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Citizenship and Civic Engagement |
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The
Redesigned Citizenship Test: High Stakes
MPI Backgrounder No. 6, September 2008
More than a decade in the making, the redesigned citizenship test required for
use after October 1, 2008 is supposed to provide a more meaningful opportunity
for applicants to demonstrate knowledge about US history and civics, and allow
the government more standardized test administration. This MPI Backgrounder details
the redesign process, examines whether the government met its goals, and provides
policy recommendations.
Fact
Sheet | Press
Release
Behind the Naturalization Backlog
By Claire Bergeron and Jeremy Banks
Fact Sheet No. 21, February 2008
Citizenship Fee Increases in Context
By Julia Gelatt
Fact Sheet No. 15, February 2007
New Americans: Facts on Naturalization and Birthright
Citizenship
By Mary Helen Ybarra Johnson, Michael Fix, and Julie Murray
Securing the Future: US Immigrant Integration Policy, A Reader
February 2007
From Immigrant to Citizen
By Janet Murguía and Cecilia Muñoz
Securing the Future: US Immigrant Integration Policy, A Reader
February 2007
(Originally published in The American Prospect,
Volume 16, No. 11) |
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Education |
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The Binational Option: Meeting the Instructional Needs of Limited English Proficient Students
By Aaron Terrazas and Michael Fix
With 1 in 10 children in US schools having limited English proficiency, school districts across the country face challenges in meeting the students' educational needs and finding enough qualified bilingual and English as a Second Language educators. This report identifies international teacher exchanges as an innovative, near-term strategy for school administrators to respond to immediate teaching needs, particularly in subject areas where knowledge of a foreign language is necessary. In conjunction with efforts to recruit local teachers, foreign teachers can help alleviate endemic shortages — particularly in districts that face rapid, unexpected, or short-term changes in the student population.
Download Report | Press Release
Recommendations
for Addressing the Needs of English Language Learners
Policymakers and state and local school administrators disbursing federal stimulus
funds designed to improve children’s educational outcomes should pay targeted
attention to the nation’s growing population of English language learners,
a group of researchers with extensive experience regarding ELL students recommends
in a new report. The ELL Working Group, of which MPI Senior Vice President Michael
Fix is a member, was convened by Diane August, Kenji Hakuta, and Jennifer O’Day.
The group’s recommendations were presented to senior US Department of Education
officials and other senior education officers, among others.
Download
Report
Gambling
on the Future: Managing the Education Challenges of Rapid
Growth in Nevada
 By
Aaron Terrazas and Michael Fix
Nevada, the fastest growing state in the United States, is
experiencing a population boom – driven in part by immigration – that
has key implications for its school system and labor market.
Immigrants represent one in five Nevada residents and their
children account for one in three Nevadans under age 18. Yet
even as schools have experienced a surge in enrollment, federal
and state investments in the state's failing education system
haven't kept pace.
Download
Report | Press
Release
Educating the Children of Immigrants
By Julie Murray, Jeanne Batalova, and Michael Fix
Securing the Future: US Immigrant Integration Policy, A Reader
February 2007
New
Estimates of Unauthorized Youth Eligible for Legal Status under the DREAM Act
Backgrounder by Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
October 2006
The DREAM Act, incorporated into the current Senate bill, would
immediately make about 360,000 young people aged 18 to 24 who
have graduated from high school or obtained a GED eligible
for conditional legal status. Those who qualify and then attend
college or join the military within six years would become
eligible for permanent legal status – an arrangement unprecedented in US history.
The New Demography of
America's Schools
By Randolph Capps, Michael Fix, Julie Murray,
Jason Ost, Jeffrey S. Passel, and Shinta Hirontoro
Urban Institute, September 2005
Immigrant
Children, Urban Schools, and the No Child Left Behind Act
By Michael Fix, Migration Policy Institute
Randy Capps, The Urban Institute
Migration Information Source, November 1, 2005
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Employment and Workforce |
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Tied to the Business Cycle: How Immigrants Fare in Good and Bad Economic Times
By Pia M. Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny
Immigrants surpassed native-born workers in several key labor market outcomes from the mid-1990s through 2007, recording higher employment and lower jobless rates — but the trend was reversed with the onset of the current recession. The report, which analyzes employment and unemployment patterns over the past 15 years and two recessions, shows that immigrant economic outcomes began deteriorating before the current recession officially began in December 2007, tracing immigrants' declining fortunes largely to the housing bust which began in spring 2006.
Download Report | Press Release
Taking
Limited English Proficient Adults into Account in the Federal
Adult Education Funding Formula
By Randy Capps, Michael Fix, Margie McHugh, and Serena Yi-Ying Lin
This new report by MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy
examines the funding formula used to distribute Workforce Investment Act (WIA)
Title II federal funds for adult education, literacy, and English as a Second
Language instruction. Though all adults with limited English proficiency (LEP)
are eligible for WIA Title II programs, the authors report that the formula used
to distribute $554 million to the states in fiscal 2009 excludes 11.2 million
LEP adults with at least a high school education. With WIA up for reauthorization,
the authors suggest there is an opportunity for policymakers to revisit the funding
formula and related issues.
Download
report
Uneven
Progress: The Employment Pathways of Skilled Immigrants in
the United States
 By
Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix with Peter A. Creticos
More than 1.3 million college-educated immigrants in the United
States are unemployed or working in unskilled jobs because they
are unable to make full use of their academic and professional
credentials, MPI reports in the first assessment yet of the scope
of the “brain waste” problem. The report analyzes
and offers possible solutions for the credentialing and language-barrier
hurdles that deprive the US economy of a rich source of human
capital at a time of increasing competition globally for skilled
talent.
Download
Report | Press
Release
Purchase a hard copy at the MPI bookstore: US | International
Improving Immigrant Workers’ Economic
Prospects: A Review of the Literature
By Amy Beeler and Julie Murray
Securing the Future: US Immigrant Integration Policy, A Reader
February 2007
The Impact of
Immigration on Native Workers: A Fresh Look at the Evidence
By Julie Murray, Jeanne Batalova, and Michael Fix
Task Force Insight No. 18, July 2006
The authors carefully review the extensive literature and conclude
that despite the rhetoric of the current debate, the literature
indicates that immigration does not have strong wage or employment
effects on natives.
Immigrants
and US Labor Unions
By Elizabeth Grieco
Fact Sheet, May 2004
College-Educated
Foreign Born in the US Labor Force
By Jeanne Batalova
Migration Information Source, February 2005
The
Foreign Born in the US Labor Force
By Elizabeth Grieco
Fact Sheet, January 2004
What
Kind of Work Do Immigrants Do?
Occupation and Industry of Foreign-Born Workers in the United States
By Elizabeth Grieco
Fact Sheet, January 2004
View Graphs
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Fiscal Impacts |
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Designing an Impact Aid Program
for Immigrant Settlement
By Deborah L. Garvey
Securing the Future: US Immigrant Integration Policy, A Reader
February 2007
Federal Spending on Immigrant Families' Integration
By Julia Gelatt and Michael Fix
Securing the Future: US Immigrant Integration Policy, A Reader
February 2007
Civic
Contributions: Taxes Paid by Immigrants in the Washington,
DC, Metropolitan Area
By Randy Capps and Everett Henderson, The Urban Institute;
Jeffrey S. Passel, Pew Hispanic Center; and Michael Fix,
Migration Policy Institute
Urban Institute, June 2006
The Washington, DC, metropolitan area is home to over 1 million
immigrants, who composed one-fifth of the area’s total
population in 2004. An Urban Institute study finds that
migrants’ share of all taxes paid by metro area residents
was virtually the same as their share of the population.
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General Integration Policy |
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Protection through Integration: The Mexican Government’s Efforts to Aid Migrants in the United States
By Laureen Laglagaron
Immigrant integration remains largely an afterthought in US immigration policy discussions and the country’s integration policies remain chronically underfunded and limited in scope. Local and informal actors such as families and community-based organizations have historically taken on this responsibility. However, as this report explores, new partners are emerging. Mexico’s efforts to help its migrants succeed in the United States offer a new example of an immigrant-sending country looking to improve its emigrants’ lives and connect with its diaspora. The report examines the evolution of Mexico’s approach to its migrants and details the activities of Mexico’s Institute of Mexicans Abroad (IME) in a first-ever attempt to map the expanding range of IME educational, health care, financial, and civic engagement programs.
Download Report | Press Release
Los
Angeles on the Leading Edge: Immigrant Integration Indicators
and Their Policy Implications
By Michael Fix, Margie McHugh, Aaron Matteo Terrazas, and Laureen Laglagaron
April 2008
As Los Angeles makes the transition from being a city of immigrants to one dominated
by their US-born children, it can serve as a policy laboratory for other cities
facing the need to better integrate immigrants into US classrooms, workplaces,
and civic life. MPI’s report details the imperative for integration policies
that will benefit immigrants and the broader US society alike.
Download
Report | Press
Release
Securing the Future: US Immigrant Integration Policy, A Reader
Michael Fix, Editor
This volume sketches the contours of a national integration policy
and includes a discussion of key integration issues raised by
the current debate around immigration reform, including impact
aid to state and local governments and financing health care
for legalizing immigrants.
Read More | Order from Bookstore
Leaving Too Much to Chance: A Roundtable on Immigrant Integration Policy
By Michael Fix, Demetrios G. Papademetriou, and Betsy Cooper
November 2005
Fifty of the nation's leading experts gathered at MPI to discuss
three critical areas of integration policy: PreK - 12 education;
work and work supports for immigrant families; and civic engagement
and citizenship, with the aim of identifying major policy changes
and opportunities and to begin mapping an agenda for policy change
regarding immigrant integration.
Migration Information Source Special Issue on Integration
October 2003
Policy
Considerations for Immigrant Integration
By Demetrios G. Papademetriou
Migration Information Source Special
Issue on Immigrants and Integration
October 2003
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Health |
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Immigrants and Health Care Reform: What’s Really at Stake?
By Randy Capps, Marc R. Rosenblum, and Michael Fix
Health care reform proposals under consideration in Congress that would exclude many legal immigrants from core benefits and impose new verification requirements would have important spillover consequences for taxpayers and other health care consumers. In a new report, MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy offers the first-ever estimates of the size of uninsured immigrant populations in major immigrant-destination states, the number of immigrant workers covered by employer-provided plans, and the share of immigrants employed by small firms likely to be exempted from employer coverage mandates. The report, based on MPI analysis of Census Bureau data, also examines health coverage for immigrants by legal status, age, and poverty levels.
Download Report | Press Release
Access to Health Care and Health
Insurance: Immigrants and Immigration Reform
By Leighton Ku and Demetrios G. Papademetriou
Securing the Future: US Immigrant Integration Policy, A Reader
February 2007
Access to Health Care after Immigration Reform – Practical
Considerations for Policymakers
By Adam Gurvitch
Securing the Future: US Immigrant Integration Policy, A Reader
February 2007 |
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Integration in Other Countries |
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Managing
Integration: The European Union's Responsibilities towards
Immigrants
Rita Sussmuth and Werner Weidenfeld, Editors
Bertelsmann Foundation and the Migration Policy Institute, Fall 2005
Managing immigration and integration is one of the most vital and challenging
tasks that the European Union is facing today. Since the Union's enlargement
to include 25 members, the issue has become even more pressing. This book analyzes
approaches, strategies, and best practices from EU Member States that could contribute
to a sustainable integration policy. It provides European, national, regional,
and local decision-makers with instruments they can draw on in establishing a
European framework for integration.
Europe
and Its Immigrants in the 21st Century: A New Deal or a Continuing Dialogue of
the Deaf?
Edited by Demetrios G. Papademetriou
MPI and the Luso-American Foundation, March 2006
In this volume, the Migration Policy Institute has gathered
some of the leading European thinkers to offer insightful counsel
and, wherever possible, solutions to Europe’s immigration challenges. The book’s contributors piece
together the puzzle of a well-managed, comprehensive immigration regime, tackling
issues ranging from immigration’s economic costs and benefits, to effective
selection systems, citizenship, the welfare state, and integration policies that
work.
More
information | US Orders | International Orders
The
Challenges of Integration for the EU
By Sarah Spencer
Migration Information Source Special Issue on Immigrants and Integration
October 2003
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Public Benefits Use |
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 Immigrants and Welfare: The Impact of Welfare Reform on America’s Newcomers
This volume, edited by MPI Senior Vice President Michael Fix, rigorously assesses the 1996 welfare reform law, questions whether its immigrant provisions were ever really necessary, and examines its impact on legal immigrants’ ability to integrate into American society. The book probes the politics behind the welfare reform law, its legal underpinnings, and what it may mean for integration policy. It also focuses on empirical research regarding immigrants’ propensity to use benefits before the law passed, and immigrants’ use and hardship levels afterwards.
Purchase a copy
Immigrants and Health Care Reform: What’s Really at Stake?
By Randy Capps, Marc R. Rosenblum, and Michael Fix
Health care reform proposals under consideration in Congress that would exclude many legal immigrants from core benefits and impose new verification requirements would have important spillover consequences for taxpayers and other health care consumers. In a new report, MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy offers the first-ever estimates of the size of uninsured immigrant populations in major immigrant-destination states, the number of immigrant workers covered by employer-provided plans, and the share of immigrants employed by small firms likely to be exempted from employer coverage mandates. The report, based on MPI analysis of Census Bureau data, also examines health coverage for immigrants by legal status, age, and poverty levels.
Download Report | Press Release
Federal Spending on Immigrant Families' Integration
By Julia Gelatt and Michael Fix
Securing the Future: US Immigrant Integration Policy, A Reader
February 2007
Access to Health Care and Health Insurance: Immigrants
and Immigration Reform
By Leighton Ku and Demetrios G. Papademetriou
Securing the Future: US Immigrant Integration Policy, A Reader
February 2007
Access to Health Care after Immigration Reform: Lessons from New York
By Adam Gurvitch
Securing the Future: US Immigrant Integration Policy, A Reader
February 2007
"Immigrants'
Costs and Contributions: The Effects of
Reform"
Michael Fix's Testimony before the US House of Representatives
Committee on Ways and Means, July 26, 2006
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State and Local Immigration Regulation |
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Testing
the Limits: A Framework for Assessing the Legality of State
and Local Immigration Measures
By Cristina Rodríguez, Muzaffar Chishti, and Kimberly Nortman
Report, December 2007
In 2007 alone, the 50 state legislatures have considered over 1,000 pieces of
legislation regulating immigrants and immigration. This paper provides a framework
for assessing the legal validity of five of the most common or high-profile measures
that address unauthorized immigration specifically.
Blurring the Lines: A Profile of State and
Local Police Enforcement of Immigration Law Using the National
Crime Information Center Database, 2002-2004
By Hannah Gladstein, Annie Lai, Jennifer Wagner and Michael Wishnie
Report, December 2005
In almost 9,000 cases from 2002 to 2004, police officers checking
the names of individuals stopped or detained against records
in the nation's main criminal database received an initial "hit" for
an immigration violation that, upon further investigation,
the Department of Homeland Security could not confirm. The
rate of false positives was 42 percent overall, and some individual
law enforcement agencies had error rates as high as 90 percent. |
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