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Special Reports

Our most in-depth publication, Special Reports provide detailed analyses of special topics in U.S. immigration policy.

The Myth of Immigrant Criminality and the Paradox of Assimilation

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.

Published On: Wed, Feb 21, 2007 | Download File

A Humanitarian Crisis at the Border: New Estimates of Deaths Among Unauthorized Immigrants

In the mid-1990s, the U.S. government's deterrence approach to immigration control militarized the U.S.-Mexico border, closed off major urban points of unauthorized migration in Texas and California, and funneled hundreds of thousands of unauthorized immigrants through southern Arizona’s deserts and mountains. As a result, immigrant deaths along the border have increased dramatically.

Published On: Thu, Feb 01, 2007 | Download File

U.S. Immigration Policy in Global Perspective: International Migration in OECD Countries

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.

Published On: Wed, Jan 03, 2007 | Download File

Attracting the Best and the Brightest: The Promise and Pitfalls of a Skill-Based Immigration Policy

One question that recently received heightened attention from lawmakers is whether or not immigrants should be admitted to the United States less on the basis of family ties and more on the basis of the skills they can contribute to the U.S. economy. Although some of the practices associated with a point-based immigration system might benefit the U.S. economy, policymakers should be careful not to assume that such a system would be a panacea for the widespread dysfunction of U.S. immigration policies.

Published On: Tue, Dec 05, 2006 | Download File

Undocumented Immigration by Congressional Districts

In this IPC Policy Brief, author Rob Paral uses new census data to update his earlier IPC report (Playing Politics on Immigration: Congress Favors Image over Substance in Passing H.R. 4437) on the number of undocumented immigrants in U.S. congressional districts.

Published On: Sun, Oct 01, 2006 | Download File

Rethinking the Effects of Immigration on Wages: New Data and Analysis from 1990-2004

A crucial question in the current debate over immigration is what impact immigrants have on the wages of native-born workers. At first glance, it might seem that the simple economics of supply and demand provides the answer: immigrants increase the supply of labor; hence they should decrease the wages of native workers. However, the issue is more complicated than this for two reasons that have been largely overlooked.

Published On: Sun, Oct 01, 2006 | Download File

Competing for Global Talent: The Race Begins with Foreign Students

To retain its competitive edge in global knowledge production and its leadership in research and education, the United States must remain open to talented people from around the world. However, the status of the United States as the preferred destination for foreign students and scholars faces serious challenges. As global competition intensifies for professionals and high-tech workers, doctors and nurses, and university students and researchers, will the United States remain in the forefront in attracting the best and the brightest?

Published On: Fri, Sep 01, 2006 | Download File

The Growth and Reach of Immigration: New Census Bureau Data Underscore Importance of Immigrants

New data from the 2005 American Community Survey (ACS), released by the Census Bureau on August 15, 2006, underscore the extent to which immigration continues to fuel the expansion of the U.S. labor force.

Published On: Tue, Aug 01, 2006 | Download File

Building a Competitive Workforce: Immigration and the U.S. Manufacturing Sector

Shortages of skilled labor constitute the foremost challenge confronting U.S. manufacturers who face growing competition from manufacturers in Asia, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. Demand for professionals with university degrees is rising as manufacturing becomes increasingly high tech. But the U.S. educational system is not producing enough highly educated native-born manufacturing workers to meet this growing demand.

Published On: Mon, Jul 31, 2006 | Download File

Immigrant Women in the United States: A Demographic Portrait

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. Read more...

Published On: Mon, Jun 12, 2006 | Download File