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Adult Language and Literacy
Children and Family Policy
Citizenship and Civic Engagement
Education PreK - 12
Employment and Workforce
Fiscal Impacts

General Integration Policy
Governance
Health
Integration in Other Countries
Integration Policy
Public Benefits Use
State and Local Immigration Regulation


Adult Language and Literacy

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

Adult English Language Instruction in the United States: Determining Need and Investing Wisely
July 2007

Improving Immigrant Workers’ Economic Prospects: A Review of the Literature
Securing the Future: US Immigrant Integration Policy, A Reader
February 2007


Children and Family Policy

Today’s Second Generation: Getting Ahead or Falling Behind?
Roger Waldinger and Renee Reichl
Securing the Future: US Immigrant Integration Policy, A Reader
February 2007

Knight Community Profiles on Young Children of Immigrants
By David Dixon, Julia Gelatt, and Afshin Zilanawala
February 2007
MPI provides an overview of characteristics of young children (under age 9) of immigrants living in 14 communities throughout the United States.

Migration Information Source Special Issue on the Second Generation in the United States
October 2006


Citizenship and Civic Engagement

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)



Education

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


Employment and Workforce

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


Fiscal Impacts

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.


General Integration Policy

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


Governance

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

The Role of Cities in Immigrant Integration
By Brian Ray
Migration Information Source Special Issue on Immigrants and Integration
October 2003



Health

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


Integration in Other Countries

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


Public Benefits Use

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


State and Local Immigration Regulation

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.