Woodrow-Lafield, Karen A., and Bunnak Poch. 2006. “Family Reunification and Citizenship for Recent Chinese Immigrants, New York City.” Presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, Los Angeles, March 29-April 1, 2006.



This study examines the timing of naturalization for Chinese immigrants settling in New York City. Immigration helped sustain New York City population levels in the 1990s. Chinese immigrants naturalize more quickly than other major groups, and they sponsor many family members under immediate relative provisions. Based on continuous-time hazard models over duration controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and employment immigrants were naturalizing more quickly than immigrants under family preference categories since the mid 1980s. For most cohorts, immigrants reporting professional, managerial, technical sales, or administrative occupations showed propensity to naturalize more quickly than others. The gender effect was inconsistent, although women of recent cohorts were naturalizing more quickly, perhaps due to changing gender roles.