High Levels Of Immigration Research Articles

The Changing Racial and Ethnic Composition of the US Population: Emerging American Identities

Images and interpretations of the past, present, and future of the American racial and ethnic landscape are contradictory. Many accounts focus on the increasing diversity that results from immigration and differential natural increase as well as the proliferation of racial and ethnic categories in census data. Less attention has been paid to the formation and erosion of racial and ethnic identities produced by intermarriage and ethnic blending. The framers and custodians of census racial classifications assume a “geographic origins” definition of race and ethnicity, but thede factomeasures in censuses and social surveys rely on folk categories that vary over time and are influenced by administrative practices and sociopolitical movements. We illustrate these issues through an in‐depth examination of the racial and ethnic reporting by whites, blacks, Asians, and Hispanics in the 2000 census. The emerging pattern, labeled here as the “Americanization” of racial and ethnic identities, and most evident for whites and blacks, is of simplified racial identities with little acknowledgment of complex ancestries. National origin is the predominant mode of reporting racial and ethnic identities among Asians and Hispanics, especially first‐generation immigrants. The future of racial and ethnic identities is unknowable, but continued high levels of immigration, intermarriage, and social mobility are likely to blur contemporary divisions and boundaries.

The Contemporary Presidency: Constitutional Reform and the Presidency: The Recent Effort to Repeal the Natural‐Born Citizen Requirement

As a result of the sudden political emergence of Arnold Schwarzenegger, high levels of immigration, and increased international adoptions, interest grew during the early twenty‐first century in repealing the Constitution's restriction on presidential eligibility to natural‐born citizens. A combination of academics, media outlets, a grassroots lobbying organization, and finally several members of Congress combined to push forward this constitutional revision to the presidency. This effort peaked along with Schwarzenegger's approval ratings in 2004 but has since lost momentum. The enormous difficulty of amending the Constitution rendered this sensible proposal an exercise largely in symbolic politics.

The Environmental Argument for Reducing Immigration into the United States

* Department of Philosophy, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523. Cafaro is author of Thoreau’s Living Ethics: Walden and the Pursuit of Virtue (Athens:University of Georgia Press, 2004). He has had two children and one vasectomy. Staples, a wildlife biologist, has conducted research on the North American lynx and the Amur leopard. He also worked to recover the American chestnut and as a bear technician in Denali National Park before beginning graduate studies in environmental philosophy.The authors thank the spirited audiences who heard versions of this paper at Colorado State University, the University of Colorado, Colorado College and at APA/ISEE sessions in Baltimore (2007) and Pasadena (2008) and refrained from throwing things. Among the dozens of people whose comments have helped improve this article, we particularly wish to thank Larry Cahoone, Jennifer Everett, Brian Treanor, Mark Woods, Tom Wood, Mark Easter, Holmes Rolston, III, Rod Adams, Steven Shulman, Ned Hettinger, Thomas Heyd, Marion Hourdequin, Simon James, Ronnie Hawkins, Kristin Cafaro, Ralph Cafaro, Peter O’Neill, Clare Palmer, Beth Tropman, Pat McKee,Thomas Seiler, Gene Hargrove, and three anonymous reviewers for Environmental Ethics, Robert Hood, Ben Minteer, and Peter G. Stillman. None of them, however, should be presumed to have agreed with us. A serious commitment to environmentalism entails ending America’s population growth and hence a more restrictive immigration policy. The need to limit immigration necessarily follows when we combine a clear statement of our main environmental goals—living sustainably and sharing the landscape generously with nonhuman beings—with uncontroversial accounts of our current demographic trajectory and of the negative environmental effects of U.S. population growth, nationally and globally. Standard arguments for the immigration status quo or for an even more permissive immigration policy are without merit. Americans must choose between allowing continued high levels of immigration and creating a sustainable society.

More than Two Decades of Changing Ethnic Attitudes in the Netherlands

This article uses data from three studies to examine changing reactions toward ethnic minority groups in the Netherlands (1979–2002). Using realistic conflict theory, Study 1 focuses on support for discrimination of immigrant groups in general. The findings indicate that this support is more widespread in times of high levels of immigration, when the unemployment level has recently risen strongly, and among cohorts that grew to maturity in times of large immigration waves or high unemployment rates. Studies 2 and 3 focus on changing feelings toward different ethnic out‐groups in an ideological context (2001–2004) marked by a shift from multiculturalism toward assimilation. Study 2 showed that the shift toward assimilation negatively affected Dutch participants' feelings toward Islamic outgroups, but not to other minority groups. Study 3 used an experimental design, and the results showed that ethnic attitudes are more negative in an assimilation compared to a multicultural context. It is concluded that the structural and ideological social context is important for understanding people's changing reactions.

Support for Repatriation Policies of Migrants

In this article we focus on the acceptance of migrants among the general public in the receiving societies. We analyze the most radical of such anti-immigrant sentiments, that is, the support for repatriation policies for legally established immigrants. We analyze intra- and international differences among Western and Eastern European societies, taking advantage of recently collected cross-national high quality data providing means to rigorously test hypotheses on individual and contextual level determinants. Although there are large differences between countries within European regions, we found that support for repatriation policies is overall somewhat higher in Western European societies. In line with Ethnic Group Conflict Theory, support for repatriation policies is stronger in countries with higher proportions of resident migrants and higher levels of immigration. Regarding individual level determinants, we found that particularly lower educated individuals are more in favor of repatriation of migrants. The effect of education differs however across countries and is — in line with socialization theories — less strong in Eastern European countries.

European Opinion About Immigration: The Role of Identities, Interests and Information

This article assesses the influence of material interests and cultural identities on European opinion about immigration. Analysis of respondents in twenty countries sampled in the 2002–03 European Social Survey demonstrates that they are unenthusiastic about high levels of immigration and typically overestimate the actual number of immigrants living in their country. At the individual level, cultural and national identity, economic interests and the level of information about immigration are all important predictors of attitudes. ‘Symbolic’ predispositions, such as preferences for cultural unity, have a stronger statistical effect than economic dissatisfaction. Variation across countries in both the level and the predictors of opposition to immigration are mostly unrelated to contextual factors cited in previous research, notably the amount of immigration into a country and the overall state of its economy. The ramifications of these findings for policy makers are discussed in the context of current debates about immigration and European integration.

Rethinking US Census racial and ethnic categories for the 21st century

Racial and ethnic categories in the US census have continually changed. In this paper, we address the question: How do high levels of immigration and a growing multiracial population challenge census racial and ethnic categories? We examined data from the 2000 Census 5 percent IPUMS to compare racial responses of native- and foreign-born Hispanics, Asians, and Middle Easterners, and native-born multiracial Hispanics, Asians, and Middle Easterners, by ancestry. The relationship between race and ancestry can be instructive. If people understand and identify with census racial categories, we expect considerable overlap between their reported race and ancestry. For some groups, including Europeans, Africans, and Middle Easterners (regardless of nativity) and foreign-born Asians, ancestry and race overlapped well. A serious challenge to current census racial categories is the large and growing numbers of people who reported Some Other Race (SOR) alone (primarily non-Cuban Hispanics) or in combination with another race (a diverse population that includes multiracial Hispanics, Middle Easterners, and Asians). One way of addressing this problem is to merge the current race and Hispanic questions, drop the SOR category, and add the ancestry question to the short-form census, changes that may more effectively meet statistical, government, and other needs.

The potential effects of legal and unauthorized international migration on the census and other data sources in the United States: Methodological and policy issues in 2010 and beyond

This article considers the accurate measurement of international migration to and from the United States, both legal and unauthorized, and how these measurement characteristics might affect the accuracy and utility of the 2010 census and other data sources. It provides a brief overview of the recent magnitude and impacts of US immigration. It delineates the role of immigration in determining an accurate census and discusses specific parameters that must be accurately measured in order to adequately assess immigration, both legal and unauthorized. It makes specific recommendations for addressing the effects of such factors. Migration is widely recognized as the most difficult demographic component to measure in determining demographic change in the United States [39,40]. This is, in part, a result of the fact that the United States does not have a registration system for internal migration (as exists in some countries) and because of the magnitude and characteristics of international migration in the United States [57]. Although both internal and international migration are difficult to measure, international migration provides especially difficult challenges because the system for the collection of data on immigration is not adequate for demographic purposes and because an important form of immigration, unauthorized immigration, has become increasingly contentious, resulting in multiple interpretations of available data and considerable levels of misleading and erroneous information. Addressing such challenges is of increasing importance because of the historically high levels of immigration in the United States, including large numbers of unauthorized immigrants, and because the measurement of immigration has been a major source of error in estimates of recent populations. Thus, the Census Bureau underestimated the US population in 2000 by almost 7 million [44], in large part, because of its inability to measure the effects of unauthorized immigration. The focus in this article is on how the accurate measurement of international migration (including both that to and from [emigration from] the United States and legal and unauthorized) may affect the accuracy and utility of the 2010 Census and other data sources and on what steps might be taken to minimize such effects. The article begins with a brief overview of the recent magnitude and impacts of legal and unauthorized immigration in the United States and of literature on specific

Immigration and Ethnic Change in Low‐Fertility Countries: A Third Demographic Transition

THIS ARTICLE PROPOSES that a third demographic transition is underway in Europe and the United States. The ancestry of some national populations is being radically and permanently altered by high levels of immigration of persons from remote geographic origins or with distinctive ethnic and racial ancestry, in combination with persistent sub-replacement fertility and accelerated levels of emigration of the domestic population. The estimates and projections on which these statements are based relate to seven European countries with a 2005 total population of 183 million—about half the population of Western Europe. Most of the other Western European countries, however, share the same essential features of low fertility and high immigration. This proposition resolves itself into two claims. The first has two components: (i) in some industrial countries a rapid change is already apparent in the composition of the population according to national or ethnic origin, arising from the direct and indirect effects of immigration in the last few decades, and (ii) projections based on plausible assumptions imply, within the conventional time scale of projections, a substantial alteration of the composition of that population which if continued in the longer term would lead to the displacement of the original population into a minority position. This first claim is relatively easy to demonstrate in empirical terms, given explicit and defensible assumptions. The second claim is that such a process, were it to continue and materialize in its demographic aspect over such a short historical period would warrant the label of “transition.” Ultimate acceptance of such a label would depend on whether the transformation proved to be permanent and general and thereby would bear comparison with the familiar first and second demographic transitions.

The place of population change in explaining geographical inequalities in health in New Zealand

We appreciate Harper’s comments on the role of population change in explaining rising geographical inequalities in health in New Zealand. 1 As we note in our original paper, we agree that selective migration patterns may well be an important explanation as to why regional health status in New Zealand has become more geographically polarized during the 1980s and 1990s. 2 Selective patterns of migration between the regions of New Zealand and the high levels of immigration into the country, and emigration from it, are likely to lead to a high level of population sorting between areas and to have strengthened the widening life expectancy gap during the 1980s and 1990s. Given that New Zealand experiences almost the highest rate of combined immigration and emigration (population turnover) in the world, a if selective migration were to have an explanatory role anywhere it would be in helping to understand changing health patterns within this country. Although we agree that selective migration is likely to be an important factor in explaining our results, there are five areas of interpretation where we disagree with Harper. First, Harper contends that growing geographical inequalities in health observed using the Slope Index of Inequality (SII) may be due to differential levels of population growth between regions of the country (i.e. if areas with the highest or lowest life expectancies grow at a faster rate then the gap will increase even if the life expectancy in those areas remains the same). Harper gives an example of where he thinks the problem lies: ‘‘Given the near-linear relationship between socioeconomic rank and life expectancy among health districts, even if regional life expectancies had stayed exactly the same, but over this time there was more rapid population growth among areas of higher and lower life expectancy, the SII would register an increase.’’ (Harper, 2006, p. 604) It is not hard to see how Harper came to assume this—it is an easy error to make and perhaps we could have explained the SII more fully—but it is important that researchers recognize that the results are not an artefact of using the SII as Harper suggests. Rather, an increase in the index means that inequality amongst people measured between areas has risen. Suppose you were measuring educational attainment and over time a greater number of people failed to gain any qualifications and more gained degrees—inequality would have increased between people in terms of educational attainment. It is not that the population sizes of these groups had simply altered. Places are not entities of themselves—they are collections of people. 3 The SII is the slope of the regression line from the hypothetically poorest individual to the hypothetically richest individual derived from the relative poverty ranks of life expectancy for each geographic area, weighted for population size. The SII takes into account all measures for all areas and not, say, simply the worst-off and best-off 10th or 5th of areas. The index is most effective as a summary measure when the two measures are linearly related, as is the case with the data we analysed. The index has a further advantage that it is, by definition, unaffected by general increases or decreases in life expectancy over time (in this case the constant—that is the intercept—changes but not the slope). The SII is the slope coefficient in a simple regression analysis of life expectancy in years against a ranking of each area, where ranking is expressed as the cumulative proportions of the total population. An example of use of the SII in comparisons of life expectancy over time between continents shows that in 1950–55 the hypothetical worst-off person in Africa had a

Spatial Assimilation of Racial Minorities in Canada's Immigrant Gateway Cities

This study demonstrates that conventional expectations concerning patterns of residential spatial assimilation by racial minority immigrants are likely to be altered under conditions of persistent high levels of immigration. While cross-sectional studies conclude that the traditional assimilation model fits the experience of racial minority immigrants to Canada, a different picture emerges from longitudinal changes at the group level. Using a pseudo-cohort approach, it is shown that, for some racial minority immigrants, the level of residential dissimilarity from Whites in Canada's gateway cities has risen with time. Moreover, residential proximity to Whites is becoming less salient as a marker of spatial assimilation. Differences among racial minority groups in residential distribution and exposure to own-group neighbours only reflect variations in the degree of own-group preference and capacity to build affluent ethnic communities.

The changing nature of work and organizations: Implications for human resource management

This manuscript considers how changes in the external environment of organizations have altered the world of work. While global trends are identified, particular attention is paid to the Canadian context. Canada is currently experiencing a period of economic growth. But some new challenges have appeared. Canadian organizations are facing skill shortages and an aging workforce. The former is being addressed by increased use of technology and by higher levels of immigration, raising concerns about skill utilization, discrimination and the need to capitalize on this increasing workforce diversity. Organizations in Canada, similar to those in other developed economies, are also grappling with changing workforce demographics, attitudes and values, incorporating and utilizing the rapid advances in technology, and addressing globalization-related challenges such as increased competitive pressures, outsourcing and offshoring, and a global workforce that places a higher premium on cross-cultural sensitivities and skills.

The Implications of Metalandscape Connectivity for Population Viabilityin Migratory Songbirds

Landscape connectivity is considered important for species persistence, but linkages among landscape populations (metalandscape connectivity) may be necessary to ensure the long-term viability of some migratory songbirds at a broader regional scale. Because of regional source-sink dynamics, these species can maintain steady populations within extensively fragmented landscapes (landscape sinks) owing to high levels of immigration from source landscapes. We undertook a modeling study to identify the conditions under which immigration, an index of metalandscape connectivity, could rescue declining populations of songbirds in heavily disturbed landscapes. In general, low to moderate levels of immigration (m = 0–20%) were sufficient to rescue species with low edge-sensitivity in landscapes where 40%) were required to rescue highly edge-sensitive species in extensively fragmented landscapes that had lost >50% habitat, or when any landscape lost P50% habitat gradually over a period of 100 or more years (r = 0.5% habitat lost/year). Paradoxically higher levels of immigration were thus necessary to offset population declines when habitat was lost gradually than when it was lost quickly, where population response lagged behind landscape change. This implies that the importance of metalandscape connectivity for population viability may not be fully appreciated in landscapes undergoing rapid rates of change. Natural immigration rates for migratory songbirds match the very high levels (>40%) we found necessary to sustain populations in heavily disturbed landscapes, which underscores the importance of metalandscape connectivity for the continued persistence of many migratory songbirds in the face of widespread habitat loss and fragmentation.

Should Canadian Immigration Policy be Synchronized With U.S. Immigration Policy? Lessons Learned at the Start of Two Centuries

The turn of both this century and the twentieth century have been accompanied by high levels of immigration into Canada and the United States. Around 1900, as the last century began, there occurred a sharp rise in the number of people arriving from abroad and these high levels did not diminish until the 1930s. Similarly, today, immigration to both Canada and the U.S. has increased to record highs, along with the impression that immigration may somehow be out-of-control. (1) Historically, Canada and the U.S. have implemented independent immigration policies, each establishing its own set of preferred immigrant characteristics and entrance procedures. More recently, after the introduction of the NAFTA, and most certainly since 9/11, a question that has been posed with increasing frequency is: should Canada synchronize its immigration policy with that of the U.S., and if so, to what extent? With the above question in mind, this paper compares and contrasts economic aspects of the Canadian and U.S. immigration experiences, both at the present time and at the turn of the twentieth century. We include the historical perspective so as to see what lessons--relevant for today--might be learned by comparing the present situation with a past high-immigration period. We add to the existing literature by incorporating income inequality data to estimate Canadian inequality for the period at the beginning of the twentieth century. Defining Immigration It is useful to establish what is meant by the word immigrant, because it has become a common error in public discussion to apply this term to describe anyone who crosses a border. In actuality, people move from one country to another for a variety of reasons, and it is on the basis of these reasons and the permanence of their stay, that they are classified into one of two groups: immigrants and non-immigrants. The people who become the immigrants of a country move to take up permanent residence in the new country. This may be for the purposes of a new job, to reunify with family already permanently residing there, or to seek asylum or safe haven as refugees. Immigrants may enter legally or illegally. Over the past two decades, illegal immigration has emerged as an important factor in the U.S., but does not appear to be significant in Canada. Based on an average of the past five years, the annual inflow of legal immigrants to the U.S. has been about 900,000, and the annual inflow of illegal immigrants has been about 350,000 (official estimates). (2) In comparison, the average annual inflow of immigrants to Canada (almost all of them legal) has been about 220,000. (3) The second group of people who move consists of non-immigrants, those who do not intend to become permanent residents and will instead reside in the new country for a temporary period of time. This period may be longer or shorter, depending upon the motive. This group consists of foreign students, temporary workers, business visitors, and tourists. It is this group that dominates when looking at the number of people who cross a border. For example, in a recent year, approximately 1.4 million immigrants (including legal and illegal) and 33 million non-immigrants entered the U.S. For Canada, these numbers were 250,000 for immigrants and 6.2 million for non-immigrants. (4) When we examine a country's immigration policy, we therefore limit ourselves to a very small portion of the actual number of people who cross a border. Focusing on border issues and immigration issues is not the same thing. This is an especially important point to note in light of the fact that the U.S. has become, and will continue to be (into the foreseeable future), preoccupied with border security, which requires examining factors far beyond immigration per se. In light of the tremendous imbalance between immigrant and non-immigrant flows, coordinating immigration policies between Canada and the U. …

Research on mental disorders and their care in immigrant populations: a review of publications from Germany, Italy and the UK

Objective. – The review aims to identify the extent and nature of research on mental disorders and their care in immigrant populations in three major European countries with high levels of immigration, i.e. Germany, Italy, United Kingdom (UK). Method. – Peer-reviewed publications on the subject from the three countries between 1996 and 2004 were analyzed. The research questions addressed, the methods used, and the results obtained were assessed. Results. – Thirteen papers reporting empirical studies were found from Germany, four from Italy and 95 from the UK. Studies addressed a range of research questions and most frequently assessed rates of service utilization in different immigrant groups. The most consistent finding is a higher rate of hospital admissions for Afro-Caribbean patients in the UK. Many studies had serious methodological shortcomings with low sample sizes and unspecified inclusion criteria. Discussion. – Despite large scale immigration in each of the three studied countries, the numbers of relevant research publications vary greatly with a relatively high level of empirical research in the UK. Possible reasons for this are a generally stronger culture of mental health service research and a higher number of researchers who are themselves from immigrant backgrounds in the UK. Conclusion. – Overall the evidence base to guide the development of mental health services for immigrant populations appears limited. Future research requires appropriate funding, should be of sufficient methodological quality and may benefit from collaboration across Europe.

L'Europe en quête d'une politique de migration : les contraintes de la mondialisation et de la restructuration des marchés du travail

This paper argues that the development towards a common migration policy in the European Union reflects the emergence of a new form of regionalism resulting from the recent structural transformations in the global political economy. The European governments are caught in a web of contradictory interests and tendencies. On one side, the logic of global economic restructuring dictates continued deregulation and flexibilisation of the labour market, implying increased high levels of immigration. On the other hand, the political backlash against globalisation pushes towards a closure of the external borders. The result is the construction of a Fortress Europe, with a set of specific cooperation agreements with the regions surrounding the European Union in order to regulate the inflow of migrants.

Enacting cultural diversity through multicultural radio in Australia

Australia is second only to Israel in being the world’s most culturally diverse nation, based largely on high levels of immigration in the second part of the 20th century. From the 1970s onwards, Australia formally recognized the massive social changes brought about by postwar immigration, and provided legislation to incorporate cultural diversity into everyday lives. One such ‘legislative’ enactment saw the establishment of multicultural broadcasting in Australia, as arguably a world-first, both in its comprehensiveness and diversity. Today, Australia has a public sector corporation, the Special Broadcasting Service, administering five radio services in 68 languages. Also, the Community Radio sector produces multicultural programming in 100 languages through a number of its 330 broadcast and 207 narrowcast stations. This article examines the relationship between radio and its communities. It argues that despite the ‘profile’ of SBS television, radio is much closer to its constituent communities, and therefore plays a greater role in enabling those communities to speak their own histories, beyond the confines of a consensual Anglophile paradigm.

Changing Income Inequality and Immigration in Canada, 1980-1995

While there is a general consensus that income inequality has increased in most developed countries over the last two decades, the analytical focus has been on the national scale. However, these increases in inequality have not been uniform across different segments of society, either in terms of social groups or geographic region. In particular, the high levels of immigration to metropolitan Canada have contributed to growing inequality. Using individual household income data from the 1981, 1986, 1991, and 1996 censuses, this paper identifies the role of immigration and its differential impact on metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas. The impacts became more prominent during the first half of the 1990s when immigration remained high yet the economy slowed. The evidence suggests that the overall impact of immigration is a relatively short-run phenomenon as recent immigrants take time to adjust to the labour market. If recent immigrants are excluded, inequality is still increasing, but at a slower rate, especially in the largest metropolitan areas.

A Contextual Model for Reproductive Health Education: Fertility and Family Planning in Jordan

A high fertility rate combined with relatively low infant mortality rates and high levels of immigration make the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan one of the fastest growing countries in the world. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan commonly referred to simply as Jordan is a developing country in the Middle East with a relatively high fertility rate (3.6) and an infant mortality rate of 31/1000. Because Jordan is strategically positioned both geographically and politically and has been a consistently positively and moderate force in a region that is fragmented by conflicts it has also attracted high numbers of immigrants. The primarily Sunni Muslim (92%) country of Jordan has become a centre for Palestinian refugees (1.4 million) creating a period population influx that has increased the demands for an already strained health care system scarce water resources and limited employment. There are indications that this immigrant population is also contributing to Jordans high birthrate. Although there are no statistics that separate the fertility rate of Palestinians from native Jordanians Palestinians in the Palestinian Territories have a fertility rate of 5.9. Given Jordans scarce water and economic resources and an annual growth rate of 2.8% a more effective family planning strategy seems essential for Jordans future development. (excerpt)

Access to Justice for Immigrants Who are Victimized: The Perspectives of Police and Prosecutors

The increased diversity of the U.S. population poses special challenges to the criminal justice system. High levels of immigration to the United States within the past decade require that law enforcement and court organizations understand the concerns of crime victims who are recent immigrants, and facilitate meaningful access to the justice system. Employing survey methodology, this research describes the barriers that immigrants encounter in accessing justice, as they emerged from the responses of police chiefs and prosecutors in the 50 largest cities of the United States. Criminal justice officials believe that failure to report crimes and to cooperate in their prosecution is a significant problem, especially for domestic violence offenses. The results suggest that many metropolitan areas have made some efforts to promote participation of immigrant victims in the criminal justice system. But far more needs to be done to ensure access to justice for this growing segment of society.