Woodrow-Lafield, Karen A. 2006. Immigration Multipliers. Prepared for Congress & Tomorrow’s Foreign-Born Workforce: Evaluating Immigration Projections, a workshop organized by the Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University (September 26-27, 2006).


The topic of immigration multipliers sprang from the new immigration as consequences pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act. With a legacy of understanding pioneers and chain migration, the concept of immigration multipliers addresses the amount of future immigration stemming from an individual given permanent residence. Studies to quantify immigration multipliers range from those using direct estimation based on special surveys to model-based estimation drawing on traditional census and administrative data. One focus in this review is the case study of immigrants legalized under the general provisions of the Immigration and Reform Control Act of 1986, for whom analyses of the Legalized Population Surveys reveal residential distribution of family members, potential family reunification, and intentions to naturalize. Their experience has relevance for recent policy discussions of establishing mechanisms for guestworker visas and adjustment to lawful permanent residence and possible citizenship for undocumented residents. A second focus is findings on naturalization of immigrants admitted over the 1980s, especially as to propensities to naturalize more quickly or more slowly that vary among origin groups and by needs for family reunification. The level of likely immigration multipliers has a prominent role in developing projections of future immigration under proposed immigration reforms.

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