Jennifer Van Hook
Experts & Staff
Jennifer Van Hook
Nonresident Fellow
Professor of Sociology and Demography, Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University
Jennifer Van Hook is Professor of Sociology and Demography and Research Associate of the Population Research Institute at The Pennsylvania State University. She conducts demographic research on the settlement and incorporation patterns of U.S. immigrants, with one strand of her work focusing on illegal immigration. Her work also focuses on the social, economic, and health assimilation of immigrants and their descendants.
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Dr. Van Hook received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin, and has held positions at the Urban Institute and Bowling Green State University before joining the faculty at Penn State. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Population Association of America and the Census Scientific Advisory Committee.
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Recent Activity
In a commentary, MPI and Penn State researchers explain why an academic article suggesting the unauthorized population is significantly higher than previously estimated derives from seriously flawed assumptions. The researchers, who peer-reviewed the analysis, find the authors overestimate successful illegal crossings by misapplying data from the 2000s to the 1990s, when crossing patterns were much different.
This report summarizes new data on the health of the children of immigrants, who represent nearly one-fourth of all children in the United States under the age of 18, finding that those with Mexican immigrant parents in particular tend to experience greater childhood health risks than most of their peers.
Repealing birthright citizenship for U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants, a step discussed in some circles as a means to reduce illegal immigration, would significantly increase the size of the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States, from 11 million today to 16 million by 2050, this brief reveals.
People Leave Footprints: Millions More Unauthorized Immigrants Cannot Be ‘Hidden’ in Data Estimates