KAREN A. WOODROW-LAFIELD, PH.D.
AGENDA ON MIGRATION, POPULATION, AND BORDER AFFAIRS
Email: WoodrowLafield@cs.com
Web Page: http://home.comcast.net/~karenwoodrowlafield
Note: As Director in 2002-2004, Dr. Karen A. Woodrow-Lafield prepared this agenda for the Border and Inter-American Affairs unit within the Institute for Latino Studies, University of Notre Dame.
This plan sets forth an agenda of scientific research on US migration and well-being of migrants and immigrants to inform policymaking as to immigration and border enforcement, and inter-American affairs. Certain initiatives are based on prior and continuing projects; others suggest new investigations. Dr. Karen A. Woodrow-Lafield has expertise on international migration, immigration studies, population and health, race and ethnicity, social inequality and poverty, and immigrant and immigration policy. Prior to the appointment at Notre Dame, she was a tenured Associate Professor at Mississippi State University, Statistician and Demographer at the U.S. Census Bureau, and a Senior Research Analyst with the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. She also held research appointments at the Population Research Center at the University of Texas Austin and the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis at SUNY-Albany.
MIGRATION, IMMIGRATION, NATURALIZATION, AND EMIGRATION
(A) Initiative for Modeling Naturalization with the Immigration-to-Naturalization Project, Models of the Occurrence and Timing of Naturalization, Funded 1999-2004, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Dr. Karen A. Woodrow-Lafield, Principal Investigator. This project involved creation of the linked immigration-to-naturalization dataset including immigrants of 1978-1991 (9 million) and naturalizations for 1978-1996 (5 million) and studies of trajectories from immigrant to naturalized citizen, focusing on gender, human capital, and social capital. (See various Woodrow-Lafield publications.)
Dr. Karen A. Woodrow-Lafield is planning grant applications related to this initial project:
(B) Initiative for Modeling Naturalization with the Immigration-to-Naturalization Project, Planned application for data improvement and analyses. (See various Woodrow-Lafield publications.)
(C) Initiative for Immigration-to-Naturalization Archive and Immigration Research Data Access, Planned application for data sharing, an original project aim. (See various Woodrow-Lafield publications.)
(D) Initiative for Modeling Naturalization with the Immigration-to-Naturalization Project, Planned application for developing linked records based on 1978-2007 immigrant cohorts and 1997-2007 naturalizations, statistical modeling and demographic analyses. (See various Woodrow-Lafield publications.)
(E) Initiative on Immigrant Families and Poverty
This focus is on how immigrants are faring as to poverty status in the post-welfare reform period. The aims are dissemination of findings and reports about alternative or experimental measures of poverty as related to immigrant families. Preliminary research shows that calculating poverty rates with alternative measures gives higher rates for immigrant families due to higher housing and working costs in metropolitan areas, and this is especially so for noncitizen householder families. (See Woodrow-Lafield (2004).)
(F) Initiative on Measuring Emigration, Return Migration, Americans Overseas
Emigration is a crucial portion of net international migration, an important component in calculating population change for population estimates and projections. These activities include reviewing the problem of studying U.S. emigration, conceptually and empirically, developing new approaches, such as the multiplicity or network sampling approach over 1987-1991 for gathering data on characteristics of emigrants and Americans overseas based on reports by consanguineal relatives, and illustrating the contemporary significance of emigration or return migration. (See Woodrow-Lafield (1996); Woodrow-Lafield and Kraly (2004).)
(G) Initiative on Special Populations and Status
One study examined the demography of recent migration from Colombia and proposed empirical strategies for greater understanding of the nature of adaptations made by Colombians and their families as migrants and immigrants in the United States. A general presumption that refugees, asylees, and other special status persons are likely to remain should be examined empirically. Another paper reviews immigration status for Central Americans and policies about temporary protected status. (See Garcia et al. (2004).)
POPULATIONS AND UNAUTHORIZED MIGRATION
Statistics of the quantity, dynamics, and composition of U.S. net international migration (lawful immigration, unauthorized migration, and emigration) are useful in population programs and in evaluating immigration policies and homeland security measures. In the present climate of innovation for the 2010 Census, both statistical analyses and qualitative assessments of census taking and surveys are valuable in communities with foreign-born persons, Hispanics or Latinos, and populations diverse on race and ethnicity, language, and residence. Census coverage of foreign-born populations is likely to vary by legal status, and this necessitates assumptions about coverage in deriving estimates of legal status populations that add to uncertainties surrounding estimates.
(H) Initiative on Quantification, The Mexico-United States Binational Migration Study 1995-1997, Quantification of Unauthorized Residents in 2000-2001 and Population Eligibility under Proposed Legislation, Funded 1995-1998
Research (Woodrow-Lafield and coauthors) led to quantification of the number and change in net undocumented migrants in the 1970s and 1980s, for nation and states, especially considering the impacts of legislation in late 1980s through amnesty for 3 million and sponsorship for as many as 2.5 million family members. Migration patterns in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in 31.1 million foreign-born persons in 2000, including about 8 million unauthorized residents, somewhat more than estimated by government demographers. Building on collaborative research for the Binational Migration Study, Bean-Van Hook-Woodrow-Lafield (2001) found there were 7.8 million unauthorized residents (a range of 5.9 to 9.9 million), of whom possibly 3.8 to 5.8 million might have been eligible for “regularization” as of late 2001. More than one-half of the unauthorized residents were from Mexico (4.5 million or 3.4 to 5.8 million) and 1.5 million were from Central America (or 1.2 to 1.9 million). (See Woodrow-Lafield (1998, 2001) and see Bean, Corona, Tuiran, Woodrow-Lafield, and Van Hook (2001).)
(I) Initiative on Methods for Understanding Net Immigration, Especially Unauthorized Migration
The need continues for empirical research on net immigration, unauthorized migration, and potentially eligible populations under immigration reform. There is an ongoing debate about immigration reform, and not only are national surveys used more for immigrant research and immigration policy making but the American Community Surveys may also emerge as useful in evaluating state and local impacts. This initiative has the aim of contributing critical perspectives to advance a public sociology on immigration, immigrants, and related policies. As of 2006, there may have been 11.6 million unauthorized residents, including 6.6 million Mexicans, according to the most recent government study, indicating that unauthorized migration has continued at high levels since the mid-1990s.
(J) Initiative on Communities, Civic Engagement, Census-Taking, and Federal Surveys
The initial perception of the 2000 census as better than previous censuses was later questioned. The 2000 census showed an overall net overcount and a net undercount was apparent only for the Black population. This initiative includes preliminary work to show that more studies are needed to interpret and analyze how the 2000 census operations worked (or did not work) in various communities and how coverage varied by race and ethnicity. This is crucial for looking ahead to the taking of the 2010 census. Challenges remain in census-taking in minority communities and with linguistically isolated populations, such as indicated by a likely net undercount in Los Angeles County. (See Robinson et al. (1993) and Woodrow-Lafield and Ramanujan (2003, 2004).)
(K) Initiative on Net Immigration and US Population Projections
As considered by the Auxiliary Working Group on International Migration in which Woodrow-Lafield participated, higher levels of net international migration for U.S. population projections affect calculations related to the long-run insolvency of Social Security and Medicare. Population projections incorporate net international migration according to past trends, current immigration policies, and assumptions about continuation of past trends in the context of current policies and any future shifts. This initiative includes the aim of contributing and informing this discussion. (See as an example the 2003 Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods http://www.ssab.gov/2003TP.html .)
(L) INDIVIDUALS, INSTITUTIONS AND NATIONAL SECURITY
This initiative recognizes the importance of attention to the intersections of individuals, institutions, and national security, that is, the evolving structures and relations among individuals and institutions amid global shifts on national security. Enforcement actions under immigration legislation in the 1990s are the subject of growing debate. What are the appropriate forums for discussing immigration policies, national security, and individuals’ situations as to protections, human rights, and family welfare? Identity, trust, and reason are central concepts.
Dr. Karen A. Woodrow-Lafield discussed findings on naturalization of Mexican immigrants during the Permanent Seminar of International Migration 2001 (COLEF- COLMEX- SOMEDE), held at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico in 2001. Also shown are Dr. Manuel Orozco, Inter-American Dialogue, and Professor Manuel Ángel Castillo, seminar coordinator, El Colegio de México.