Immigrant Naturalization and Immigrant Settlement

1
Immigrant Naturalization and Immigrant Settlement

• Political Science 61 / Chicano/Latino Studies 64
• November 29, 2007

2
Exam

• Second exam December 6, 2007
• In class
• Not cumulative, but you can bring examples from
  the first half of class
• Goals
• Analysis and comparison essay
• Reward for careful reading of assigned readings
  identifications
• Balance between sections
• Essay question in advance?

3
From Last Time

• Immigration Reform and the Opportunities for
  Cross-Group Alliances

4
Short-Term Goal of Protests Met

• Criminalization provisions of HR 4437 quickly
  left the debate
• at some cost
• 700 miles of wall authorized
• 4.4 billion (most not appropriated)
• Also, took key mobilizing issue from protest
  organizers
• Low turnout in May 1, 2007 protests

5
Long-Term Significance Great For Latino Community

• Positive Legalization
• Engine of empowerment and electoral growth
• Provides added protections for U.S.-born family
  members
• Negative Legally recognized temporary status
• The longer it continues, the more it creates a
  legal underclass that becomes central to the
  economy (and shifts the position of capital in
  immigration debates)
• The more it is likely to divide Mexican
  America/Latino communities internally

6
Issue Less Salient in Asian American Communities

• Smaller share of Asian immigrant population is
  unauthorized
• Unauthorized population composed differently
• Short-term visa over-stayers
• Indentured labor
• New point system would benefit higher share of
  potential Asian immigrants

7
Also, Not Likely to Build Alliances with African
Americans

• Leadership of African American organizations
• See immigration as a civil rights issue
• Generally supportive of reform
• At the mass level
• Support less clear
• Economic cost of immigration paid
  disproportionately by low-skilled urban workers
• Growth in Latino population reduces Black
  electoral power at the local level (remember
  readings on Villaraigosa mayoral races)

8
Conclusions

• Advocates of various reforms increasingly seeing
  status quo as better than change
• Enforcement advocates fear legalization as a
  lesson for the future
• Legalization advocates fear new enforcement,
  fines, touchback, and bureaucratic requirements
• Business leaders see that enforcement remains
  sporadic (so they dont have to fear loss of
  labor)
• People who pay price for status quo 12 million
  unauthorized immigrants

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Todays Lecture

• Immigrant Naturalization and Immigrant Settlement

10
Naturalization Primarily Issue for Latinos /
Asian Americans

• Percent of adult citizens who are naturalized
  (2004)
• Anglo 2.6
• Black 3.8
• Latino 24.8 (3.3 million)
• Asian American 62.3 (2.9 million)
• Total number of naturalized citizens (2005) 14.9
  million

11
Percent Citizen and Non-Citizen Among Adults
(2004)
12
Naturalization Steadily on the Increase

• Lagged response to increase in immigration after
  1965 immigration act
• Not a linear increase however (doesnt keep up
  with immigration)
• Threats generally increase demand for
  naturalization
• Proposition 187/Welfare Reform in mid-1990s
• HR 4437 and anti-immigrant rhetoric today
• Community resources to help immigrants naturalize
  also increase in these periods
• Naturalization will stay high for foreseeable
  future
• But, 8 million eligible immigrants have not
  naturalized

13
Naturalization, 1976-2005
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Naturalization Opportunities and Barriers

• Immigrants perspectives
• Do immigrants want to naturalize?
• Why do immigrants interested in naturalization
  not naturalize?
• Government perspective
• Who should be offered citizenship?
• What characteristics should they have?

15
Do Immigrants Want to Naturalize?

• Best evidence answer is yes
• Just 15 percent of all Latino adults report no
  interest in naturalizing
• Among eligible Latino immigrants
• 8.7 percent say naturalization not very
  important
• 3.8 percent say naturalization not at all
  important
• No reliable attitudinal data on Asian immigrants,
  but
• Asians immigrants who naturalize do so soon after
  they become eligible

16
Behavioral Evidence

• Latino immigrants
• Approximately, 2/3 of eligible have done
  something concrete to naturalize
• Taking English classes to prepare for exam
• Taking civics classes to prepare for exam
• Yet, only half of those who try, succeed

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Why the Gap?

• Confusion
• Fear of consequences of failure
• Concern about loss of home-country citizenship
• Bureaucracy
• Form complex
• INS/BCIS impenetrable
• Bureaucracy expects steady flow of applicants,
  immigrants apply in response to threats
• Cost
• Absence of community-level assistance
• Naturalization works best as a community-wide
  experience

18
Who Should be Offered Citizenship?

• Statute
• Five years legal residence
• Not limited by gender after 1922, race/ethnicity
  after 1952
• Required skills/characteristics
• 1790 good moral character
• 1795 renounce former allegiances
• 1906 speaking knowledge of English
• 1950 reading and writing knowledge of English

19
Statute Isnt the Primary Barrier, Implementation
Is

• Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) /
  Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services
  (BCIS)
• Decentralized
• N / S often gets lost to enforcement
  functions
• Not antagonistic, but also not helpful
• Doesnt respond well to pressure

20
Naturalization Overview

• Immigrants interested in pursuing citizenship
• Many more start than finish
• Formal requirements relatively minimal
• But they have steadily increased in the 20th
  Century
• U.S. government doesnt promote citizenship and
  INS/BCIS hinders

21
Immigrant Settlement Does Government Play a Role?

• Yes
• Education, a resource for young immigrants and
  the second generation
• English as a Second Language (outside California)
• Non-needs-based social-welfare programs and
  insurance programs
• and No
• Immigrants excluded from many needs-based social
  welfare programs after 1996
• Limited support for naturalization promotion

22
U.S. Comparison to Other Immigrant-Receiving
Countries

• Somewhere in the middle
• Canada
• State promotion of multiculturalism
• State encouragement of naturalization
• Immigrants eligible for government assistance
  programs
• Germany
• Difficult for immigrants to naturalize
• Children of guest-workers not eligible for
  citizenship
• Immigrant financial assistance only for ethnic
  Germans

23
Settlement Policy

• U.S. has never thought comprehensively about
  developing policy to incorporate new immigrants
• Left largely to the states and, mostly to the
  private sector
• Liberal naturalization policy and civil rights,
  otherwise sink or swim
• Opportunity to link the interests of Latinos and
  Asian Americans (and other immigrant/ethnic
  populations)

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What Would this Policy Arena Look Like?

• Needed resources for incorporation
• Adult English language training
• Job training/re-training
• Short-term voting rights
• Revisit 1996 Welfare Reform
• Promotion of dual-citizenship
• Tensions
• Cost
• Native-born American perception that their
  ancestors made it on their own and todays
  immigrants should also
• Link between citizenship and voting rights

25
Costs of Neglect High

• Multigenerational failure to incorporate
  immigrants and their children
• Europe is now facing
• Consequence in U.S. potentially much higher
  because of size and diversity of immigrant
  population
• Unintentional resource for intergenerational
  immigrant incorporation 14th Amendment
• U.S.-born children of immigrants are citizens
  regardless of parents status

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For Next Time

• Please bring a possible ID from the readings
  since the midterm to class
• Marta Tienda and her colleagues speak of the
  Hispanic future (and, by extension, the minority
  future) as an uncertain destiny.
• Why?
• What public policies need to be implemented today
  to ensure that uncertain becomes an empowered
  future?