained, migration can become an important adaptive strategy. Using data from the Mexican Migration Project, we model U.S. emigration from rural communities as related to community, household and climate factors. The results suggest that households subjected to recent drought conditions are far more likely to send a U...

Using data from a stratified random sample of 281 foreign-born adolescents and their parents, this study provides data on migration-related trauma exposures and examines how the migration process influences the risk of experiencing trauma and developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We find that 29% of foreign-born adolescents and 34% of foreign-born parents experienced trauma during the migration process. Among those that experienced trauma, 9% of adolescents and 21% of their parents were at risk for PTSD...

We describe a method for producing annual estimates of the unauthorized immigrant population in the United Sates and components of population change, for each state and D.C., for 1990 to 2010. We quantify a sharp drop in the number of unauthorized immigrants arriving since 2000, and we demonstrate the role of departures from the population (emigration, adjustment to legal status, removal by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and deaths) in reducing population growth from one million in 2000 to population losses in 2008 and 2009...

Foundational theories of international migration rest on the assumption that immigrants maintain reference groups in their country of origin even after settling in a new place, while the transnationalism perspective suggests that immigrants maintain a dual frame of reference. This paper uses the nationally-representative National Latino and Asian American Survey to test the location of immigrants' reference groups. I find that the relationship between various measures of subjective social standing and subjective well-being suggests that immigrants maintain simultaneous reference groups in both the United States and the country of origin, supporting transnational theories, and refuting earlier theories...

This study adds to a growing body of research on the contextual determinants of marriage choice and provides new information on ethnic intermarriage in the late 19(th) Century. Census microdata for 66 major cities in 1880 are used to estimate a multilevel model of assortative mating of Irish, German, and British immigrants. Results demonstrate that marital choices made by individuals are significantly affected by the local urban context where they live. In addition the very large disparity in endogamy between the British and other groups can mainly be attributed to the smaller size of the British population in these cities...

This paper evaluates comparative patterns of fertility in new Hispanic destinations and established gateways using pooled cross-sectional data from the 2005-2009 microdata files of the American Community Survey. Changing Hispanic fertility provides a useful indicator of cultural incorporation. Analyses show that high fertility among Hispanics has been driven in part by the Mexican-origin and other new immigrant populations (e.g., noncitizens, those with poor English language skills, etc.). However, high fertility rates among Hispanics - and Mexican-origin Hispanics in particular - cannot be explained entirely by socio-demographic characteristics that place them at higher risk of fertility...

In this study, we examined origin, destination, and community effects on first- and second-generation immigrants' health in Europe. We used information from the European Social Surveys (2002–2008) on 19,210 immigrants from 123 countries of origin, living in 31 European countries. Cross-classified multilevel regression analyses reveal that political suppression in the origin country and living in countries with large numbers of immigrant peers have a detrimental influence on immigrants' health. Originating from predominantly Islamic countries and good average health among natives in the destination country appear to be beneficial...

We examine the utilization of remittances for expenditures associated with development, specifically children's education. We use household-level data from the Nepal Living Standards Survey (NLSS II, 2003–04) to separate remittance effects from general household income effects to demonstrate the migration–development relationship reflected in child schooling investment. We find that family-household remittances are spent on education of children, but the expenditures are disproportionately for boys' schooling...

This study examines whether previous findings of an immigrant schooling advantage among Blacks in the United States reflect a declining significance of race in the enrollment patterns of immigrants’ children. Using data from the 2000 US census, the study finds that, despite their advantage within the Black population, the children of Black Africans are collectively disadvantaged relative to the children of White Africans. Disparate enrollment trajectories are found among children in Black and White African families...

The geography Mexican migration to the U.S. has experienced deep transformations in both its origin composition and the destinations chosen by migrants. To date, however, we know little about how shifting migrant origins and destinations may be linked to each another geographically and, ultimately, structurally as relatively similar brands of economic restructuring have been posited to drive the shifts in origins and destinations. In this paper, we describe how old and new migrant networks have combined to fuel the well-documented geographic expansion of Mexican migration...

This paper explores the relationship between social context, measured in terms of school characteristics, and the assimilation of immigrant adolescents. First, it develops a measure of assimilation based on comparing immigrant adolescents to native peers within the same school. Second, it investigates whether immigrant adolescents' degree of assimilation varies systematically according to school SES. Third, it explores the role of parental and adolescent behavior in creating such variation. Results show that both Asian and Hispanic immigrant youth are less assimilated to native youths' substance use and delinquency patterns in lower-SES schools...

Choosing a secondary school represents an important step in the lives of students in Italy, in that it has a strong bearing on their ultimate educational achievement and labor force trajectory. In this paper, we analyze the effect of generational status and length of residence on the transition to secondary school among immigrants living in Italy. Using data from the ITAGEN2 follow-up, we analyze scholastic results from the middle school final exam and the choice of secondary school among the adolescents in Italy...