460 - Special Session. The Integration of Immigrants in the United States: A National Research Council Report

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Description

This panel will present some findings from a National Research Council of the National Academy of Science panel on immigrant integration. The interdisciplinary panel completed its work from January 2014 to October 2015. The committee was charged with (1) summarizing what we know about how immigrants are integrating into American society; (2) discussing what the implications of this knowledge are for informing various policy options; and, (3) identifying any important gaps in our existing knowledge and data availability. We explored the evidence on immigrant integration in the following domains: residential location, education, employment, earnings, occupation, poverty, citizenship (naturalization), voting, electoral representation, language, religion, crime, intermarriage, fertility, family structure, health and life expectancy.

Immigrant integration is defined as the opportunities for immigrants and their descendants to achieve their goals in a society through participation in major social institutions, as well as to gain social acceptance. Greater integration implies parity of critical life chances with the native-born American majority. Integration may happen because immigrants change once they get here, or because native born Americans change in response to immigration. The process of integration takes time and we measure it both in terms of time since arrival for the immigrants themselves—the first generation, as well as by comparing across generations, tracing the integration of the children of the immigrants—the second generation and the grandchildren of the immigrants—the third generation.

Sub Unit

• Special Sessions

Session Organizer

• Mary C. Waters, Harvard University

Presider

• Mary C. Waters, Harvard University

Panelists

• Richard D. Alba, Graduate Center, CUNY

• Nancy Foner, Hunter and CUNY Graduate Center

• Cecilia Menjivar, University of Kansas

Discussant

• Min Zhou, Nanyang Technologica University