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Other Government Sources of
Information on Immigration
It is not surprising that the INS, given its name and notoriety, is often
thought of as the one and only source of information on immigration.
Certainly, as we have shown in Chapter 4, it is, or could be, the most
important--but it is not the only one. This chapter describes the more
important of what we have labeled other official sources, those federal
agencies and offices which in the performance of their mission come in
contact with immigrants or collect information about immigrants. The
order of presentation reflects, first, those agencies or offices that
have a direct program involvement with immigrants or refugees, followed
by those that interact indirectly, those that regularly collect data
relevant to immigrants as part of their statistical activities and,
finally, those that have the potential for providing useful and important
information as a by-product of their activities. As an indication of the
pervasive nature of the subject of immigration, this chapter deals with
nine separate organizations within six different cabinet-level agencies.
We describe briefly both the role of the agency or office and the types
of information it collects or produces. (Relevant forms are shown in
Appendix A.) In the course of this review, we also comment on weaknesses
and makes recommendations for improvements.
BUREAU OF CONSULAR AFFAIRS, U. S . DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Responsibilities and Data
The visa-issuing offices of the State Department abroad are generally the
first points of official contact for most aliens wanting either to visit
or to migrate to the United States. In fact, the State Department issues
two-thirds of all immigrant visas abroad; the remaining one-third go to
nonimmigrants and refugees in the United States who adjust to permanent
resident status through the INS. Given the current laws and regulations,
the Bureau of Consular Affairs exercises enormous discretion in
determining who is eligible to receive a visa--as either visitor or
immigrant .
More important, the State Department is responsible for controlling
the numerical limitation on the number of immigrant visas issued. Its
actions, in the aggregate, thus can provide the basis for much valuable
74
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75
information for monitoring patterns of visa demand worldwide and of
movement into the country. Furthermore, since much of the information
that subsequently enters the INS data systems originates at this stage,
the degree of attention given to full and accurate reporting is crucial.
As in most areas in which administrative functions predominate, however,
the interest in data and care with which they are collected are very
limited. Not only would more care produce better data, but more
effective use of the data might also actually improve the administrative
functioning. For example, linking visa applications to entry and
departure records maintained by INS, which identify possible visa
abusers, could provide a basis for improved screening of visa
applicants.
The statistical programs of the Department of State concerning
immigration produce aggregate data on visa applications issued and denied
at authorized posts abroad. Reports are prepared at scheduled dates each
year showing immigrant visa applications and persons waiting for visas by
preference category, foreign state of chargeability, class of visa, and
determination (granted or denied) and showing nonimmigrant visa
applications by class of visa and outcome. Visas denied are classified
by general type of visa and grounds for refusal.
The Department of State and INS are collaborating to integrate the
process of visa issuance with the process of immigration to the United
States by developing a single automated system for recording immigrant
visa issuance and utilization. The goal is to monitor efficiently the
availability of visas within existing ceilings and to determine the
waiting time for applicants by country of chargeability and preference
category.
The unique information on immigration collected by visa offices,
however, concerns events surrounding the process of visa appl ication;
that is, the demand for immigrant visas and the way decisions are made by
consular officials. These officials administer the various required
application forms and also are responsible for considering additional
evidence concerning visa eligibility. While files on aliens to whom
visas are granted and used are transferred to the INS, which then creates
A-files (see Chapter 4), the State Department remains the sole source of
information on immigrant and nonimmigrant visa refusals, including the
reasons for rejection. The current data reporting procedures do not
include characteristics of aliens refused visas, not even country of
origin; nor do the data processing systems being developed tap the
documentary sources of information available in consular files concerning
the process of denying visas to aliens.
Traditionally, the Bureau of Consular Affairs has produced data--or
program information--primarily for its own use. The data are generally
available, although external requests are rare. The bureau has produced
annual summaries of data on visa issuance since the early 1920s (although
there has been no congressional mandate to do so). Yet it is only now
beginning to review what it produces, both in content and format, from
the point of view of the administrative uses of the information. The
issue of data for analytic or policy use is seldom raised. The State
Department clearly has information of immediate and potential value for
many analytical purposes, blat it lacks interest in informing potential
users of what may be obtained or in making the information available in
useful form. The first need, in this as in a number of other areas, is
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to bring a sense of need and awareness to agency management and to set up
much closer coordination in the area of immigration statistics.
Recommendations
The Panel recommends that the State Department:
o Become an active participant in interagency discussions on
improving immigration statistics, in order to enhance its own
understanding of the need for and uses of such information, and
o Establish its own review group to assess the statistical potential
of its programs, to propose actions to be taken to improve its
statistical performance, and to make recommendations to the department.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
One of the fundamental concerns surrounding immigration is its impact on
the labor force. The U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) involvement with
immigration extends across three of its agencies: the Employment and
Training Administration, the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, and
the Employment Standards Administration. Within the Employment and
Training Administration, two offices deal with immigration to varying
degrees: the Division of Foreign Labor Certifications in the U.S.
Employment Service and the Office of Research and Evaluation in the
Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Development.
Division of Foreign Labor Certifications
Program and Data
The Division of Foreign Labor Certifications is perhaps the best known of
the four DOL offices dealing with immigration, since it is involved
directly with the actual admission process of certain groups of both
temporary and permanent immigrant workers. However, only a relatively
small number of immigrants require labor certifications to be admitted to
the United States, since current immigration policy is based largely on
family reunification. Immigrants entering as immediate relatives outside
the preference system or under the relative preferences do not need labor
certificates. Only immigrants entering under the occupational
preferences (see Table 2-2) or under the nonpreference category (which
has been unavailable since late 1978) need the approval of the Division
of Foreign Labor Certifications.
A total of 54,000 immigrant visa numbers are allotted for the
occupational preferences: 27,000 for the third preference category,
which includes members of the professions or persons of exceptional
ability in the sciences and arts and their families; and 27,000 for the
sixth preference category, which includes skilled and unskilled workers
in short supply and their families. However, since the numbers allotted
include beneficiaries (spouse and unmarried children of the princ ipal
immigrant), the actual number of immigrants entering each year with labor
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certifications is less than half the total number of third and sixth
preference visas issued. For example, less than 21,000 ilranigrants were
admitted with labor certifications in fiscal 1980, a year in which third
and sixth preference admissions exceeded 44,000 and overall immigration
exceeded 530,000.
The current labor certification program for immigrants was created by
the 1965 amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act. In addition
to a provision requiring that aliens seeking admission to the United
States as workers have a U.S. job offer, Section 212(a)~14) of the INA
requires that each alien intending to migrate to the United States for
the purpose of employment must first obtain a certification from the
Secretary of Labor that: (1) there are not sufficient U.S. workers who
are able, willing, qualified, and available at the place of intended
employment and (2) the employment of the alien will not adversely affect
the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers similarly employed.
When the requirements for the program were first established in the late
1960s, the list of qualifying occupations in each preference category was
determined by the division through a more or less systematic inquiry of
employment services offices throughout the country. Changes to the list
since that time have been both infrequent and ad hoc, reflecting in the
main both positive and negative comments from employers on the supply of
available U.S. resident applicants for specific occupations.
There are two kinds of procedures for securing a labor
certification. The more coupon is for the prospective U.S. employer of
the alien to apply for certification directly to DOL. The other, far
less common, concerns aliens who have obtained U.S. job offers in an
occupation precertified by DOL as meeting the requirements of the INA.
The Division of Foreign Labor Certifications is relatively small,
having a national office staff of approximately 15, 11 of whom are
manpower development specialists. However, more personnel are involved
in the labor certification program, since applications are processed in
approximately 1,900 local offices of state employment service agencies.
These applications are forwarded to 10 regional offices (or to the
national office, in some instances) for determination. In addition,
authority is delegated to the INS and consular officers of the Department
of State to grant employer petitions for precertified (Schedule A)
occupations. More than 50,000 requests for permanent labor
certifications are processed annually. Of these, an average of 25,000 to
30,000 certifications are granted.
The Division of Foreign Labor Certifications also has the
responsibility for certifying that the admission of temporary
agricultural and nonagricultural (H-2 visa) workers will not adversely
affect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers similarly
employed and that qualified persons in the U.S. are not available. The
determination made by the Department of Labor is advisory; INS makes the
final decision regarding the employer's petition for foreign workers. In
recent years 15,000 to 20,000 agricultural and logging jobs and an
additional 6,000 to 23,000 nonagricultural jobs have been certified
annually. However, the number of jobs certified does not indicate the
actual number of foreign workers admitted for employment: an employer
may use only part, or none, of the certifications granted, and some
admitted foreign workers may work in two or more certified jobs.
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Some statistics from the Office of Foreign Labor Certifications are
published annually in the Employment and Training Report of the
President. However, the majority of statistical tabulations on labor
certifications are unpublished. From 1976 to 1981 approximately nine
dif fe rent tabulations were prepared on labor certifications for
immigrants. These tabulations included certifications by sex, age,
country of birth, intended state of residence, etc. However, beginning
in 1982, in order to reduce both the reporting burden and the paperwork,
only variables relevant to establishing labor certification have been
collected and processed: immigrant certification data are available by
determination (approval/denial) cross-classified by detailed occupational
codes. These tabulations are available at the national, state, and
regional office level. Precertified cases that are handled separately by
INS and the State Department are included in the national totals.
The variables included in the tabulations of temporary agricultural
jobs are number of applications (one application from an employer can
cover many jobs), crops or industry (e.g., logging, sheep-raising, etc.),
and state of employment. Tabulations by nationality are not possible
from DOL records since an employer may import a worker from any nation
once the job is certified. Data on temporary nonagricultural jobs are
available by determination (approval/denial) and occupational groups.
Although limited information is collected by the department on the
characteristics of foreign-born workers seeking occupational preferences
or admission as H-2 workers, no detail is obtained for employers
petitioning for the admissions. Such information would be an important
first step toward understanding the demand factors encouraging
immigration. For example, a comparison of information on petitioning
employers with census data would permit an analysis of the effects of
these preferences on the wage rates of native workers.
Recommendation
The Panel recommends that the U.S. Department of Labor:
O Collect and publish summary information on employers who petition
for the admission of foreign workers, including those requested under the
H-2 provisions.
Other DOL Programs
The Office of Research and Evaluation in the Office of Strategic Planning
and Policy Development is another part of the Employment and Training
Administration that has been involved with immigration. Over the past IS
years, this office has funded a considerable number of immigration
studies, principally on the labor-market characteristics and effects of
various kinds of immigration flows. In recent years, however, such
funding of immigration research has slowed considerably.
The third group involved in immigration.research is the Immigration
Policy Group within the Bureau of International Labor Affairs. The group
has a staff of four, three of whom are analysts, and conducts analyses of
the economic, social , and political aspects of legal immigration (both
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permanent and temporary), illegal immigration, and refugee movements,
both within the United States and internationally. The bureau has also
funded some immigration research, on both U.S. and international labor
flows.
A fourth Labor Department office is involved with immigration as a
result of its enforcement efforts. The Wage and Hour Division of the
Employment Standards Administration is responsible for enforcing the Fair
Labor Standards Act and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker
Protection Act. Since 1978 this office has carried out a special
targeted enforcement program of the Fair Labor Standards Act aimed at
employers of undocumented workers. Compliance with minimum wage and hour
laws reduces the economic incentive for employers to hire illegal
aliens. In fiscal 1983, wage and hour compliance officers investigated
more than 18,000 establishments reportedly employing illegal aliens and
found more than $40 million in back wages owed to almost 175,000
workers. Statistics other than totals are not tabulated.
The Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act prohibits
farm labor contractors from recruiting, employing, or utilizing with
knowledge the services of any alien who is not lawfully admitted for
permanent residence or is not authorized by the Attorney General to
accept employment. Statistics are available on the total number of farm
labor contractors found in violation of the act and the dollar amount of
civil money penalty assessments.
BUREAU OF REFUGEE PROGRAMS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
The Bureau of Refugee Programs in the Department of State has three major
roles in collecting data related to refugee resettlement: (1) collecting
information and reporting on the world refugee situation for purposes of
determining U.S. refugee admission numbers and their allocation among
regions and refugee groups; (2) collecting and reporting data on refugees
admitted to the United States; and (3) monitoring the activities of
voluntary agencies that provide reception and placement services to
· ·
arriving refugees.
With respect to the first role, the bureau prepares an annual report
on the world refugee situation. This report contains both descriptive
and statistical information; the latter was presented in a separate
volume for the first time in 1984. The statistics focus on two types of
refugees: those who are in need of protection and assistance and those
who have been resettled and are no longer in need of assistance. The
statistics are drawn primarily from information provided by the U.S.
embassies and consulates in the countries covered by the report;
international organizations such as the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which assists Palestinian
refugees; and foreign governments.
In addition to the annual report, the bureau publishes data on the
refugee situation in Southeast Asia, the area from which the largest
number of refugees are admitted to the United States. Each month, the
U.S. embassies in this region report the number of land and sea arrivals
in countries of first asylum, the number resettled by the United States
and other countries, the number transferred to refugee processing centers
for training prior to resettlement, and the remaining camp populations.
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This information is disseminated monthly, by means of summary charts that
provide information about each country of first asylum and each refugee
group, by nationality, in Southeast Asia.
The second role, the collection of information about refugees
admitted to the United States, begins with the prescreening of refugee
applications, which are used by voluntary agencies under contract to the
State Department to determine eligibility for admission. Biographical
data are collected about the applicant and family members, including
name, sex, birthrate, country of birth, country of residence, marital
status, education, occupation, language, and English language
capability. These data are transferred to the INS, to be used in making
final decisions on admissibility. They are also sent to the Refugee Data
Center (RDC) in New York, which is responsible for matching refugee
applicants with U.S. sponsors. Under contract with the State Department,
the RDC enters these data in its computer system and, using the data
bank, determines whether the refugee has ties to any voluntary
resettlement agency or has relatives or other close contacts in the
United States. This information is used for determining place of
resettlement within the United States (for further information on this
process, see Chapter 7~. Also under contract with the Bureau of Refugee
Programs, the RDC provides monthly reports on expected arrivals of
refugees by state and locality. These reports provide biographical
information on refugees who have been approved for admission, the agency
that will be sponsoring them, and the expected date of their arrival.
RDC also collects data on actual arrivals, using statistics from the
Intergovernmental Committee for Migration, which arranges transportation
for the refugees. Using these data, the Bureau of Refugee Programs
publishes monthly reports on arrivals by country of origin.
The Bureau of Refugee Programs uses the data it collects for
policy-making and administrative purposes. With regard to policy, the
data are used to determine the worldwide need for resettlement, in order
to determine the U.S. response to this need. Administratively, the
bureau attempts to project numbers of future arrivals and to decide
whether admissions will be consistent with the number of refugee
admissions agreed on as a result of consultation between the President
and Congress. This process requires a variety of information, including
the number of refugees in first asylum camps, the number of applications
pending, the rate at which they are reviewed and the decision reached,
the number in language training in refugee processing centers, and the
number of recent arrivals. Monthly data provided by the INS are used to
regulate the number of new cases that are reviewed and presented to the
INS. The object is to avoid large backlogs of approved cases, since the
number of refugees who are allowed to enter the United States often
changes from year to year.
In carrying out its third role--monitoring grants to voluntary
agencies to provide reception and placement services--the Bureau of
Refugee Programs requires that case files be maintained by voluntary
agencies on the services they provide to refugees. These files also
contain biographical and other information that is needed to determine
what services should be provided. The bureau also conducts site visits
to monitor these activities and issues reports on them.
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OFFICE OF REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT,
U. S . DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
The focus of federal refugee program activity is the Office of Refugee
Resettlement (ORR). Created by the Refugee Act of 1980, it is located
organizationally within the Social Security Administration of the
Department of Health and Human Services. In response to the relatively
detailed and specific requirements for data collection and reporting to
Congress contained in its enabling legislation, the ORR conducts and
maintains a number of data collection programs. For example, the primary
sources of statistics for the domestic refugee program are the ORR
refugee data systems, which contain some 900,000 individual records for
refugees (and Cuban-Haitian parolees) of an estimated universe of 1.1
million who have arrived since 1975.
At a minimum, each record contains an alien number (assigned by the
INS), the year of birth, and the date of arrival. Since 1981 information
on country of birth, citizenship, sex, and family and marital status has
also been included. These items are obtained from the American Council
of Voluntary Agencies, from a form completed during processing in the
refugee camp by the sponsoring voluntary agency. Monthly summaries of
refugee arrivals are published by the ORR.
To the extent possible, the ORR records are updated as further
information becomes available. For example, prior to the termination of
the Alien Address Registration Program in 1981, information reported by
refugees was obtained from the INS and incorporated into the ORR files.
As mandated in 1980, INS now serves as the major source of follow-up
information, providing the ORR with data obtained from the refugee at the
time of application for adjustment to permanent resident status, which
can occur from one year after arrival. In addition to basic identifying
information, INS collects data on changes in residence since entry,
current household composition, education, work history, English language
ability, participation in training programs, and the use of cash
assistance programs. Finally, additional data elements, such as current
occupation and place of residence, are added if and when application is
made for naturalization.
The office also maintains a system of regular reports by state
grantor agencies and compiles selected additional information through
agreements with other federal agencies. In addition, it has funded
surveys of refugees in order to obtain current information on internal
migration, labor market involvement, and other related topics concerning
refugee adjustment. (A more detailed discussion of refugee admissions to
the United States, illustrating the interactions and interrelationships
of the range of participating groups in the process, both outside and in
the United States, is presented in Chapter 7, along with additional
detail on the activities of ORR.)
BUREAU OF THE CENSUS, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Although not involved in the administration of programs or the
implementation of public policy dealing with immigration, the Census
Bureau, in carrying out its mandate to produce high-quality statistical
data, has a need for and itself produces a wealth of information on
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immigration. Its need for such information arises from its ongoing
program of producing both current and projected national and local-area
estimates of the size and characteristics of the population, which
requires knowledge of the size and composition of migrant flows into and
out of the country. At the same time, the bureau's regular and special
programs--the decennial censuses, ongoing sample surveys such as the
Current Population Survey, special surveys such as the 1976 Survey of
Income and Education, as well as compilations from external
administrative systems--all serve as sources of data on the flow of
immigrants and emigrants or on the characteristics of the stock of
foreign-born persons.
Before turning to the detail produced by these diverse sources, it is
important to note that the Census Bureau defines immigrants differently
than does the INS: the INS is concerned with legal status; the Census
Bureau with residence in the United States. To the INS, an immigrant is
someone who has been admitted for permanent residence in the United
States; people in the United States who entered with nonimmigrant visas,
such as students and temporary visitors, are not considered immigrants.
Refugees are not counted as immigrants until they adjust their status to
that of permanent resident, which can occur one year after entry. In
contrast, the Census Bureau defines as immigrants all noncitizens
resident in the United States, except temporary visitors and foreign
embassy employees who live on embassy grounds. The Census Bureau
includes foreign students, temporary workers, refugees, and even illegal
aliens as usual residents in its censuses and surveys.
In addition to the definitional differences, comparisons between INS
data and Census Bureau data are difficult because a census or survey
refers to a specific date and registers a status at that time rather than
recording the flow of migrants into the country. Death or emigration
between a person's entry into the country and the date of a census or
survey will preclude counting that person as an immigrant. A census
count of immigrants actually represents the balance of persons who
immigrated during some prior period less those among them who emigrated
or died during the period, rather than all persons who entered the
country during the period.
The Decennial Census
Value and Limitations
Information from decennial censuses has two features that make it
uniquely valuable in the study of immigrants and immigration. First, the
large sample size used to collect detailed data permits statistically
precise comparisons of the many different country-of-origin groups at
different points in time with respect to a large number of social and
economic characteristics, including place of residence, period of entry,
citizenship, English language ability, earnings, occupation, labor force
status, and home ownership. Second, the historical continuity of the
census, and hence relative consistency of census information over time,
permit valuable historical comparisons of the status of foreign-born
people in the United States.
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There are, however, a number of important shortcomings of census data
for the study of immigration. Because the census serves many important
functions (of which the collection of data on immigrants or the
foreign-born is only one), the amount of immigration data that can be
collected is limited for reasons of both cost and sensitivity.
Furthermore, the collection of information about the foreign-born in past
censuses has been marked by inconsistency in both the questions asked and
the wording used, thus significantly reducing the value of the census as
a basis for historical comparisons. Table 5-1 lists the variables of
special relevance collected since 1900 on the foreign-born and
immigration. As can be seen, such important information as date of entry
to the United States, English language ability, and even citizenship have
not always been collected. Year of immigration, or the alternate form,
number of years in the United States, was asked in the censuses of 1890
through 1930 but not collected in the censuses of 1940, 1950, or 1960.
Indeed, 1980 marks the first time since 1930 that two consecutive
censuses have collected information on date of entry, permitting
comparisons of date-of-entry cohorts over time and thus some assessment
of how length of stay in the United States affects social and economic
characteristics. Even for this variable, however, the seemingly
arbitrary limitation of collection of information on period of entry to
only four 5-year intervals for these censuses, with grouped or an open
interval for earlier dates of entry, means that only two cohorts of entry
(1965-1969, 1960-1964) can be matched and compared.
Indeed, apart from place of birth, which has been included as a
census item since 1850, none of the special questions relevant to
immigration and the foreign-born, on date of entry, prior residence,
citizenship, English language ability, and parental nativity, has been
collected continuously since 1900. The most consistently collected
variable--birthplace of parents--was dropped in the 1980 census, although
this item is of key importance in the assessment of the longer-term
consequences of immigration and of the legacies of different
country-of-origin groups. Each census from 1890 through 1950, and from
1970 through 1980, included questions on citizenship, but in 1960 such
questions were asked only in New York State.
Nonetheless, the decennial censuses remain one of the most important
and valuable sources of data on the foreign-born and their descendants,
and particularly so for studies at the regional or state level or for
individual cities. As with all such data, those from decennial censuses
are subject to various types of errors, including incomplete coverage of
the population, errors in reporting, and, in the case of data from a
sample of the population, sampling errors. A discussion of the errors
and their effects on the results are generally found in the reports
presenting the data as well as in separate evaluation reports issued by
the Census Bureau.
1980 Census Data
Turning to the most recent census, each person in a sample of the 1980
census was asked, "In what State or foreign country was this person
born?" Those persons who reported that they were born in a foreign
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TABLE 5-1 Questions Asked of Special Relevance to Immigration in Selected
Censuses
Question 1900 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980
Country of birth Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Year of immigration yesa No No No Yesb YesC
Residence 5 years ago No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Citizenship Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Ability to speak Yes No No No No Yes
English
Nativity of parents Yes: Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Current occupation No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Occupation 5 years ago No No No No Yes No
Language spoken at No Yes No No Yes No
home when child
Education No Yes . Yes Yes Yes Yes
Earnings No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Note: Includes censuses for which public-use sample tapes are available.
aBy s ingle year.
bFor intervals: pre-1915, 1915-1924, 1925-1934, 1935-1944, 1945-1949,
1950-1954, 1955-1959, 1960-1964, 1965-1970.
CFor intervals: pre-1950, 1950-1959, 1960-1964, 1965-1969, 1970-1974,
1975-1980.
country were also asked, "Is this person a naturalized citizen?" and
"When did this person come to the United States to stay?"
A question on residence five years earlier also was included in the
1980 census sample and was asked about all persons S or more years old.
Since this question is directed at all persons in the sample (regardless
of nativity), it also serves as an indication of the volume of movement
of citizens into the United States from overseas during the previous five
years. A similar question was included in the 1970 census.
Published volumes by state from the 1980 census show the foreign-born
populat ion classif fed by country of birth for the 30 or so countries
supplying the largest numbers of foreign-born persons. Other
characteristics by which the foreign-bor~ population are classified are
year of immigration (5-year intervals from 1960 to 1980, the 10-year
interval 1950-1959, and the period prior to 1950) and citizenship. More
extensive data are published for all foreign-born and for recent
immigrants in a table that shows race, Spanish origin, age, and sex as
well as more detailed country listings for year of immigration and
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JO
The first two changes affect only multistop flights, but the third change
affects all flights. The INS changes have thus greatly reduced the
detail available in the data (the TSC is estimating the breakdowns on the
basis of past patterns) and have jeopardized a useful data set covering
the period 1976-1982. Negotiations are still continuing between the TSC
and the INS about this s i tuat ion .
There are some doubts about how reliable the information produced by
the system has been. Vining ( 1980) evaluated data quality in a study of
net immigration by air, using the balance of arrivals over departures as
an indicator o f a lower bound for tote 1 net immigration. He compared TSC
data on arrivals and departures on North Atlantic routes with
International Air Transport Association (IATA) data, and he compared data
on all arrivals and departures with figures on international air
passenger traffic to and from most major international airports in the
United States. Though these other data sets are not strictly comparable
with the TSC figures--IATA excludes passengers on nonmember airlines and
some charters, and the airport data generally include movements to and
from Canada--all three show broadly similar trends over time in arrivals,
departures, and net arrivals. However, net arrivals as a proportion of
total traffic are almost twice as high for the TSC data as for either the
IATA or airport data, the differences being accounted for by very high
TSC net arrival rates for charter flights. Vining suggests that the
discrepancy arises from the failure by some departing charter flights to
complete I-92 forms, thus underreporting total departures by air, but
argues that the consistency between the three data sources in other
respects supports the reliability of the TSC data at least for scheduled
flights. A comparison of the TSC and airport data on an
airport-by-airport basis (given by Vining in an appendix) is not
reassuring, however. Although arrivals and departures from the two
sources do follow broadly similar trends, the sizes of the flows are
often substantially different. These differences can be partly explained
by the fact that the universes are not the same--airport data typically
include flows to and from Canada and in some cases other places not
included in the TSC data--but not entirely. The most dramatic
differences appear for Anchorage: for 1972-1978, TSC annual arrivals
average 167,000 and departures 240,000, while the airport data, which
include Canadian traffic, average 40,000 for both arrivals and
departures. If the elements can include discrepancies of this order of
magnitude, one cannot have much confidence in the totals or the net
balances.
An examination of the internal detail of the TSC tabulations suggests
that Vining is correct about an undercoverage by the I-92 of departing
charter flights and also that departing aliens are sometimes reported as
departing citizens, inflating the number of the latter at the expense of
the number of the former. A plausible explanation for this discrepancy
is a failure to collect the departure sections of the I-94 forms from all
departing aliens. The TSC data for 1982 for scheduled flights show an
excess of citizen departures over citizen arrivals of 1.166 million and
an excess of alien arrivals over alien departures of 1.731 million. Both
net flows are unreasonably large, probably because 5-10 percent of
departing aliens are reported as departing citizens. For charter
flights, arriving citizens exceed departing citizens by 198,000, and
arriving aliens outnumber departing aliens by 91,000. The net inflow of
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citizens by charter flights, in contrast to the net outflow by scheduled
flights, suggests undercoverage of departing flights, an undercoverage
that seems to be more serious for U.S. flag carriers than for foreign
flag carriers.
The TSC data for international arrival and departure by air represent
valuable information on travel to and from the United States. The data
are flawed, however, particularly with respect to coverage and
classification by citizenship of departures. No direct checks on
arrivals data are possible, but in view of INS procedures these figures
are probably reasonably reliable. The data are useful for market share
negotiations and studies of tourism, although attempts to estimate net
migration flow from them are probably inappropriate. The changes in the
I-94 form and procedures introduced by INS in 1983 disrupted the
processing system, introducing delays and greatly reducing the amount of
detail available for the system. The situation could be improved in at
least two ways. If airlines completed the I-92 forms fully--citizens,
aliens, and total passengers boarding or alighting at each port--then
I-94 forms would not be needed at all. The airlines' computer booking
systems could probably provide the I-92 information without difficulty.
Alternatively, the I-94 form could be modified to collect information on
port of boarding or destination, with airline personnel recording total
passengers by port, and the original system could be continued. It might
not be necessary to return to requiring permanent residents to complete
I-94s, since for most purposes a division of traffic into two
categories--citizens plus permanent residents and other aliens--would be
closer to what analysts want (a residence classification) than a
citizen-noncitizen split. An effort should also be made by the INS to
improve the coverage and quality of data on departures, to increase the
overall value and applicability of the data.
Survey of International Air Travelers
The Travel and Tourism Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce
is mandated to develop the necessary statistical and market research data
on international travel to facilitate and guide planning in the public
and private sectors. To meet this requirement, an in-flight survey of
international departing travelers was established late in 1982. The
survey planning and execution are carried out by the TSC under an
interagency agreement; the program is also sponsored by the National Park
Service.
Participation in the survey is voluntary for both airlines and
passengers. At the end of the first quarter of 1983, 32 of the 53 major
international airlines regarded as of special significance for the
program were participating, although some major carriers, among them
British Airways, were not. A stratified random sample of scheduled
flights of participating airlines is drawn from the Official Airline
Guide covering the week following the third Monday of each month; the
strata are airlines or, for U.S. carriers, airline-route groupings. All
passengers on selected flights are included in the sample, and those who
respond are assumed to represent all passengers. The four-page
questionnaire collects information on place of origin and destination;
lifetime air trips to or from the United States; with whom traveling;
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purpose of trip; type of ticket; source of information and bookings for
trip; age; sex; occupation; household income; citizenship; residence; for
visitors to the United States, port of entry, length of stay, places
visited, and expenditures by category; and for U.S. residents, length of
trip, places to be visited, and expected costs. The questionnaires are
distributed by airline personnel at the beginning of the flight and
collected before disembarkation.
Statistics are generated from the responses by using additional
information from the TSC data on international departures by air derived
from I-92 forms. Responses on a particular flight are first weighted to
allow for children in the respondent's party, then weighted to allow for
nonresponse on the flight, then weighted to represent all travelers on
all flights in the stratum, and finally weighted using I-92 data by
residence and port of destination to approximate traffic of
nonparticipating as well as participating airlines.
The most serious problem with the survey is the response rate, of
both airline and traveller. In the first quarter of 1983, only 60
percent of key airlines participated; for these, the flight response
rate--flights for which completed questionnaires were returned for
processing--was 51 percent (266 of 524~; and the average passenger
response rate for those flights with responses was about 31 percent.
Thus only about 16 percent of the intended sample provided responses, and
the intended sample excludes an unspecified number of travelers on the
airlines that are not participating in the survey. It is doubtful in
these circumstances whether the data can be regarded as better than
broadly indicative of the characteristics of departing travelers.
The Survey of International Air Travel is not strictly relevant to a
study of migration statistics, since its primary focus is on tourism. It
has been discussed here because in theory it covers all departing
passengers and uses INS information for data-weighting purposes. The low
response rate raises the question of whether the objectives of the survey
could be better served by interviews of a smaller sample of departing
passengers (who usually have a few spare minutes between check-in and
boarding) than by a large sample with a poor response rate depending on
self-completion and airline cooperation.
Since we have not had the opportunity to examine all the issues
involved, the panel recommends that:
o The Travel and Tourism Administration explore alternatives to the
present approach with a view toward obtaining more reliable information.
SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION,
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Programs and Data
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is a largely unexploited yet
potentially valuable source of information for analyses of immigration to
the United States. On one hand, SSA has a highly professional,
well-managed statistical operation that, in supporting the administration
of social security programs, has developed data sets covering a
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substantial proportion of the foreign-born population, both aliens and
naturalized citizens, resident in the United States. Social security
data thus are potentially useful for analyses of the characteristics of
immigrant populat ions and for studying the impac t of immigrate ion on
domestic sectors. On the other hand, in seeking access to social
security data on migrants, an analyst faces formidable obstacles that
derive from policies concerning the availability of federal statistics
and from the distribution of resources and ordering of priorities within
SSA. The general trend over the past few years has been to impose
relatively greater restrictions on the accessibility of SSA data to
researchers both from other government agencies and from outside
government.
The potential usefulness of SSA data systems for research on
international migration derives both from the characteristics of
populations covered by social security programs and from the specific
items of information that are recorded. Basically, two populations are
covered in SSA administrative files: workers whose employment is covered
by social security programs and persons receiving benefits from one or
more of the social security programs. Approximately 90 percent of U.S.
workers, including the self-employed, are covered by the social security
system; the major groups excluded are federal employees and persons whose
earnings fall below a specified level in a given quarter. Benefits are
paid under several social insurance programs, such as Old-Age, Survivors,
and Disability Insurance (OASDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
The administration of social security programs sometimes identifies
populations of international migrants. The most obvious example is that
of the population of social security beneficiaries residing abroad.
Special requirements for awarding benefits outside the country have
resulted in an administrative data set for beneficiaries residing in
foreign countries, most of whom are foreign-born, both retired workers
and elderly dependents. These data have been used by demographers over
the years as indicators of the process of emigration from the United
States and return migration of former immigrants. Social security
program requirements have also generated statistical documentation of the
social and economic status of recent refugee groups admitted to the
United States. The concern of several of these analyses has been to
determine the patterns of use over time of Supplemental Security Income
among refugee populations (see Kahn, 1980; Merritt, 1982; Grossman, 1978~.
The 1973 exact match study is an illustration of how information on
international migration can be generated as a by-product of evaluation of
SSA programs and policies. The study was undertaken to document patterns
of income distribution among persons and families by matching SSA records
on reported earnings and benefits with IRS tax records. However, the
final matched files also were used in the application of an estimation
technique to produce a measure of the illegal alien population resident
in the country (Lancaster and Scheuren, 1977~. The exact match study
also illustrates the important role of SSA administrative data sets in
efforts to link components of the federal statistical system.
Several indicators of migration status are maintained in the
micro-data files supporting the administration of social security
programs; as a result, these files have substantial inherent potential
for analyses of immigrant populations. For example, all applications for
a social security number (form SS-5) filed since the initiation of the
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program have been coded by SSA to create the NUMIDENT file. Country of
birth is coded for foreign-born persons ~ s Late of birth for the
native-born); date of application, age, sex, and race are also coded.
Date of application can be used as a proxy for period of arrival in the
United States. The file can be linked with other SSA files on earnings
and benefits for individual workers and beneficiaries. Analyses of
earnings, industry, geographic mobility, disability, and types of
benefits can thus be conducted for a range of social and demographic
groups, including immigrant cohorts.
The social security application form was revised in 1980 to record
the citizenship and visa status of the applicant; thus, for recent
applicants the NUMIDENT file now includes four classifications of legal
status: U. S. citizen, legal alien allowed to work, legal alien not
allowed to work, and other. These categories make possible comparisons
of certain economic characteristics between native U. S . cit izens,
naturalized U.S. citizens (combining information on place of birth with
citizenship status), and the alien groups. (The instructions for
completing forts SS-5 do not identify the specific visa categories for
which employment in the United States is authorized. The category "legal
alien allowed to work" will include both permanent resident aliens and
certain classes of nonimmigrants, such as temporary workers, intracompany
transferees, and some foreign students.) District offices of SSA do in
fact produce monthly tabulations of applicants for social security
numbers by citizenship status, race, and age.
The potential of the SSA system to generate policy-relevant analyses
of populations of international migrants has already been demonstrated
through the exact match study and the various projects concerning the
characteristics of specific refugee groups covered in SSA programs.
Unfortunately, obstacles to the use of SSA data on immigrant populations
exist throughout the SSA statistical system. The quality of data on
immigrant status is one such obstacle, since country of birth is missing
from approximately one-fifth of the records. The keying of data from
form SS-5 is now more complete for new applicants, but the validity of
the information recorded on the application form and accuracy of keying
in the SSA distric t of fices has not been as sessed. The SSA has made
little analytical use of its data on international migration; the
agency's program and priorities have not generally required evaluation of
the benefit and earnings characteristics of foreign-born groups, although
recent refugee admissions are a notable exception.
Releasing data to outside users should result in more extensive use,
but two impediments to such release exist. First, SSA currently lacks
sufficient resources throughout its data processing and analytic units to
support an ef feet ive program of user service, even on a cost-reimbursable
basis. Furthermore, there is a basis for skepticism concerning the
agency's current commitment to user service: procedures for making data
available are not standardized; policy is not clear as to what services
can be supplied, that is, purchased by outside users; and documentation
of data sets is e lusive .
The second impediment concerns the issue of confidentiality. Until
relatively recently, SSA, through its Of f ic e of Research and S tat i s t ic s ,
maintained a program of data user service that set an example for the
rest of the federal statistical system. The star in the program was the
Continuous Work History Sample (CWHS), supported in a manner to ensure
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data quality, to maintain and update files, deco provide documentation and
user outreach, and even to provide incentives for outside use through a
program of research grants. However, the CWHS has not been available for
public use since 197S, at least partly because of constraints on the
dissemination of these data resulting from interpretations of the Privacy
Act of 1974; SSA no longer disseminates administrative files for outside
research.
The restrictions imposed on SSA data have affected many areas of
social science research, including research on immigration. It is
unfortunate that this change in policy occurred when the potential for
analysis actually increased, with the revision of SSA documentary
resources and when other data sources on the immigrant population (in
particular, the INS's alien address report program) were eliminated. The
statistical information maintained by SSA is of considerable potential
value for analyses of U.S. immigration.
Recommendations
The panel recommends that the Social Security Administration:
0 Incorporate data on country of birth and, when possible,
citizenship and visa status into its series of tabulations on workers and
beneficiaries;
0 Develop a program of special tabulations to be available on a
cost-reimbursable basis to support analyses of the economic and social
integration of immigrant groups;
0 Develop appropriate mechanisms for evaluating and, if necessary,
Improving the quality of data on country of birth and legal residence
status that are captured in its statistical systems;
o Explore with the Statistical Policy Office of the U.S. Office of
Management and Budget approaches to permit the sharing of CWHS files with
researchers and analysts outside the agency.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR HEALTH STATISTICS'
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is responsible for the
collection, analysis, and dissemination of statistics on vital events in
the United States: that is, births, deaths, marriages, and divorces.
The collection of vital statistics in the United States is
decentralized. Events are first registered at the local level by state
of occurrence; NCHS subsequently also produces tabulations by place of
residence of the mother. Certificates for out-of-state-of-residence
events are forwarded to the state of residence for processing and
tabulation. Under a federal-state cooperative arrangement, the states
then forward information to NCHS for processing of national birth and
death data. It should be noted that, although all states participate in
collecting data on births and deaths, the cooperative arrangement
reserves a great deal of flexibility and independent action to the
states. Currently, between 44 and 46 states submit vital statistics data
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to NCHS in the form of computer tapes; the remaining states send
microfilm copies of vital statistics certificates.
The standard vital statistics records of birth, death, marriage, and
divorce certificates contain information on the place of birth of the
personas) and on place of residence. Thus, there is the potential to
tabulate vital events for the foreign-born populat ion.
Although the item on country of birth is coded, the detail,
unfortunately, is limited to state in the United States, Puerto Rico,
Virgin Islands, Guam, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, remainder of the world, and
place not stated. An item on the ethnic origin of the parents of a live
birth was included in the 1978 revision of the standard birth certificate
and has been incorporated on the birth record of 22 states. The item on
place of residence specifies a code for nonresidents of the United
States, but the criteria for determining residence are not specified in
available documentation.
Vital statistics are published in a variety of NCHS publications.
Data on nativity, however, have been included in annual volumes only
intermittently. Annual volumes do include a tabulation for births and
deaths cross-classified by state of occurrence and state of residence;
the residual refers to nonresidents of the U.S. and is an interesting
indicator of the utilization of health facilities in southwestern states
by aliens. Special reports on the fertility of specific parentage groups
have appeared in recent years; however, published analyses and evaluation
of trends in marriage and mortality are sorely deficient.
A program of public-use research files is promoted by NCHS. Annual
micro-data files are available for births, deaths, marriages, and
divorces. However, place of birth is coded as described above in the
first three of these files, so use of the information on nativity is
quite limited.
The vital registration system of the United States does have the
potential of producing annual tallies of most vital events occurring to
aliens living in the country, and infest ion on vital events occurring
to immigrants has substantial potential for studies and policy on
immigrat ion. Data on births occurring to immigrants would provide a
direct basis for calculating their fertility rates, useful for studying
the impact of immigration on population growth and the pattern of
adjustment of it igrant fertility to that of the established population.
Similarly, information on deaths of immigrants would permit the direct
study of immigrant mortality, would permit the INS to keep its
record-keeping systems more current, and could potentially provide a
basis for estimating a lower bound for the size of the population of
illegal immigrants.
It is evident from this review, however, that the immigration data
collected through the vital registration system remain remarkably
underexploited. One reason for the low degree of analysis of nativity
data is the lack of confidence in its quality, particularly for the
foreign-born population. Given the importance of documenting the
demographic experience of immigrant groups and the general role of
immigration in national populat ion dynamics, the NCHS should improve its
data.
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Recommendations
The Panel recommends that the National Center for Health Statistics:
o Initiate the coding of the specific country of birth for vital
events;
o Routinely prepare analyses and publish tabulations of vital events
for immigrant populations;
o Institute a program to evaluate and improve the quality of data on
place of birth.
CUSTOMS SERVICE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Data Collected
Travelers arriving in the United States by air or sea, except those
arriving on direct flights from Canada, are required to complete the
Customs Service declaration card, form 6059B; one form is completed per
arriving family group. Arrivals across land borders are not in general
required to complete the form, unless referred to secondary inspection.
The information collected is name, date of birth, airline and flight
number, U.S. address, citizenship, whether permanently resident in the
United States, and if not, expected length of stay, purpose of visit
(business or pleasure), and items pertaining specifically to Customs
Service activities. The form used until mid-1983 also collected the
number of people in the family group, but this question was excluded from
the revised form. In addition to a form for each family group, the
Customs Service also uses a workload report, form 5905, that summarizes
the total number of passengers and crew, the total number of declarations
by passengers and crew, and the total number of baggage examinations for
each flight. The data collected by form 5905 are thus very similar to
those collected by the INS form I-92, though without any citizenship or
residence status breakdown.
No statistical use has ever been made of the information collected by
the customs forms. The family group forms are packaged by flight number
and stored in boxes for a period of two years, after which they are
thrown out. The only use ever made of the forms after inspection is in
particular investigations, to trace the movements and declarations of
individuals over the preceding two years by making a hand search of the
forms boxed by flight number and date.
As a potential source of information about immigration, the Customs
Service form 6059B has some important similarities and some important
dissimilarities to the INS I-94; some are positive features, some
negative. Unlike the I-94, the customs form is filled in regardless of
citizenship or residence and thus could provide information about numbers
of returning citizens. On the negative side, however, only one form is
filled in per family group, with no record on the new form of the number
of people in the group, so it does not provide directly the total number
of people arriving. (The summary form 5905 gives the average number of
members in each family group for each flight as the ratio of total
passengers to total declarations, but the average might vary
systematically by citizenship and thus not give a very accurate expansion
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factor for obtaining total arriving U. S. citizens from total arriving
family groups headed by a U.S. citizen.) On the positive side, the form
records permanent residence (in the United States or elsewhere) and could
thus distinguish between nonresident and resident U.S. citizens--although
that information is never used, and we do not see how it could be used to
learn anything about U.S. citizens living outside the country. Neither
positive nor negative, relative to the I-94, is the limitation of
coverage of the 6059B form to airports and seaports: the vast majority
of entries to the United States occur at land ports of entry, across the
Canadian and Mexican borders, and only a small fraction of such entries
will result in a completed customs form. Thus from the point of view of
measuring the gross flow of people into the United States, the customs
form does not offer information of sufficient value to justify any data
processing for statistical use.
Recommendation
The Panel recommends that :
o The Customs Service and the INS jointly consider merging the two
forms currently completed by arriving passengers. The similarities
between the Customs Service form 6059B and the INS I-94 are such that the
existence of two separate forms is not justified. The only information
not common to both forms is, on the I-94, the city in which the alien's
visa was issued, country of residence, and the departure record, and on
the 6059B, purpose of trip, expected length of stay, and declarations
concerning agricultural regulations, currency, and goods obtained
abroad. The 60598 is completed by all heads of family groups, the I-94
by all aliens except permanent residents. A single form ful fit ling both
purposes could be required for all arriving passengers without any great
increase in the paperwork burden on passengers, and the machine
processing of the information by the new nonimmigrant information system
would surely offer advantages to the Customs Service for checking on the
movements of individuals under surveillance, as well as offering the
potential for recording accurately, with characteristics of statistical
interest such as age and country of residence, the numbers of people
entering the United States through air and sea ports of entry. The
potential gain from such a merger would seem to just if y the relatively
modest costs involved.
GOVERNMENTWIDE ISSUES
The foregoing sections clearly illustrate the extent of involvement of
the federal government, outside the INS, in collecting or producing
information relevant to the study and understanding of immigration. Some
of the agencies, such as the Bureau of Consular Affairs in the State
Department, deal with the process of becoming an immigrant and have data
sets offering insight into the selection, numbers, and movements of
persons . Others , such as the Social Security Administration, deal with
concerns or developments after arrival, which give insight into the
processes of adjustment. Together with the INS, they produce or have the
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potential to produce a broad spectrum of information relevant to policy
makers.
Because the nine agencies covered have such different functions and
objectives, we chose to present recommendations focused on each agency's
operations or activities within the context of our discussion of that
agency. In its review, however, the panel noted a number of issues that
concern all the agencies, including the INS. This section is therefore
addressed to all the government agencies that have a role in providing
information on immigration and emigration and to the agency with
oversight responsibility for all of them.
The Office of Management and Budget, through its review of budget
proposals as well as by statute, plays a key role in establishing the
nation's statistical agenda and in monitoring its progress. The panel
believes that in recent years these functions have not been exercised
appropriately and, consequently, data quality has suffered, coordination
among agencies has deteriorated, timeliness has been ignored, and, in
general, efforts to improve statistics on emigration and immigration have
foundered for lack of leadership and concern. Certainly, each agency
must be responsible for its own activities, but OMB, given its position
in the executive office of the President, has an overriding ability and
responsibility to act as a catalyst and to initiate the process leading
to significant improvements in the data base.
The panel thus strongly recommends that the director of the Office of
Management and Budget:
o Ensure that OMB exercises its responsibilities to monitor and
review statistical activities and budgets concerning immigration
statistics, particularly those of the INS, to minimize duplication and
make sure that appropriate procedures are used, standards met, and
priorities observed in the collection, production, and publication of
such data;
o Require and establish the mechanisms for continuing interagency
coordination in the field of immigration data; participate in discussions
designed to achieve consistency and comparability in concepts and
definitions used by the relevant agencies in the collection of such
information; and oversee the introduction and use of standardized
approaches;
0 Actively encourage and monitor the timely publication and
dissemination of immigration data; and
0 Actively encourage and support the preparation and release of
micro-level public-use tapes conforming to the requirements of the
Privacy Act and accompanied by adequate documentation, for use by
researchers.
A common thread during discussions with virtually everyone concerned
with immigration statistics was the obvious lack of coordination between
the many agencies involved and their seeming indifference to users, as
illustrated by the lack of timeliness in releasing data, failure to
address users' needs or apply appropriate quality control standards, and
inconsistencies in definitions.
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The panel therefore further recommends that the respective agencies
undertake a review of the ir data-gathering ef forts in the area of
ir~igrat ion, in order to:
c, Minimize duplication and burden and maximize quality and utility
of the collected information;
o Develop approaches leading to the timely publication and
dissemination of such data, including, as appropriate, the preparation
and release of fully documented micro-data, public-use tapes; and
0 Establish and maintain formal liaison with other federal agencies
involved in the collection or analysis of immigration related data.
REFERENCES
Bureau of the Census
.1974 Consistency of Reporting of Ethnic Origin in the Current
Population Survey, Technical Paper Number 31, February 1974.
Grossman, H.A.
1978 OASDHI-Covered Earnings of Indochina Refugees, 1975, Social
Security Bulletin (41, 6) Social Security Bulletin.
Kahn, A.L.
1980 Indochina Refugee Receiving Supplemental Security Income, July
197B, Research and Statistics Note (No. 6) Social Security
l
Administrat ion.
Keely, C. ~ and Kraly, E.
1978 Recent Net Alien Immigration to the U. S.: Its Impac t on
Popul at ion Growth and Native Fertility. Demography
15~3) :267-284.
Lancaster, C., and Scheuren, F.J.
1977 Counting the Uncountable Illegals: Some Initial Statistical
Speculations Employing Capture-Recapture Techniques. Paper
presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Statistical
Association.
Merritt, M.G.
1982 Cuban and Haitian Applicants for SSI Disability Payments.
Social Security Administration mimeo.
Vining, D.R.
1980 Net Migration by Air: A Lower Bound on Total Net Migration to
the United States, Working Papers in Regional Science and
Transportation, University of Pennsylvania.
Warren, R., and Passel, J.
1983 Estimates of Illegal Aliens from Mexico Counted in the 1980
United States Census. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of
the Population Association of America, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
census bureau
