Non-immigrant Population Research Articles

Immigration, residential location, car ownership, and commuting behavior: a multivariate latent class analysis from California

Using latent class cluster analysis, this paper investigates the spatial, social, demographic, and economic determinants of immigrants’ joint distribution among travel time, mode choice, and departure time for work using the 2000 Census long form data. Through a latent tree structure analysis, age, residential location, immigration stage, gender, personal income, and race are found to be the primary determinants in the workplace commute decision-making process. By defining several relatively homogeneous population segments, the likelihood of falling into each segment is found to differ across age groups and geography, with different indicators affecting each group differentially. This analysis complements past studies that used regression models to investigate socio-demographic indicators and their impact on travel behavior in two distinct ways: (a) analysis is done by considering travel time, mode choice, and departure time for work simultaneously, and (b) heterogeneity in behavior is accounted for using methods that identify different groups of behavior and then their determinants. Conclusively the method here is richer than many other methods used to study the ethnically diverse population of California and shows the addition of geographic location and latent segment identification to greatly improve our understanding of specific behaviors. It also provides evidence that immigrants are as diverse as the non-immigrant population and transportation policies need to be defined accordingly.

Changes in health and primary health care use of Moroccan and Turkish migrants between 2001 and 2005: a longitudinal study

BackgroundSocial environment and health status are related, and changes affecting social relations may also affect the general health state of a group. During the past few years, several events have affected the relationships between Muslim immigrants and the non-immigrant population in many countries. This study investigates whether the health status of the Moroccan and Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands has changed in four years, whether changes in health status have had any influence on primary health care use, and which socio-demographic factors might explain this relationship.MethodsA cohort of 108 Turkish and 102 Moroccan respondents were interviewed in 2001 and in 2005. The questionnaire included the SF-36 and the GP contact frequency (in the past two months). Interviews were conducted in the language preferred by the respondents. Data were analysed using multivariate linear regression.ResultsThe mental health of the Moroccan group improved between 2001 and 2005. Physical health remained unchanged for both groups. The number of GP contacts decreased with half a contact/2 months among the Turkish group. Significant predictors of physical health change were: age, educational level. For mental health change, these were: ethnicity, age, civil status, work situation in 2001, change in work situation. For change in GP contacts: ethnicity, age and change in mental and physical health.ConclusionChanges in health status concerned the mental health component. Changes in health status were paired with changes in health care utilization. Among the Turkish group, an unexpected decrease in GP contacts was noticed, whilst showing a generally unchanged health status. Further research taking perceived quality of care into account might help shedding some light on this outcome.

La situación de los inmigrantes en los países de acogida: problemática de la integración

“Querían brazos, han recibido hombres”. Así resumía el sociólogo francés Alain Touraine la problemática de la integración. Ésta sigue siendo una cuestión muy amplia y muy compleja; compleja porque el estatus del inmigrante y su condición varían en función de varios parámetros. La integración de los emigrantes nos lleva a una problemática de diferentes niveles. En primer lugar, plantea un problema de conceptualización: ¿qué es la integración? Seguidamente, requiere una presentación de los sujetos de la integración, grupo heteróclito cuya heterogeneidad se sitúa a varios niveles: la nacionalidad, el entorno de origen, la edad, el sexo, el nivel educativo, lo cual nos lleva a un análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo de la población inmigrante. El tercer aspecto hace referencia a los espacios de la integración: el espacio económico, político, social y cultural, y, por último, a los obstáculos para la integración, es decir, todas las presiones a las que se enfrentan los inmigrantes en las sociedades de acogida y, en particular, en España.

Re-thinking Integration as Reciprocal and Spatialized Process

In this article, the authors contribute to the ongoing discussions of integration by articulating a theoretical framework that attends to the complex and dynamic relationship between immigrant and non-immigrant populations as they interact within and with the spaces that have come to known as ―new destinations.‖ The proposal is based on the re-conceptualization of integration that, first, defines it as necessarily distinct from assimilation, second, engages and is informed by an analysis of space as dynamic, contested, and racialized and third, focuses on re-spatialization as an opportunity for re-politicization. The authors ‗posit that integration must involve substantive inclusion of both immigrant and non-immigrant populations (in their heterogeneity) in the public sphere.

Performing Acculturation: Rewriting the Latina/o Immigrant Self

This is an autoethnography that explores Latino immigration as a radical rewriting of the self and as a performance of acculturation. Given the significant changes to the social and cultural environment, the immigrant must engage in a reflexive process of transformation that can secure our integration and increase our changes of success. Fuelling this transformation is the realization that we are no longer subjects of ethical treatment and that in order to become so, we must learn to convey a new set of semiotic cues that the nonimmigrant population will understand as worthy of moral treatment. We must perform as if we were acculturated. I achieved this by carefully controlling my commodity self, friendships, and cultural consumption and in the process, I radically rewrote my self.

Hunger in young children of Mexican immigrant families

To measure rates of hunger and food insecurity among young US-born Latino children with Mexican immigrant parents (Latinos) compared with a non-immigrant non-Latino population (non-Latinos) in a low-income clinic population. A repeated cross-sectional survey of 4278 caregivers of children < 3 years of age in the paediatric clinic of an urban county hospital for a 5-year period from 1998 to 2003. A total of 1310 respondents had a US-born child with at least one parent born in Mexico. They were compared with a reference group comprised of non-Latino US-born participants (n = 1805). Child hunger and household food insecurity were determined with the US Household Food Security Scale. Young Latino children had much higher rates of child hunger than non-Latinos, 6.8 versus 0.5%. Latino families also had higher rates of household food insecurity than non-Latinos, 53.1 versus 15.6%. Latino children remained much more likely to be hungry (odds ratio (OR) = 13.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 5.9-28.7, P < 0.01) and in household food-insecure households (OR = 6.6, 95% CI = 5.2-8.3, P < 0.01) than non-Latinos after controlling for the following variables in multivariate analysis: child's age, sex, maternal education level, single-headed household status, family size, young maternal age ( < 21 years), food stamp programme participation, TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or 'welfare') programme participation and WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) usage, and reason for clinic visit (sick visit versus well-child). Young children in Mexican immigrant families are at especially high risk for hunger and household food insecurity compared with non-immigrant, non-Latino patients in a low-income paediatric clinic.

Cribado neonatal de hemoglobinopatías y déficit de glucosa-6-fosfato deshidrogenasa en Cataluña. Estudio piloto en población anónima no relacionada

This was a preliminary study on the prevalence of the HbS gene, associated with sickle cell disease, other hemoglobinopathies and G6PD deficiency of immigrant and non-immigrant population of Catalonia. A total of 3,189 blood samples from the Catalan Neonatal Screening Program for Metabolic Diseases (CNSPMD) including 1,620 from immigrant population were screened for haemoglobinopathies and G6PD deficiency. For screening of hemoglobinopathies the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was used and for the screening of G6PD deficiency, we used the fluorescent spot test as described by ICSH. 1. Hemoglobinopathies: in 47 samples from immigrant population 2 cases of sickle cell anemia (phenotypes FS and FSC) were detected as well as 45 cases of heterozygote carriers of different pathological hemoglobins (HbS, HbC, HbD and HbE). 2. G6PD deficiency: in 29 samples, 3 cases of G6PD deficiency belonging to local (non-immigrant) population of G6PD were detected. The incidence of sickle cell disease in the risk population of Catalonia is 1 case out of 810 samples. This value is significantly higher than that reported for any of the metabolic diseases included in the CNSPMD. Despite it is a preliminary study, the results obtained give further support to the convenience of incorporating a neonatal screening of hemoglobinopathies, at least in the risk population, to the official programs of newborn screening. Due to its feasibility and low cost, a similar criterion might be adopted for the neonatal screening of G6PD deficiency.

Características clínicas y epidemiológicas de la infección por el VIH en extranjeros en Elche, España (1998-2003)

To determine the characteristics of HIV-infection in foreign patients residing in Elche, Spain. A retrospective comparative analysis of clinical and epidemiological characteristics was performed to study HIV-infection in foreign immigrants, foreigners who were not immigrants and the native Spanish population between January 1998 and December 2003. Among the 659 patients attended, 30 (4.6%) were foreign immigrants and 11 (1.7%) foreign non-immigrants. The percentage of affected immigrants increased during the study period from 1.6% to 9.8% (p < 0.001). There was a higher percentage of women in the immigrant group (36.7%) than in the foreign non-immigrant (27.3%) and native (18.4%) groups (p = 0.04). Mean age of the immigrants was lower than that of the foreign non-immigrants and native population (p = 0.02). Sexual transmission as a risk factor for acquiring HIV infection was higher in the immigrant (80%) group than in the foreign non-immigrant (27.3%) and native populations (14.7%), (p = 0.005). Antiretroviral treatment and mortality were similar in immigrant and non-immigrant patients. The epidemiology of HIV infection in foreign patients was different from that observed in the native population, but access to antiretroviral treatment and mortality were similar.

Utilización adecuada de antibióticos en atención primaria: ¿sabemos qué piensan los padres?

In Spain, studies that investigate parents' beliefs on antibiotic use are lacking. Mistaken beliefs lead to inappropriate antibiotic use and encourage overuse. The aim of the present study was to determine parents' knowledge about antibiotic use. We performed a cross sectional, descriptive study in two health centers through a self-administered questionnaire completed by 348 parents. The response variable consisted of beliefs evaluated when the parents answered the following three statements in the affirmative: a) there are currently some infections with inadequate response to antibiotic treatment; b) if antibiotics are used too often, they can cease to have an effect; c) if your child frequently receives antibiotic treatment, subsequent use may have no effect. Independent variables consisted of sex of the responder, educational level, parental age and ethnicity, attendance at school (public or private), attendance at kindergarten, usual healthcare (public-private), and number of siblings. Statistical analysis consisted of logistic regression. A total of 31.6 % (95 % CI: 26.7-36.5) responded affirmatively to the three statements. Adequate knowledge was associated with the non-immigrant population (OR: 5.7; 95 % CI: 1.37-24.9) and high parental education (OR: 2.04; 95 % CI: 1.16-3.06). Parents' knowledge of antibiotic use is low compared with that in other countries. Health education programs to remedy this situation are urgently required.

Economic and Labor Market Trends

SUMMARY A number of economic and labor market trends in the United States over the past 30 years affect the well-being of workers and their families. This article describes key changes taking place and the implications for social and economic policies designed to help low-income working families and their children, particularly those families that include immigrants. Important conclusions that emerge include the following: * Diversity. The workforce, like the population, is more diverse than in past decades, as more workers and their families are of mixed ethnicities and more workers have families that include both immigrant and non-immigrant members. * Demand for Low-Skilled Labor. Although demand for high-skilled workers continues to increase, two-thirds of all jobs in the U.S. labor market do not require high skills or education, and the demand for low-skilled workers also is expected to continue over the next decade. * Skills Gap. Those with strong technical skills and college educations receive higher wages; and those with fewer skills and education are relegated to the secondary labor market where wages and job security are low and few employee benefits are offered. * Working Poor. Over 2 million persons are in poverty even though at least one person in their family works full time, year round. The authors conclude that policies to help low-wage workers with families need to focus on more work supplementation strategies, improved access to supports, more targeted education and training services, and proposals extending some form of legal status to undocumented workers. Without a commitment to such policies, working poverty is likely to continue, and children in immigrant families, in particular, are likely to stay poor, even with working parents. ********** A number of economic and labor market trends in the United States over the past 30 years have altered the characteristics of the workforce and have had an impact on the well-being of workers and their families. Low-income workers in particular have been affected by some of the macro-economic trends, such as the shift in the industrial base of the nation from one centered on manufacturing to one focused more on services and, especially since the 1990s, to one defined by technology and communication. Because of economic restructuring, the gap between wages paid to those with high levels of education and skills and those with low levels of education and skills has widened. Meanwhile, the United States has experienced a shift in the ethnicity and national origins of its population, and therefore its workforce, as well as a continuing shift in family structure. The past two decades have seen a high and sustained inflow of immigrants and an increase in the proportion of the population with limited English proficiency. A significant share of the immigrant population possesses educational deficiencies and limited work skills, which means they generally enter the low-wage segment of the labor market. At the same time, the trend toward more single-parent households, at least in the non-immigrant population, continues to redefine family issues for low-wage workers, their employers, and public policy. This article describes key changes taking place in the economy and in the workforce that affect low-income families. (1) The implications of these broad and intermingled trends are discussed, along with social and economic policies designed to help low-income working families, particularly those that include immigrants. Trends in the Economy and Employment Despite the slow-down and recession in 2001 and 2002, the U.S. economy is extremely strong. The long period of economic growth in the 1990s--with strong job growth, high productivity, and low inflation--brought unemployment to historically low levels. More people, even those with relatively limited labor market experience, worked in the 1990s, and poverty rates showed a slight decline even for single mothers and their children. …

Growth and nutritional status of Khasi boys in Northeast India relating to exogamous marriages and socioeconomic classes.

The Khasis are one of the matrilineal tribes of Meghalaya in Northeast India. They belong to the Indo-Mongoloid racial stock, and speak the Monkhmer language of the Austro-Asiatic group. They have their own traditional religion (Niam Khasi), but about 65% of them have converted to Christianity. A few Khasi members have also embraced Islam through matrimonial relationship with immigrant Muslim males. The present study was based on a cross-sectional sample of 1,351 urban Khasi boys aged 3-18 years belonging to these three religious groups, with a view to understanding the effects of socioeconomic factors on growth and nutritional status, using anthropometric variables such as weight and height. The findings showed that about 60%, 29%, and 6% of these boys were below -2 Z-scores of the US National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) references in respect of weight for age, height for age, and body mass index for age, respectively. The logistic regression coefficient (beta +/- standard error) indicated that the prevalence of low weight for age (below -2 Z-scores of the NCHS references) was positively associated with age (0.088 +/- 0.014, P<0.0001), while it was inversely associated with household income (-1.216 +/- 0.030, P<0.0001). Likewise, low height for age Z-score was negatively associated with household income (-1.056 +/- 0.130, P<0.0001), although such a relationship was not significant in the case of low body mass index for age (-0.169 +/- 0.229, P>0.05). There were also significant differences between religious groups in respect of anthropometric variables. Allowing for household income, the ANCOVA test indicated that Muslim Khasi boys, who were the offspring of intermarriages between Khasi females and immigrant Muslim males, were significantly heavier and taller than Christian and Niam Khasi boys almost across ages. From about 3-10 years of age, Muslim Khasi boys were, on average, comparable to the 5th and 25th percentiles of the NCHS references of height and weight, respectively. Although it looks as though genetic mechanisms like heterosis and/or gene flow might also be associated with the larger body size in Muslim boys, such a conjecture could only be substantiated or refuted by further studies concerning genetic and more socioeconomic data on both immigrant and nonimmigrant populations.

Screening nonimmigrant visitors to the United States for tuberculosis: report of the Council on Scientific Affairs.

To assess the desirability of requiring proof of tuberculosis (TB) screening for nonimmigrant visitors to the United States. Literature review using the MEDLINE database for 1966 to 1999 and the Lexis-Nexis database for 1998 to 1999 on the terms tuberculosis and transmission, combined with the qualifiers foreign visitors, foreign students, foreign born, and policy. Experts in TB control from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga, and the Canadian government were consulted. The World Wide Web was searched using the terms tuberculosis and transmission. English-language articles with information directly related to control of TB transmission among foreign-born persons were selected. Eliminating TB in the United States will depend significantly on the ability to control it within the foreign-born population; however, strict border screening guidelines used as exclusionary measures can actually worsen the epidemic. Overseas TB screening of nonimmigrant visitors, who are unlikely to have active TB and even less likely to transmit it, will be of extremely low yield, would significantly deviate from the US "open-door" policy for nonimmigrants, and would have great logistical and political implications. Foreign-born persons 15 years and older who intend to stay in the United States are the high-risk population most likely to affect public health and thus will provide the best yield for TB control resources. Screening and monitoring the nonimmigrant foreign-born population would divert valuable resources from now established, successful TB control programs for foreign-born immigrants.

Health Status and Health Services Utilization of Canada's Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Populations

This paper compares the health status of immigrants and their utilization rates of health services to those of the Canadian-born population using data contained within two cycles (1985 and 1991) of the General Social Survey (GSS). Our main results show that neither the health status of immigrants nor their utilization rates of health services differ significantly from those of the Canadian-born population. When both data sets are pooled, the estimated results show that immigrants’ health status and their use of health services have remained

Phenylketonuria and hyperphenylalaninemia in eastern Germany: a characteristic molecular profile and 15 novel mutations.

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an important error of amino acid metabolism which results in most patients from phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) deficiency. PKU displays a marked genotypic heterogeneity both within and between different populations. The aim of this study was to establish the genotypic spectrum of PKU in eastern Germany, and to compare this to the distribution of mutations in western Germany. The study population included 302 patients in 290 families who were followed at treatment centers in Berlin, Leipzig and Jena. The study showed marked genotypic variability with a total of 75 mutations, including 15 that have so far not been described (eleven missense mutations, one splicing mutation, and three small deletions). One of these novel mutations, E183Q, occurred in cis to a R408W mutation. In the non-immigrant eastern German population, the frequency of R408W accounted for 40.1% of the PKU alleles. In the immigrant Turkish population of the former West Berlin, the most prevalent mutation was IVS10-11G>A (57%). There was a marked difference of the genotypic spectrum between the population studied here and the data reported from the western part of the country.

Immigrant Dreams and Civic Promises: (Con-)Testing Identity in Early Jewish American Literature and Gish Jen's Mona in the Promised Land

One of the things about which he often made fun of me was my Talmud gesticulations, a habit that worried me like a physical defect. It was so un-American. I struggled hard against it. --David Levinsky Don't tell me we're just as good as anybody else, don't tell me we're Americans just like they are. No, no, these blond-haired Christians are the legitimate residents and owners of this place. --Alexander Portnoy American means being whatever you want, and I happened to pick being Jewish. --Mona Chang These are certainly not heady times to be an immigrant (documented or illegal) in this country. It has become almost de rigueur in political discourse to blame our recent immigrants for problems ranging from unemployment and crime to the national deficit. This largely emotive groundswell of anti-immigrant sentiment has translated itself into public policy in recent years, from the rather draconian federal welfare law that bears down most heavily upon illegal immigrants (and also grants states the right to cut off certain benefits to legal immigrants who are not citizens) to the generally increased fervor with which our current anti-immigration laws are being enforced.(1) Still, amid all the hoopla concerning our anti-immigrant or xenophobic zeitgeist (our relentless focus upon the pressures from without the immigrant experience), we have given short shrift to the subtle ebb and flow of the immigrant ethos itself in America, its visions and revisions. One cannot account for our current bad patch between immigrant and non-immigrant populations without taking into account the contrast between the immigrant dreams of the past and the immigrant dreams of the present. For if it is true that America seems increasingly on the verge of reneging on its promises to its immigrants, it is also true that the terms of that promise are not nearly as clear as they once were. transformation from within the immigrant experience is underway, and cuts to the heart of our very conception of American identity. To conceptualize the immigrant dreams and civic promises of earlier in this century, one can look at the path of American immigrant assimilation, which reached its statistical peak in 1907. American humor and literature shed a good bit of light upon this sociological journey toward assimilation. As long as humor continues to delight audiences, jokes about assimilation will occupy their own niche in the genre. Many of these jokes chide Jews for their urges to assimilate, as the ineluctable Jewishness of the would-be WASP invariably provides the comic twist that makes for the punch-line. One of my personal favorites concerns a pauper who converts to Christianity after his local church offers him a $500 reward to do so. When his friends inquire some days later whether he received the reward, he replies (without a trace of sarcasm), Is that all you Jews think about is the money? Such humor affirms the impossibility of assimilation and revels in the naivete of any self-deluding Jew who believes otherwise. Simultaneously, such jokes deflect our attention, if only for a moment, from the more deadly serious implications of the Jew's ineluctable Jewishness. As Erica Jong recently put it, A Jew is a person who can convert to Christianity from now to Doomsday, and still be killed by Hitler if his mother was Jewish (97).(2) This is not to say that most early American immigrants simply made their peace with the inescapable burden of identity. Upon newly acquiring a hyphenated identity, Americans struggled to determine which side of the hyphen they should embrace. This struggle served as the essential grist for the artistic mills of our early American novelists. Given the relative safety and the material rewards that seemed to go hand in hand with being an Amerikaner, it should come as little surprise that the side of the hyphen stood little chance of competing for the soul of many of these early protagonists. …

Foreign-Born vs Native-Born Canadians: A Comparison of Their Inter-Provincial Labor Mobility

This paper investigates the inter-provincial labor mobility behavior of immigrants relative to that of native-born Canadians. Foreign-born Canadians differ a great deal from their domestically-born counterparts. The foreign-born population is geographically concentrated in a few provinces and a few big cities. As a whole, they are older, better educated, more likely to be married, and more likely to have dependent children and bigger households. They are less active in participating in full-time education and training. They fare relatively better in the labor market. As a result, a higher proportion of them receive social security benefits that are directly tied to the presence of dependent children or age such as family allowance benefits and pension income, but a lower proportion receive benefits that are related to labor market performance such as employment insurance benefits and social assistance benefits. As a whole, immigrants are relatively less mobile inter-provincially. This is true both nationally and across almost every province. Among those who move to other provinces, destinations for foreign-born migrants are highly geographically concentrated. Most of them make their new homes in Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia. A significantly lower proportion of them relocate to other provinces for economic considerations, but a much higher proportion move to go to school or after retirement. Earnings return to their inter-provincial migration is significantly more substantial. This is the result of both wage increase and more hours of work after migration. Multi-variate regression results show that there are no statistically significant structural differences in the determinants of inter-provincial migration decisions between comparable foreign- and native-born Canadians. The probability of moving to other provinces, for immigrants as well as for domestically-born Canadians, is higher if earnings potentials elsewhere are relatively higher, lower if it is relatively harder to find employment elsewhere, higher among better educated workers, lower among French-speaking Canadians, lower among union members, and decreases with age, family size and job tenure. None of the proxies for government's labor market interventions significantly affect the decision to move inter-provincially. The lower mobility rates among the foreign-born are fully attributable to distributional and compositional differences between the immigrant and non-immigrant populations. These findings have a direct policy implication on immigration selection. To encourage population and labor force growth in economically less prosperous provinces, one might consider amending the current immigration selection and approval system, considering intended destinations as an additional factor and awarding additional points to applicants who choose designated provinces to settle upon arrival.

Political repression and its psychological effects on Honduran children

This paper, based on an exploratory study in Honduras, examines the psychological effects of political disappearance and assassination on surviving child family members. There are few, if any, comparative field studies of non-immigrant, non-refugee or non-clinical populations of children with forcibly disappeared and assassinated parents. In Latin America, violent state power has been exercised in a number of ways, including physical intimidation, jailing, murder and “disappearance”. This research compares 16 Honduran children who have experienced the loss of a parent through forced disappearance with 11 Honduran children who suffered a similar loss from a political assassination. Surviving parents or caretakers of these children were also interviewed. Differences between children of the disappeared and assassinated were analyzed using a Rorschach object relations scale, post-traumatic stress and symptom and behavior scales and interviews with the children and the surviving parents. Both groups of children have symptoms of traumatic stress, depression, anxiety and aggressive feelings. Children of both groups remain symptomatic for many years after their loss and children with disappeared parents present more unconscious emotional disturbance in the Rorschach object relations scale than children with assassinated parents. The lack of physical, emotional and legal resolution in forced disappearance appears to impede mourning and a return to age-appropriate concerns.

Comparison of Cultural Bias in Two Cognitive Screening Instruments in Elderly Hispanic Patients in New Mexico

The authors compared the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Fuld Object-Memory Exam (FULD) in a Hispanic non-immigrant population in New Mexico. Results demonstrated that performance on the MMSE was affected by lower education and income levels. Performance on the FULD was not affected by these variables. Among persons with limited education and lower income, the FULD may provide a better means of screening for cognitive deficit than measures such as the MMSE.

Beta thalassemia in Germany: molecular genetics and clinical phenotype in immigrant and in the native population

In Germany there are about 300-400 patients with homozygous beta-thalassaemia who immigrated from endemic regions mostly in the Mediterranean. In the non-immigrant population beta-thalassaemia is rare with only single case reports of homozygous patients. Heterozygous beta-thalassaemia, however, is more common and must be considered in the differential diagnosis of hypochromic anemia. Here, clinical and molecular data of 221 homozygous patients from immigrant families and 256 non-immigrant German heterozygous individuals are presented. Clinically, 87% (n = 192) of the homozygotes are regularly transfused and classified as thalassaemia major (TM). The other 13% (n = 29) are not (regularly) transfused and thus classified as thalassaemia intermedia (TI). There is a wide spectrum of 39 beta-globin gene mutations and even the most common three, IVSI-110G-A, NS 39, and IVSI-6 T-C occur with relatively low frequencies of 28%, 22%, and 9%, respectively. In 17/29 (58%) TI patients "mild" mutations are found that inactivate the affected gene incompletely. In 16/29 (55%) there are mutations that are associated with increased gamma-globin gene activity. alpha-Thalassaemia is rare and only found in 3/29 TI-patients. In the 256 Germans with heterozygous beta-thalassaemia there are 27 different beta-globin gene mutations. The 3 most common are Mediterranean mutations together accounting for 61%. Also-relatively common (5%; n = 13) is an otherwise rare frameshift mutation of codon 83 (FS83 delta G). The other mutations occur in < 10 individuals only. Two mutations described here are novel. One of them affects position-2 of the intron 1 splice acceptor site (IVSI-129 A-G) and the other is a deletion of a single G in codon 15/16 (FS 15/16 delta G). Taken together, a plausible molecular pathogenesis for the observed phenotype (TM vs. TI) can be identified in most homozygous patients thus allowing for rational counselling of the affected families. In heterozygous Germans beta-thalassaemia has probably been imported from the Mediterranean in about 2/3 of the cases whereas in the remaining 1/3 it has probably originated locally.

Assessing the Quality of Household Panel Data: The Case of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics

Evidence from a number of methodological studies are used to assess the overall quality of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Despite substantial cumulative non-response over the nearly two decades spanned by the study, the sample is found to maintain its representation of the nonimmigrant population of the United States. The most important reasons for this result are that the study's following rules insure that the sample replaces itself in the same manner as the population (through the formation of new families by the offspring of old) and that nonresponse is largely unsystematic. Nonresponse also appears to be largely random with respect to parameters in a number of behavioral models. The accuracy of measures is assessed by comparing survey measures with national aggregates and with highly accurate individual validating data. PSID reports of transfer income appear to compare more favorably with program aggregates than do reports from other large-scale surveys such as the Current Popul...