Our Most Recent Special Reports
This page last updated February 15, 2008

• Division and Dislocation: Regulating Immigration through Local Housing Ordinances by Jill Esbenshade, Ph.D. [Summer 2007]
  The failure of Congress and the White House to enact immigration reform legislation has led a number of policymakers to support local ordinances that target undocumented immigrants. In this IPC Special Report, author Jill Esbenshade finds that ordinance initiatives are correlated with a recent and rapid increase in the foreign-born or Latino share of the population, which creates the perception of an immigration “crisis.” But undocumented immigration will not be “solved” by the local ordinances that are unconstitutional, deny due process rights to renters and landlords, and foster anti-immigrant and anti-Latino discrimination. [Summary] [Full Report-PDF file, 432KB]



• The Myth of Immigrant Criminality and the Paradox of Assimilation: Incarceration Rates Among Native and Foreign-Born Men by Ruben G. Rumbaut, Ph.D, and Walter A. Ewing, Ph.D. [Spring 2007].
  It is a myth that immigrants increase the amount of crime in the United States. Data from the U.S. census and other sources show that for every ethnic group -- without exception -- incarceration rates among young men are lowest for immigrants. This holds true especially for the Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans who make up the bulk of the undocumented immigrant population.
  [Press Release] [Summary] [Full Report-PDF file, 720KB] [Additional Resources]



• U.S. Immigration Policy in Global Perspective: International Migration in OECD Countries by David L. Bartlett, Ph.D. [Winter 2007].
  Despite the U.S.’s huge and flexible labor market and its abundance of leading-edge multinational corporations and world-class universities, it faces growing competition for skilled labor from other countries. This situation underscores the need to revamp U.S. immigration policies to make them more responsive to the demands of an increasingly competitive global economy. One possibility is to replace the H1-B visa program for highly skilled foreign professionals with a quality-selective regime like the point-based systems in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
  [Press Release] [Summary] [Full Report-PDF file, 968KB]



• Immigrant Women in the United States: A Demographic Portrait [Summer 2006]
  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 admitted into the country, a trend which mirrors the feminization of migration in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. On the other hand, women have constituted a declining share of the U.S. foreign-born population as a whole since 1970. This most likely is due to the fact that the majority of undocumented immigrants entering the country are men, although the numbers of undocumented women are on the rise.
  [Press Release] [Summary] [Full Report-PDF file, 1,896KB]



• Border Insecurity: U.S. Border-Enforcement Policies and National Security [Spring 2006]
  The U.S. government's efforts to stem undocumented immigration by fortifying the U.S.-Mexico border have increased the profitability of the people-smuggling business and fostered greater sophistication in the smuggling networks through which a foreign terrorist might enter the country. U.S. national security would be better served if undocumented labor migration were taken out of the border-security equation by reforming the U.S. immigration system to accommodate U.S. labor demand.
  [Summary] [Full Report-PDF file, 564KB]



• Economic Growth & Immigration: Bridging the Demographic Divide [November 2005]
  This report examines the relationship between immigration and sustained U.S. economic growth. As the U.S. labor force ages and becomes better educated, the economy is continuing to create a substantial number of jobs for individuals with low levels of formal education and that favor younger workers. These trends are creating a critical demographic gap between U.S. labor supply and demand that immigration can help fill.
  [Press Release] [Summary] [Full Report-PDF file, 600KB]