Immigrants and New Societies Midterm

foreign born population

• individuals born outside the US who were not US citizens at birth

• 15% of US population is foreign born

• 52% are naturalized

• Latin America and Asia are top two regions of origin

• US hosted largest number of immigrants in 2024

• foreign born population peaked in Jan 2025, but it tends to ebb and flow

What can we learn from data sources about the foreign born population

• demographic characteristics

  • marital status

  • age

  • education

  • gender

• economic characteristics

  • income

  • remittances

  • occupation

  • industry

  • public benefits use

citizenship status

whether or not someone is a US citizen

immigration status

different categories of non-citizens

• lawful permanent residents

• refugees and asylees

• nonimmigrants (those with temporary visas)

• unauthorized/undocumented immigrants

data sources: “stock”

populations residing in US at one point in time

• ACS

  • largest household survey in the US

• Current Population Survey

• ACS and CPS (both Census Bureau surveys) don’t capture immigration status, but they do capture citizenship status

flow data

• Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reports

• tracks for each fiscal year:

  • admissions of lawful permanent residents

  • naturalizations

  • refugees and asylees

sending country

country from which a person leaves to live in another country

receiving country

country that accepts immigrant

push factors

factors that motivate someone to leave their country

pull factors

factors that attract someone to move to another country

qualitative restrictions

restrict immigration based on qualitative features, like personal attributes. 

quantitative restrictions

restrictions on immigration that is based on a number, typically a numerical quota. 

Phase 1 of Immigration to US 1880-1930: “The Great European Wave”

• regions: Western Europe at first, then Southern, Eastern, and Central Europe

• Push factors:

  • industrialization in Europe (peasants from rural areas left jobless and fewer opportunities in European cities due to overpopulation)

  • persecution (ex Jewish Europeans)

• pull factors: economic opportunity and labor recruitment 

Reactions to phase 1

rising anti-immigrant sentiment

• saw flow of immigrants as a “direct threat”

• skilled US workers and labor organizations concerned about falling wages and new immigrants not willing to organize

• nativists concerned with maintaining the white, Christian, English-speaking majority

• social scientists deemed some groups (Southern and Eastern Europeans) as unassimilable

increase in immigration restrictions

• slowing of industrialization: immigrants seen as competition

• immigrants’ involvement in labor movement → employers turned to Southern Black Americans to fuel industrial need in North and Midwest

  • some immigrants brought experiences of organizing labor from home country

Immigration restrictions from Congress during phase 1

prior to 1920s, restrictions were generally qualitative

• 1875: bars against convicts and prostitutes

• 1882: Chinese Exclusion Act head tax

• 1917: literacy tests

quantitative starting in 1921

• 1921: Emergency Quota Act based on 1910 census: 3% of foreign born population at time of census

• Immigration Act 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act)- based on 1890 census

Dillingham Commission

• purpose: to study causes and impacts of new immigration wave

  • assimilation, urban crime, and poverty

• motivated by urgency- panic about immigration

• conclusions:

  • restrictions by quantity and quality

  • number must be manageable

  • formed basis for next immigration laws 

the West during Phase 1

US developing land ceded by Mexico under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

• railroads

• mining

• agriculture

labor shortages during WW1- leads to contract workers, mainly immigrants

Chinese → Japanese → Mexicans immigration flow

Phase 2: 1930-1970 “retrenchment”

• Great Depression- Economic collapse meant there were no pull factors

  • US deported Mexican workers

• WW2: mass displacement of European refugees

  • increased demand for laborers, factories needed more to produce for war

  • cultural solidarity between native and foreign born increased due to a shared suffering and service

• Cold war caused more refuees → congress responded with refugee laws

phase 2 congressional actions

1952: Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) upheld national origins quotas but maintained some restrictions on Asians

1965: national origins quotas abolished and Hart-Celler Act established bases for current system: employment and family reunification

set per country numerical caps and a worldwide annual limit

Bracero Program

• 1942-1964

• seasonal labor contracts (agricultural)

• WW2 spurred greater demand for workers

• 1951: Migrant labor agreement

  • couldn’t be used to replace native workers, must be paid at a “prevailing wage,” supplied housing, food and transportation, couldn’t be subject to segregation, designated US gov as “employer” (more leverage for Mexico)

• unauthorized migration increased during and after

  • during: employers sought out Mexican workers to fill labor needs

  • after: economic dependence from both sides, family reunification

Phase 2: 1970-2010 “rebound”

• impacts form Hart-Celler Act

• growth in foreign born population

  • especially from Mexico (family reunification), Asia (employment), and Latin America

laws shaping immigration: phase 3

Refugee Act of 1980

• defined refugee in immigration law

• new legal authority to admit refugees

• uniform procedures established

Immigration Act of 1990

• updated numerical limits for family sponsored and employment immigration (still in place)

• established Diversity Immigrant Visa

• additional humanitarian protections (temporary protected status)

IRCA (1986):

• concerned with unauthorized workers: employee sanctions

• provided legalization for millions

• 1996 heightened enforcements

Phase 4: 2010-present

• global displacement, polarization in congress

• focus on immigration enforcement both interior and border

• restrictions on humanitarian migration

• large numbers at Southern border- many seeking asylum

• more families and unaccompanied minors

• 2010s: Central America

• Since 2020: increasingly diverse flows 

Harvest of Empire

• US involvement in countries (created dysfunctional societies) where migration is primarily coming from

• Puerto Rica: US sugar companies, US demand for soldiers, factories recruited Puerto Ricans

• Cuba: US policy welcomed refugees from communist countries (Pull)

• El Salvador: soldiers trained in US, later committed massacred in El Salvador

• Mexico: devaluation of the peso

• push: political instability, war/conflict, conscription of youth

• pull: relative stability, economic opportunity

Government response to 9/11

Homeland Security Act of 2002 established

• Customs and Border Protection

• Immigration and Customs Enforcement

• US Citizenship and Immigration Services

expansion of funding for immigration enforcement and systems (ex student visas)

increased cooperation between federal and local enforcement

cemented immigration as a national security issue

Push and Pull theory limitations

• country as unity of analysis

• doesn’t account for why some don’t migrate

• can’t predict

theories explaining origins of migration

1) neoclassical 2) new economics 3) world systems

Neoclassical theory

separated into:

• macro:

  • addresses labor market imbalance

  • labor surpluses and shortages

  • people migrate to countries with higher wages and more capital from labor abundant and low wage countries until wages balance out

• micro:

  • individuals perform a cost/benefit analysis to decide whether to migrate

  • people are purely rational; they will migrate is wages someplace else are higher

• limitations:

  • people don’t have perfect information

  • doesn’t address humanitarian migration

  • poorest people aren’t always the ones to migrate

  • people migrate for non-economic reasons

New Economics theory

• uses families and households as the unit of analysis: immigration is a household strategy

• families select members to migrate so they can receive remittances

• relative deprivation arises: families see other families getting ahead

• limitations:

  • doesn’t address refugees

  • assumes everyone’s families are rational

World Systems theory

• migration in the context of a global economic system

• unit of analysis is the global market

• classification of countries as core (wealthier) and periphery, and sometimes semi-periphery countries

• ex: NAFTA spurred migration because of decreasing corn prices

• limitations:

  • difficult to test empirically

  • doesn’t explain why some communities are more likely to migrate with the same economic conditions

theories explaining the stability or perpetuation of migration

• economic: “economic man”

• social networks

• cumulative causation

Economic man theory

• “economic man”

• “target earners”

• the pure goal of immigrants is to make money and send remittances back home, not to integrate

• success is seen as return migration

social networks theory

• migration perpetuates because network is established

• social capital facilitates and reduces the cost of migration

• facilitates integration in the receiving community

• consists of current and former migrants, smugglers, others that profit off of migration

cumulative causation theory

migration fundamental changes sending communities and social networks

migration becomes the norm

community may become dependent of remittances 

theories of incorporation

aka assimilation or integration

explain how immigrants adapt or are integrated into the host society

how they adopt the norms of dominant society

assimilation

• classic view of immigrant adaptation

• the process by which immigrants adopt the dominant values and norms of the receiving society

• seen as irreversible

• focus on resorting equilibrium

• straight line assimilation: each generation sees an increase in upward mobility and will be more integrated into the American mainstream

• acculturation: the process of cultural and psychological change that occurs when immigrants adapt to a new culture

• structural assimilation: the process where minority or immigrant groups gain full entry into the dominant society's social structures and institutions, including equal access to power, wealth, and social connections

• melting pot: a process where immigrants of diverse backgrounds assimilate into a single, cohesive national culture, blending their original identities into a new, unified American identity

• cultural pluralism: groups maintain some distinct features and adopt others

ethnic rentention/resilience

• relevant with context of discrimination

• bonds with co-ethnics as a source of support and solidarity

• importance of co-ethnic social networks

• retaining ethnic traits does not necessarily impede acculturation: selective acculturation

• new national identities: sometimes national identity becomes more important after immigration

segmented assimilation

• doesn’t assume inevitability of assimilation 

• focus on second generation

• unequal opportunity structed available based on class and social/human captial

• possibility of downward mobility

transnationalism

interconnectedness between sending countries and migrants

migrants maintain ties to sending communities

some intend return migration

how did “pioneer” migrants decide where to settle

• labor recruitment

• availability of land for farmer

• urban areas for entrepreneurs 

• lasting impacts since social networks impact current migration

• geography- distance and climate

areas of traditional settlement

• Caribbeans in NYC

• Koreans in LA

• Cubans in Miami

exceptions to geographical explanations

professional workers:

• less dependence on networks

• enter through pre-determined employment relationships

refugees generally have little choice in the destination

settlement patterns in the US are both concentrated and diffuse

certain states and metro areas receive a disproportionate share of immigrants but immigrants are dispersed throughout the country

geographic concentration shift

from East Coast and Midwest to West Coast and Sunbelt (new destinations)

• change in who is migrating

• rapid growth in fb population

push factors from traditional destinations

• IRCA- allowed freedom of movement

• saturated labor markets in CA

• hostile political contexts (Prop 187)

• people migrating through very unpopulated areas- entering in different places

pull factors in new destinations:

• economic restructuring: employers in search of low-wage works

  • Southeast: lower wages and fewer unions

• labor recruitment (ex: poultry processing and textile manufacturing)

• eventually social networks

• NC, GA, NV

• unauthorized population between more dispersed

  • FL, TX, CA, NY

• NGOS w/ fed funding are supporting transportation away from the border

Case of Dalton, GA

case study of migration to new destinations

IRCA allowed movement

direct recruitment from the carpet industry

response:

• schools: new trainings, ESL programs

• business: appeal to Mexican migrants- goods they would want to buy

contexts of reception

social, political, and economic characteristics of receiving communities that shape immigrant incorporation

political:

• passive acceptance: pathways to immigrate exist but the government doesn’t facilitate integration

• exclusion: excludes certain nationalities from immigrating or naturalizing ex: travel bans, Chinese Exclusion Act

• active encouragement: government encourages migration, might set priorities for groups (ex: refugees)

social:

• coethnic communities

economic:

• labor markets

• positive or negative typification: employers preferences or lack thereof for certain employees

Strangers in Town

• beef packing plan

• labor migrants and refugees attracted there

• from Vietnam, Sudan, Myanmar, Uganda, and Mexico

• entrepreneurship after working for a little

• role of public schools in integration for 2nd generation

• political contexts of reception:

  • changing legal status

• social:

  • newspaper encouraging welcoming attitudes

  • religious institutions

• economic:

  • strong employer demand

  • mobility in entrepreneurship

human capital

education, training, skills, English language ability

what are the education levels among immigrants?

immigrants are both the most and least education- bimodal distribution

they are much more likely to have less than a high school degree (24% vs 7%), but also more likely to have a graduate or professional degree (16% vs 14%)

what explains the wide variety in education levels?

country of origin

• Mexican nationals tend to have low levels while Indian nationals have high

• due to physical barriers- requires resources to move across the world, and those pathways are more likely to be available to those with higher education

• immigration law prioritizes family reunification and employment: People from Asia, Africa are much less likely to be allowed to migrate for family reunification reasons, so the only pathway is through having unique occupational skills, which is likely to be obtained through education. Immigrants from Mexico and Central America are more likely to be able to migrate for family reunification. Additionally, the physical closeness means that more people from lower classes migrate, and they tend to have lower education

country of destination

• immigration policies (who does the country want or not want)

• labor demand (what type of jobs are there for immigrants)

refugee admission

• new refugee flows tend to be from high classes while subsequent ones tend to be from the masses

individual characteristics

• parents’ level of education (determinant of individual’s education level)

• legal status (unauthorized tend to have lower education)

1.5 generation

people who immigrated as minors

Article: I can’t go to college because I don’t have papers

• unauthorized students experience blocked mobility due to lack of paper and financial resources

• unauthorized status results in them having to pay international tuition (varies by state)

• so they are forced into lower paying jobs (blocked mobility)

• before graduation: legal status plays a much smaller role due to Plyler v Doe

• challenges classical assimilation theory since it assumes upward mobility

• legal status determines context of reception: undocumented → exclusionary

• demonstrates segmented assimilation since it shows that assimilation isn’t inevitable and upward isn’t guaranteed 

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

2012 executive action for certain unauthorized childhood arrivals (under 16)

provides employment authorization and protection from deportation

does not provide a path to permanent status

Plyler v Doe

1982 SCOTUS decision that ruled that Texas can’t charge tuition or prevent undocumented children form attending public schools

violated equal protection clause- “person” extends to non-citizens

costs of alienating group outweighs costs of providing education

labor force participation

working or actively looking for work

employed

worked as a paid employee

unemployed

not employed but available and looking for work

do immigrant participate in the labor market more or less than US born?

tend to participate at a higher rate

possible reasons: 

• tend to be younger

• US population again

• economic motivations for immigrating

represent 19.2% of labor force

63.7% employment-population ratio (US born: 59.3%

unemployment about the same

foreign born men participate at much higher rates (77.3% v 65.9%)

foreign born women slightly less (56.1% v 57.8%)

more likely to be private wage and salary workers or self employed, less likely to be government workers

entrepreneurship among immigrants

higher rates among immigrants

• personality explanations (someone who immigrates might be more likely to take entrepreneurial risks)

• avoids work discrimination

• offers income for people without documentation

• pathway to mobility that doesn’t require education

occupations among foreign born workers

more likely to be employed in service occupations; natural resource, construction, and maintenance occupations; production, transportation, and material moving occupations

less likely to be employed in management and professional occupations and sales and office occupations

why are immigrants concentrated in lower-wage occupations?

migrants from the largest sending countries may have lower levels of the type of human capital that are rewarded in the US labor market (like education and English)

US immigration law provides larger quotas for family sponsored immigration than employer-sponsored

may be more accessible

degrees/transportation may not be transferrable

legal status

discrimination

brain drain and brain waste

brain drain: countries losing its most education population to immigration

brain waste: highly skilled workers not being able to find high-skilled jobs

• > ¼ jobs requires an occupational license

• requirements based on a person’s immigration status can lead to underemployment

challenges for some foreign born workers:

• difficulty transferring credentials received abroad

• English proficiency

• immigration status

how do immigrants impact US born workers?

prevailing belief is the immigrants increase labor supply, which drives wages down

Card’s study of the Mariel boatlift: economic analysis of the influx of refugees in Miami (sudden)

• concluded no detectable effect

• wages didn’t decrease and unemployment unchanged

Borjas: looked at data again and narrowed search to men who were of prime working age, high school drop outs, and not hispanic

• found wage dropped significantly

• problem: very small sample size

• criticized for leaving out Hispanic workers

consensus by economists after conference: little to no long-run effect of average wages

common themes throughout US history regarding immigrants

immigrants as a threat to US society, culture, and values

nativist movements and immigration restrictions that respond to perceived threats

• “public charge”

• targeting “extremists”

• English language movements

Early immigrants and political consciousness

context of reception: passive acceptance

stereotypes: immigrants as docile/exploitable or socialist threats

some remained engaged with the political concerns of home countries (early evidence of transnationalism)

new arrivals didn’t necessarily identify with their country of origin (ex: some immigrants, like Italians, didn’t even know they were Italian until they immigrates), Americans placed large importance on one’s nationality

development of ethnic-based interests over class-based

sending country typologies

• nations struggling to become states- more political ex: Germans

• states but not nations

• consolidated nation-states:

  • ex: British

  • more economically motivated instead of politically active

  • most common today

transnationalism in the modern era

due to technology (faster travel with planes and cell phones)

much easier to maintain ties with home countries

easier to form transnational communities and identities

many countries reliant on remittances (ex: Philippines)

now often facilitated by sending country governments

• dual citizenship

• ex: Mexico

  • more permanent settlement

  • IRCA

Chinese Diaspora: professional groups and investment in Chinese companies

higher political transnationalism associated with higher human capital

how does transnationalism effect US politics?

facilitates political participation in US

• transfer of political skills

• American values and politics transferred to home countries 

availability of dual citizenship may speed up naturalization

2 ways to get automatic US citizenship

right of blood

right of soil

alternative way to gain US citizenship

naturalization (is optional)

about 51% of foreign born populaiton is naturalized

benefits of US citizenship

vote, travel with US passport, obtain requirements for civil service employment, access to full range of public benefits

requirements to naturalize

be an LPR and have resided in the US for at least 5 years or three years if married to a US citizen

at least 18

demonstrate good character

read, write, and speak basic English

understand the history, principles, and civics of US

Bars to good moral character

temporary (only apply to the 5 years as an LPR)

• controlled substance violations

• unlawful voting

• prostitution

• habitual drunkard

permanent bars:

• murder

• aggravated felonies

• persecution, genocide, torture, or severe violations of religious freedom

factors that predict naturalization

• nationality (ex: Mexican nationals have lower rates)

• times spend in US

• income, education, and English

• availability of dual citizenship

barriers to naturalization

inability to meet basic requirements

• no path to LPR status or insufficient US residence

cost

English language proficiency