The New Immigrant Survey

Rand Corporation, Santa Monica CA

Investigators

Abstract

Immigration has a major impact on American society, but there is a large gap between information needs and existing data. The fundamental questions concerning the short run and long run prospects for immigrant children and the children of immigrants, changes in the health and skill composition of entry cohorts of immigrants over time, the transitions between legal and illegal statuses, the contributions of immigrants to the economy and their assimilation remain unanswered. This project addresses these information needs by conducting for the first time, a comprehensive, multi-cohort longitudinal survey of new legal immigrants to the United States based on nationally representative samples of the administrative records, compiled by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), pertaining to immigrants newly admitted to permanent residence. The New Immigration Survey is a follow-up to a pilot project, which received co-funding from NICHD, NIA, NSF and INS, that has attempted to evaluated the cost and feasibility of fielding the full survey proposed here. The results obtained from the pilot project have informed all elements of the design for the full New Immigrant Survey. To monitor changes across cohorts, new samples will be drawn periodically. To monitor adaptation over time, each sample will be interviewed at regular intervals over the life cycle. To assess the immigrants' legacy, information will also be obtained about and from their children, both the immigrant children they brought with them and the U.S. citizen children born to them. The project also puts into the public domain public-use databases from these surveys that provide an important source of information to assess U.S. immigration laws, the assimilation and experiences of immigrants, and the impact of immigration in the United States. These data provide prospective and retrospective information about pre- and post-immigration education, work, health, migration, marriage, and fertility for new immigrants. They also provide useful data on health, on economic status, on schooling, and on children's well being from a population heterogeneous in English and native languages.