U.S. immigration policy: the guestworker option revisited

In guestworker programs foreign nationals are admitted into another country on a nonmigrant status with severely curtailed social and limited labor market rights. The duration of stay is always finite and compliance with the terms of the contract are entered through a network of legal arrangements which allow officials in the receiving country a substantial amount of administrative discretion. Pro-guestworker arguments say that the borders cannot be closed, that guestworkers can be substituted for illegal aliens, that guestworkers are better than illegal aliens, and that additional labor benefits the US economy. Those against guestworker programs stress longterm socioeconomic issues rather than short-term economic advantages, saying that guestworker programs are no quick answer for illegal immigration, for domestic labor shortages, or for the US poor population. Guestworker programs, its opponents say, provide short-run economic benefits to a few employers and individuals at the expense of more widespread and longterm socioeconomic costs. They oppose: 1) the concept of admitting foreign workers with restricted rights, 2) the concentration of any negative labor market impacts on already disadvantaged domestic groups, 3) the proliferation of "jobs which Americans won't take," 4) many temporary guests ending up permanent residents, and 5) that exporting workers is as likely to impede as accelerate job-creating economic development in immigration countries. Most economists believe that diminishing marginal productivity produces downward-sloping short-run demand for labor schedules. The European experience with these programs has been different than those in the US since foreign workers in Europe were initially recruited in response to actual labor shortages and have always had legal status, but both Europe and the US have experienced large contingents of workers who remain in the countries and are at a pronounced power disadvantage regarding the society's institutions. Studies of guestworker programs have shown that worker flows eventually become impervious to the receiver's actual labor needs as employers disaggregate jobs into components which match the low skills of migrants and create additional foreign worker jobs which are then shunned by native labor, thus perpetuating a need for such labor. If the US opts for a large-scale guestworker program this will only replace 1 set of problems with another and it is not at all certain that large-scale guestworker admissions will proportionately reduce illegal migration inflows.     

Reflections on immigration to Europe in light of U.S. immigration history

Trends in international migration in Europe and the United States are analyzed and compared, with a focus on concern about the presence of migrants in the receiving country. Consideration is given to the acculturation of migrants in the United States, including a historical outline of that process as it occurred during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Cultural pluralism and the newest wave of immigration are also described. Implications for European immigration are assessed.     

Contemporary American attitudes toward U.S. immigration

"This article aims to contribute to an understanding of contemporary American attitudes toward immigration.... The paper uses data from a CBS News/New York Times poll conducted in June 1993. Respondents were asked whether they would like to see the level of immigration to the United States increased, decreased or kept the same. We test several hypotheses about factors influencing respondents' attitudes, including the importance of previously unexamined predictors. These new hypotheses relate to views about the health of the U.S. economy, feelings of social and political alienation, and isolationist sentiments concerning international economic issues and foreign relations. One important discovery is the close connection between possessing restrictionist immigration attitudes and having an isolationist perspective along a broader array of international issues."     

Changing U.S. immigration law and the occupational selectivity of Asian immigrants

This study explored the relationship between US immigration laws and their impact on the immigration of Asian professionals. The article relied on a 1996 Population Association presentation. Data were obtained from the US Immigration and Naturalization Service on legally admitted immigrants to the US. The authors describe the paths to admission, trends in immigration of professionals during 1972-94, and the Immigration Act of 1965 and its 4 amendments. Standardization-decomposition techniques are used to explain the relative differences in professional immigration across 1972-77, 1978-91, and 1992-94. The crude professional rate for all Asians declined by 19% during 1972-91. 62% of the decline was due to changes in the class of admission composition, and 25% was due to a decline in the class-specific professional rates. During 1992-94, the Asian crude professional rate increased 7%, most of which was due to changes in class composition, with the exception of Korean rates. Only the Vietnamese experienced a decline in rates. The 1965 law allowed for equity between countries in admission. The paths of immigration were family ties, job skills, or refugee status. During 1972-77, Chinese took advantage of family reunification, and Indians entered on employment preferences. The legal changes affected the size and share of each class of admission. The revisions indirectly affected the occupational selectivity of immigrant groups. 27% of the flow of Asians during 1972-77 was accounted for by employment preferences. Professionals were 44% of Asian immigrants during 1972-77, 26% during 1978-91, and 33% during 1992-94.     

Resurgent Irish immigration to the U.S. in the 1980s and early 1990s: a socio-demographic profile

Irish immigration to the US has been motivated traditionally by a lack of employment opportunities at home. With the passage of the US Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, however, Irish immigrants were no longer explicitly favoured. Family reunification became the primary path of entry, which worked against the Irish who had lost their immediate generational link with US residents.
During the severe Irish recession of 1980–85 a resurgence in Irish outflows resulted in a large undocumented Irish population in the US. Most of this population was later legalized as a result of special legislation that targeted the Irish. There have been concerns in Ireland that the outflow in the 1980s, unlike prior flows, included a high proportion of skilled persons, leading some to characterize the outflow as a "new wave".
This article uses US immigration data to assess how the occupational characteristics of recent Irish immigrants compare with prior immigrant cohorts and also examines how Irish immigrants are incorporated into the US economy.
Recent Irish immigrants to the US spanned the occupational spectrum: accountants, engineers, nurses and other professionals found a booming job market in the most advanced sectors of the US economy, while less skilled immigrants found jobs in the informal economy. While the number of entering Irish professionals increased, flows of the less skilled increased even more dramatically, resulting in an overall decline in the occupational selectivity of Irish immigrants.
The 1980–85 Irish recession has been followed by robust growth for more than a decade. Ireland is now experiencing a net inflow of persons, including many Irish professionals returning from the US. However, Ireland continues to experience a net outflow of the young and less skilled which may once again result in a large undocumented Irish presence in the US.     

Unemployment,immigration, and NAFTA: a panel study of ten major U.S. industries

We conduct a pooled cross-section and time-series analysis of the unemployment rates across ten major industries in the U.S. from 1983 to 1994 to assess the effect of NAFTA and immigration. Our results indicate that the output produced by the industry, unemployment benefit coverage, and interest rates are significant determinants of industry unemployment rates, but union presence does not affect industry unemployment. Both Canadian and Mexican immigrants appear to be complements to the U.S. labor force, with Canadian immigrants highly complementary to American labor. Finally, the Chow test provides no evidence that NAFTA has changed the structure of unemployment determination in these industries. We are indebted to Emily Hoffman and Matthew Higgins for their comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.     

U.K. statistics on immigration: development and limitations

This article discusses the data on international migration to the UK, their limitations, and their origins. No 1 source gives a demographically satisfactory account of net migration, and different sources of data are not compatible with each other. Their present form can only be understood in the context of a reluctant acceptance, in the face of domestic political pressure, of the need to impose the same controls on the entry of Commonwealth citizens from 1962-1971 as had been imposed on the entry of aliens since 1920. Coleman asserts that UK migration statistics suffer 1 major omission and several systematic deficiencies. The omission is the absence of any information, either from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) or from the Home Office, on gross or net migration flows to the UK from the Republic of Ireland. Neither the IPS nor the Home Office data provide a very satisfactory form of measurement of other migration streams. Neither has much time depth, the former not existing before 1963, the latter being affected by changes in rules and procedures. As a voluntary sample with only relatively few interviews per year on intended migrants, the IPS can only provide a crude overall estimate of the general demographic import of migration flows, incapable for statistical reasons of any refined sub-division or analysis, and prove both to error and bias. The Home Office statistics do not treat immigration in a demographically useful way. They measure flows only in 1 direction, provide no demographic or socioeconomic characteristics on those accepted for settlement, and are not compatible with the IPS in most ways. For political reasons, no action to resolve the Irish anomaly is likely, especially when the trend is for less, not more, control and counting on the entry of European Community citizens.     

Sexology in the U.S.:

No abstract available for this article.     

The law,immigration and human rights: changing the Australian immigration control system

This paper examines the structure of the present system of immigration control in Australia in the context of its origin, evolution, and responses to current human rights and anti-discrimination standards. The system has serious shortcomings because it confers broad discredionary powers on immigration officals and provides no comprehensive system of judical review. Since the 1970s the system has been gradually losing its legitimacy and has become a subject of challenges by various groups; its efficiency has been undermined and it breeds social conflict and systematic human rights violations. The 1958 Migration Act contains a level of discretion unknown in other "machinery" legislation, conferring a wide range of discretionay power on 1) the minister, 2) authorized officers, 3) officers, and 4) prescribed authorities. The current review system, in response to political pressure and in the context of administrative law reforms, provides for limited access to judicial review under the Administrative Decisions Act of 1977. The ethnic gains of the 1970s were achieved when Australian society was going through a period of profound liberal changes. The 1980s have brought continuing high unemployment and high inflation rates, a large budget deficit and associated restraints in government expenditure, as well as a substantial cut in the immigrant intake after the Labor Victory of March, 1983. Overall, an entirely new immigration control system should be developed that will aim at providing a better balance between stability, predictability, and fairness of the system on the one hand, and the need for government to maintain its ability to adapt its program to fluctuations in economic and social conditions both within and outside Australia on the other hand.     

The effect of maquiladora employment on the monthly flow of Mexican undocumented immigration to the U.S., 1978-1982

"Some controversy has surrounded the extent to which employment in maquiladoras (assembly plants located along the Mexican border) has stimulated undocumented immigration to the United States. This study uses monthly data of maquiladora employment and INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service] apprehensions in a 'push-pull' migration framework to study the association between these two variables during the April 1978 to January 1982 period. The findings suggest that there is a significantly negative relationship between the one month lag of maquiladora employment and INS apprehensions. Employment growth in the maquiladora sector tends to be followed by a reduction of apprehensions one month later. The study also finds that male and female apprehensions appear to respond to relatively similar economic factors."     

World War II and the Transformation of the U.S. State: The Wartime Foundations of U.S. Hegemony

I present an analysis of the history of U.S. expansion and rise to hegemony in World War II, and argue that the concrete global perspectives and postwar ambitions of U.S. state managers were formed in the course of world war itself. They were not the result of preconceived economic or geopolitical policies or aims. I examine U.S. expansion and postwar goals in the military, economic, and political arenas, and show how social processes set in motion by world war in each of these dimensions were central in shaping the distinctive outcomes. I develop a theoretical perspective of world war as a social process, and argue that such an extraordinary period of violence, historical contingency, and state-led expansion involves potentially unique features of macrohistorical development and change.     

High stakes: U.S. nonprofit organizations and the U.S. standing abroad

This research sought to explain the agency of U.S.-based nonprofit nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the U.S. standing abroad, and explore the NGO role in the U.S. public diplomacy. A multiple-case study method was used to look at five 501(c)(3) organizations that receive predominantly private funding and operate globally. The data gathered from in-person interviews and corporate documentation were compared between cases, and synthesized across cases using the theory-building technique. While U.S. standing affects American NGOs’ practices and discourses, American NGOs’ behavior might have a bearing on the attitudes, perceptions, and opinions of international publics about the United States. Both the NGO-owned state identities and American NGOs’ reputation for autonomy and freedom of expression enhance the U.S. public diplomacy efforts.     

Beyond Schumpeter: Nonlinear economics and the evolution of the U.S. innovation system

To the extent that the U.S. has a national innovation system (actually systems), it is in the midst of a dramatic transformation. Essentially, international competition and internal political machinations are causing a shift away from a Schumpeterian system of entrepreneurial capitalism toward a more mercantilistic system. Industrial structures and government policies alike are beginning to mirror their global counterparts. Meanwhile, strategic analyses, both at the level of the firm and the nation state, remain mired in the methods of the past industrial epoch. This conceptual overview contends that the emerging science of nonlinear or advanced systems (chaos and complexity theories) provides a useful addendum to Schumpeter's perspectives. Moreover, tools and strategies derived from nonlinear or advanced systems are better suited to both understanding and managing this transformation.     

Intermarriage in the U.S.

No abstract available for this article.     

FORECASTING U.S. MORTALITY:

This article compares two methodologies for modeling and forecasting statistical time series models of demographic processes: Box-Jenkins ARIMA and structural time series analysis. The Lee-Carter method is used to construct nonlinear demographic models of U.S. mortality rates for the total population, gender, and race and gender combined. Single time varying parameters of k, the index of mortality, are derived from these model and fitted and forecasted using the two methodologies. Forecasts of life expectancy at birth, e₀, are generated from these indexes of k. Results show marginal differences in fit and forecasts between the two statistical approaches with a slight advantage to structural models. Stability across models for both methodologies offers support for the robustness of this approach to demographic forecasting.     

反恐战争与美国-伊斯兰世界矛盾的演进

“9·11”事件后,随着美国反恐战争的深入推进,伊斯兰世界对美国反恐战争的认识和反应发生了深刻变化。这些变化导致美国与伊斯兰世界的矛盾超出国家范畴,向社会和意识形态领域延伸,形成了一个国家对抗一种宗教群体的局面。美国与伊斯兰世界矛盾的重大演变导致双方的敌意和对立进一步加剧,成为影响当前国际局势的主要因素之一。     

The future of private sector unions in the U.S.

Conclusion As noted, the union movement’s significant decline during the last four decades is primarily a private sector phenomenon. Since the mid-1950s, the union density of private sector workers has dropped from more than a third to less than a tenth, in contrast to that found in government employment, which is now about 37 percent. We are indebted to the Donner Foundation for support and to Noah Meltz and Rafael Gomez for research and intellectual advice.