Truth In Immigration

The purpose of this page is to provide independent and nonpartisan publications about the contributions, diversity, and complexity of the undocumented immigrant and legal immigrant community and their positive impact on the U.S. culturally, economically, socially, and politically. These resources are meant to inform and shape the immigration debate from a biased point of view influenced by xenophobic sentiments and cultural incompetencies.

Immigration Demographics

A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States: Unauthorized immigrants living in the United States are more geographically dispersed than in the past and are more likely than either U.S. born residents or legal immigrants to live in a household with a spouse and children. In addition, a growing share of the children of unauthorized immigrant parents—73%—were born in this country and are U.S. citizens.

Latino Children: A Majority Are U.S.-Born Offsprings of Immigrants: Hispanics now make up 22% of all children under the age of 18 in the United States—up from 9% in 1980—and as their numbers have grown, their demographic profile has changed. A majority (52%) of the nation’s 16 million Hispanic children are now “second generation” meaning they are the U.S.-born sons and daughters of at least one foreign-born parent, typically someone who came to this country in the immigration wave from Mexico, Central America and South America that began around 1980. Some 11% of Latino children are “first generation”—meaning they themselves are foreign-born. And 37% are “third-generation or higher”—meaning they are the U.S.-born children of U.S. born parents.

All Under One Roof: Mixed-Status Families in an Era of Reform
Authors: Michael Fix and Wendy Zimmerman
The casual observer—and policymaker—might readily believe that the country is neatly divided into two kinds of families: those composed of citizens who have strong claims to legal rights and social benefits, and those composed of non-citizens, whose claims to both are more contingent. American families, however, are far more complex: the number of families that contain a mix of both citizens and non-citizens is surprisingly large. Nearly 1 in 10 U.S. families with children is a mixed-status family, that is to say, a family in which one or more parents is a non-citizen and one or more children is a citizen. Further, mixed-status families are themselves complex: they may be made up of any combination of legal immigrants, undocumented immigrants, and naturalized citizens. Their composition also changes frequently, as undocumented family members legalize their status and legal immigrants naturalize. The number, complexity, and fluidity of these mixed immigration status families complicate the design and implementation of the already complicated arenas of immigration and immigrantion policy.

Between Here and There: How Attached are Latino Immigrants To Their Native Country: Most Latino immigrants maintain some kind of connection to their native country by sending remittances, traveling back or telephoning relatives, but the extent to which they engage in these transnational activities varies considerably. Those who have been in the U.S. for decades and those who arrived as children appear less attached than those who arrived more recently or migrated as adults. There are also significant differences by country of origin, with Colombians and Dominicans maintaining more active connections than Mexicans, and with Cubans having the least contact.

Mexican Immigrants: How Many Come? How Many Leave?
By: Jeffrey S. Passel, Senior Demographer and D’Vera Cohn, Senior Writer
Organization: Pew Research Center
The flow of immigrants from Mexico to the United States has declined sharply since mid-decade, but there is no evidence of an increase during this period in the number of Mexican-born migrants returning home from the U.S., according to a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of government data from both countries

Immigrant Women In the United States: A Demographic Portrait
By: Susan C. Pearce
Organization: Immigration Policy Center
The migration of women to the United States is characterized by two contradictory trends. On the one hand, over the past 20 years women have comprised a growing share of new legal immigrants to the country, a trend which mirrors the feminization of migration in Europe, Africa, and Latin America since 1960. On the other hand, since 1970 women have constituted a declining share of the U.S. foreign-born population as a whole. This most likely is due to the fact that the hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants entering the country each year are predominantly male, although the numbers of undocumented women are on the rise. Reflecting the overall increase in both legal and undocumented immigration by men and women alike in recent decades, nearly half of all foreign-born women in the United States entered the country since 1990.

Thinking Ahead About Our Immigrant Future: New Trends and Mutual Benefits in Our Aging Society
By: Dowell Myers
Organization: Immigration Policy Center
There are two stories now being told about immigration and the future of America. Each has some basis in fact, although one is based on newer trends and is more optimistic than the other. These stories differ in their answers to three crucial questions: whether immigration to the United States is accelerating out of control or is slowing; how much immigrants are assimilating into American society and progressing economically over time; and how important immigrants are to the U.S. economy. The pessimistic story—in which immigration is portrayed as increasing dramatically and producing a growing population of unassimilated foreigners—draws upon older evidence. But more recent date and analysis suggest a far more positive vision of our immigrant future. Immigration has not only begun to level off, but immigrants are climbing the socio-economic ladder, and will become increasingly important to the U.S. economy as workers, taxpayers, and homebuyers supporting the aging Baby Boom generation.

Immigration and Healthcare

Unequal Access: Immigrants and U.S. Health Care
By: Sarita A. Mohanty, M.D., M.P.H
Organization: Immigration Policy Center
Despite the important role that immigrants play in the U.S. economy, they disproportionately lack health insurance and receive fewer health services than native-born Americans. Some policymakers have called for limits on immigrants’ access to health insurance, particularly Medicaid, which are even more stringent than those already in place. However, policies that restrict immigrants’ access to some health care services lead to the inefficient and costly use of other services (such as emergency room care) and negatively impact public health. The future economic success of the United States depends on a healthy workforce. Therefore, policies must be devised that improve, rather than restrict, immigrants’ access to quality health care.

A Glass Half Empty: Latina Reproduction and Public Discourse
Author: Leo R. Chavez
Latina reproduction and fertility have become ground zero in a political war—not just of words, but of public policies and laws. This article builds on a theoretical framework that includes issues of stratified reproduction, which characterize some women as reproductive threats to society. From an examination of the discourse found in 10 national magazines over a 35-year period, beginning in 1965, emerge three interrelated themes concerning Latina reproductive threat: 1) high fertility and population growth; 2) reconquest; and 3) overuse of medical and other social services. The final section examines data on reproduction and fertility collected from Latinas and Anglo women in Orange County, California, to explore the “truth claims” associated with Latina reproduction and fertility. The findings suggest that Latinas do not begin sexual activities at a relatively early age nor do they have relatively more sexual partners than Anglo women. Most Latinas have used birth control pills at some point in their lives. Latinas generally have fewer than two children per woman. Mexican-origin women born or raised in the Untied States had fewer children than adult immigrants, and their differences from Anglo women were insignificant. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression finds that age, marital status, education, and language acculturation are more important than ethnicity for understanding fertility.

Immigration Discourse

Illegal Status and Social Citizenship: Thoughts on Mexican Immigrants in a Postnational World
Author: Adelaida R. Del Castillo
The unauthorized status of undocumented Mexican immigrants removes them from the polity, but it does not preclude the practice of social citizenship within the welfare state. Undocumented immigrant communities access social rights as they live their lives and create community through their use of goods, services, and opportunities provided by the benefits of the welfare state. Tarascans in southern Illinois reproduce social and cultural citizenship through their use of survival and adaptive strategies; women are vital to the mobilization of these strategies and to the creation of community. This enactment of social citizenship without consent questions the sovereignty of the nation-state as well as traditional notions of citizenship, and invites a postnational approach to the challenges posed by illegal immigrants in the state. Importantly, a universal human rights discourse allows for the re-conceptualization of unauthorized immigrants as human persons and individual rights-holders, both in the political community and before international bodies.