KAREN A. WOODROW-LAFIELD, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
MODELS OF THE OCCURRENCE AND TIMING OF NATURALIZATION, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development R01 HD37279
Web Page: http://home.comcast.net/~karenwoodrowlafield
Karen A. Woodrow-Lafield, Principal Investigator, conducted this project while she was an Associate Professor in Sociology and Research Fellow, Social Science Research Center, at Mississippi State University (1999-2002) and Director, Border and Inter-American Affairs, holding a two-year appointment as Visiting Faculty Fellow, Institute for Latino Studies, at the University of Notre Dame (2002-2004). For further information and inquiries about continuation of this project, contact Karen A. Woodrow-Lafield, by phone 202-276-2818 or email KarenWLafield@cs.com or WoodrowLafield@cs.com .
Introduction
Naturalization may be an indicator of immigrant adaptation, family integration, and settlement. The goals of this naturalization research project are to utilize linked immigrant and naturalization records as a unique multi-cohort retrospective data source encompassing nearly one-half of foreign-born residents in 1990. This project is responsive to a call for more research on U.S. immigration (Program Announcement-95-036) that, specifically, encouraged "(3) maximum use of existing data on immigrants or the foreign born for analyses, and the linking of such data to administrative records ... to obtain a more accurate profile of immigrant experiences."
Initial Aims
Initial aims of this project on the occurrence and timing of naturalization were:i) To utilize immigrant and naturalization administrative records as a data source on the immigration-to-naturalization transition for U.S. immigrants admitted for lawful permanent residence over 1978-1991 (as data were available in 1999 and prior to admissions under the Immigration Act of 1990), expanding the scope of cohort analyses beyond 1971, 1977, and 1982; ii) To describe the timing and occurrence of immigrant naturalization by characteristics at admission, especially country of birth;iii) To develop statistical models of the occurrence of naturalizing with cohort covariates and characteristics at admission, and gain understanding of influences associated with greater likelihood of having naturalized or naturalizing more quickly for some immigrants than others.
Background
A crossover occurred in the mid-1980s to more noncitizens than citizens among persons of foreign birth residing in the United States. The 1990 census was the first since the 1920 census to show the greater number of aliens than naturalized citizens following amnesty for formerly unauthorized aliens and recent lawful immigration. Origin differentials for long-term residents, higher for Asians, Africans, and Europeans or Canadians than for Mexicans, have long been apparent on naturalization. By 2000, the majority of foreign-born persons here for two decades were naturalized citizens, but Mexicans had done so at a lower level (52 percent) than others. Disparities in naturalization levels for the heterogeneous foreign-born population and origin groups and the question of differing propensities to naturalize are one dimension to the assimilation debate. Before 1992, individuals who wished to immigrate could be admitted for lawful permanent residence according to three principles of the U.S. legal immigration system for setting priorities or preferences: family unification, labor requirements, and humanitarian considerations. Preference categories and limits for family or labor migration for pre-1992 cohorts were established in the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 and 1977. The U.S. immigration system extends greater capability for sponsoring a family member as a legal immigrant to U.S. citizens, whether native-born or naturalized. Thus, understanding the determinants of naturalization is essential to explaining the integration of families and expansion of family networks across national boundaries.
Data
This project seeks insights that have been only rarely revealed as to naturalization of lawfully admitted immigrants. Based on naturalization experiences of 1971 immigrants in the first decade of residence, in The New Chosen People by Guillermina Jasso and Mark R. Rosenzweig, visa categories of admission were differentially associated with having naturalized. This project draws on existing large-scale data in new ways to contribute longitudinal studies that more accurately evaluate the transition to citizenship for the new immigration of Asian and Latin American origins. The linked immigrant and naturalization records represent a comprehensive resource: nearly 3 million immigrants over 1978-1991 had naturalized as of fiscal year 1996, with slightly more than 6 million immigrants who might naturalize after 1996. Among 5.2 million immigrants who were 21 years and older at admission, 1.8 million, or 36 percent, had naturalized by 1996.
Analyses
With statistical methods for dealing with change over time, the process of immigrants’ naturalizing can be studied rather than merely changes in citizenship status. In project papers and publications, as well as materials in preparation, distinctive origin patterns are observed for the probabilities of naturalizing at duration years and cumulative naturalization levels. In several studies, results are analyzed from continuous-time hazards models to explore the roles of gender and admission criteria in explaining propensities in naturalizing, specifically, (1) for immigrant cohorts 1978-1987 from the ten leading sending countries (China, India, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Jamaica, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Colombia); (2) for immigrant cohorts 1978-1991 from the major regions of origin; (3) for immigrant cohorts 1978-1991 from Canada and European countries; (4) for male immigrant cohorts 1983-1991 from Mexico, China, and India, adding occupational variables; and (5) selecting the underlying hazard function form, with and without correction for unobserved heterogeneity, for immigrants of Mexican and Chinese origins and for immigrants of Cuban, Salvadoran, Indian, and Filipino origins, and for Dominican and Chinese immigrants settling in New York.
Future Directions
Given the volume and heterogeneity of immigration and frequently unanticipated consequences of changes to immigration laws and policies, this work may advance immigration studies for interpreting the significance of naturalization in America. The project is just beginning to disentangle influences of gender, origin, and admission criteria for the timing of naturalization in the 1980s and 1990s. Peak numbers of immigrants became eligible to naturalize, unprecedented numbers applied to naturalize, and naturalization approvals were at historic highs over 1995-1997. Asian countries accounted for the greatest number of naturalizations for two decades, but, in 1996, North America became the leading region of birth among naturalizing immigrants with Mexico as the most prominent origin country. Mexicans, the single largest origin group, may now be at a threshold of embracing citizenship with the Mexican Nationality Act of 1998 that extended non-loss of Mexican nationality, including all rights of Mexican citizenship, to Mexicans who opted to obtain U.S. citizenship. Karen A. Woodrow-Lafield hopes to continue the Immigration-to-Naturalization Project with additional naturalizations and additional immigrant cohorts as a longitudinal data archive to which researchers may have access for multidisciplinary studies.