North America
Recent Activity
This report investigates the demographic characteristics and experiences of American retirees abroad through a focused study of two countries—Mexico and Panama—that have exhibited dramatic growth in the population of United States-born seniors in recent years. Findings on the decision-making process of emigrant retirees, their integration experiences, and their impact on local communities are drawn from an analysis of 17 interviews and nine focus group discussions.
The Catholic Church made headlines in March when of its U.S. cardinals spoke out against the House of Representatives' "enforcement only" bill. Donald Kerwin of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network explains the church's interest in immigration and its position on reforming immigration policy.
In seeking to explain why some second-generation children in the United States have higher levels of educational attainment than others, most arguments center on either cultural values or structural differences, such as class background and access to quality schools. Cynthia Feliciano of the University of California, Irvine shows that parents' status, relative to nonmigrants from their home country, is a factor.
MPI's Julia Gelatt reports on the provisions of the Senate compromise immigration bill; new strategies for internal immigration enforcement; and Georgia's strict new controls regarding unauthorized immigrants, plus other immigration news.
The majority of South American born counted in the 2000 census were from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. MPI's David Dixon and Julia Gelatt look at the social and economic profiles of the foreign born from this region.
Not long after the United States passed the 1980 Refugee Act, thousands of people began fleeing civil war in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Their treatment in the United States, linked to U.S. foreign policy, spurred the Sanctuary Movement and efforts to grant them refugee status, as Susan Gzesh of the University of Chicago explains.
Over half of all Central American foreign born in the United States are from El Salvador and Guatemala. MPI's Megan Davy examines the numbers as well as events and policies that have shaped Central American migration.