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About 757,000 immigrants took U.S. citizenship in 2012, a 9 percent increase from the year before. As of 2012, 46 percent of the nation’s 40.8 million immigrants were naturalized Americans. This article examines the latest naturalization data available for the United States, including historical trends, data by country of origin and state of residence, as well as socioeconomic characteristics of the 18.7 million naturalized U.S. citizens residing in the United States in 2012.
Immigration and international development policy conversations have become entangled in the U.S. context, not necessarily to the benefit of either debate. This article explores how a contemporary understanding and decoupling of the issues can contribute to more effective policymaking.
In 2005, the United States admitted almost 54,000 refugees for resettlement and granted asylum to more than 25,000 people. MPI’s Jeanne Batalova takes a detailed look at refugee and asylum statistics in the United States.
With the state of Alabama's recent legal settlement ensuring that key portions of its highly contested immigration enforcement law will never take effect, an important chapter of heightened activism by states in immigration enforcement has drawn to a near close. This article explores Alabama's decision, which traces its roots to the Supreme Court's 2012 ruling in Arizona v. United States, as well as the Infosys civil settlement with federal prosecutors over its use of foreign workers, new refugee admission numbers, extension of Temporary Protected Status for Somalis, and more.
The Obama administration has announced a new policy recognizing same-sex relationships in immigration matters – the latest of several such developments since 2011. This article explores the expansion in same-sex couple recognition; it also reports on the STEM visa bill's fate, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's position on deferred action, Taiwan's inclusion in the Visa Waiver Program, and more.
In 2006, the U.S. admitted more than 41,000 refugees for resettlement and granted asylum to more than 26,000 people. MPI's Kelly O'Donnell and Jeanne Batalova take a detailed look at refugee and asylum statistics in the United States.
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.
As the U.S. Senate continues its debate over a bill to overhaul the nation's immigration system, the fiscal impacts associated with enactment of such legislation have emerged as a divisive issue. Following the release of an official congressional cost estimate on Tuesday, this article examines the crucial question of how immigrants' contributions to the tax base compare to the public benefits they would receive under S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.
After months of negotiations, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators informally called the "Gang of Eight" in mid-April introduced long-awaited legislation for sweeping reform of the U.S. immigration system. This article provides a summary of the Senate bill's provisions and outlines the main critiques and obstacles ahead, including a tight legislative calendar, a difficult political dynamic in the House of Representatives, and an early stumbling block precipitated by the Boston Marathon bombing.
There were 1.8 million immigrant health care workers employed in the United States in 2010, accounting for 16 percent of all civilians working in health care occupations. MPI's Kristen McCabe examines the demographic and labor characteristics of this population, including countries of origin, occupations, gender, and educational and linguistic proficiency.
MPI's Muzaffar Chishti and Claire Bergeron report on new proposals to amend the E-3 visa program to admit Irish nationals, decisions blocking implementation of more provisions of SB 1070 and HB 56, the Supreme Court's recent decision holding two tax evasion crimes are aggravated felonies, and more.
Migration from Latin America to the United States and Europe appears to have slowed in the wake of the recent global financial crisis. As Jacqueline Mazza and Eleanor Sohnen of the Inter-American Development Bank report, flows between Latin American countries expanded in the 1990s and are still growing, crisis or not, and some countries are taking a more regional approach to managing migration.
Muzaffar Chishti, Claire Bergeron, and Faye Hipsman report on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to decide the constitutionality of Arizona's SB 1070, passage in the House of the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act of 2011, DOJ lawsuits in Utah and South Carolina, and more.