INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW

United States of America (Staten Island) 11

SPRING 1997 - VOLUME 31, NUMBER 1

97.11.1 - English -Susan GONZÁLEZ BAKER, University of Texas at Austin (U.S.A.)

The "amnesty" aftermath: Current policy issues stemming from the legalization programs of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (p. 5-27)

The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) created two one-time-only legalization programs affecting nearly 3 million undocumented immigrants. Legalization has produced important changes among immigrants and in immigration policy. These changes include new patterns of immigrant social and economic adaptation to the United States and new immigrant flows through family ties to IRCA-legalized aliens. The heightened salience of immigration, produced in part by legalization, has also generated a wave of "backlash" policymaking at the state and local levels in high-immigration sites. This paper combines data from a longitudinal survey of the IRCA-legalized population with qualitative field data on current immigration issues from key informants in eight high-immigration metropolitan areas. I review the political evolution and early implementation of legalization, the current socioeconomic position of legalized aliens, and changes in the immigration "policy space" resulting from legalization. Although restrictive policies have again captured public attention, legalization has also sparked renewed efforts at immigration advocacy, particularly where immigrants who adjust to U.S. citizenship hold the potential for influencing local politics. (UNITED STATES, IMMIGRATION POLICY, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, MIGRANT STATUS)

97.11.2 - English -Kristin E. ESPINOSA and Douglas S. MASSEY, University of Pennsylvania (U.S.A.)

Determinants of English proficiency among Mexican migrants to the United States (p. 28-50)

We replicate prior research into the determinants of English language proficiency among immigrants using a dataset that controls for potential biases stemming from selective emigration, omitted variables, and the rnismeasurement of key constructs. In general, we reproduce the results of earlier work, leading us to conclude that despite inherent methodological problems, research based on cross-sectional censuses and surveys yields fundamentally accurate conclusions. In particular, we find unambiguous evidence that English proficiency rises with exposure to U.S. society and we reaffirm earlier work showing a clear pattern of language assimilation among Mexican migrants to the United States. (UNITED STATES, MEXICO, IMMIGRANTS, LANGUAGES, MIGRANT ASSIMILATION)

97.11.3 - English -Michael J. GREENWOOD and Paul A. YOUNG, University of Colorado at Boulder (U.S.A.)

Geographically indirect immigration to Canada: Description and analysis (p. 51-71)

This paper is concerned with geographically indirect immigration to Canada over the period 1968-1988. A geographically indirect immigrant is an individual legally admitted to Canada whose country of last permanent residence differs from the country of birth. Records maintained by Employment and Immigration Canada on every immigrant legally admitted over the period were used in the study. Relative to geographically direct immigrants, geographically indirect immigrants tend to be older, more educated, and more highly skilled. Moreover, if they were not born in an English or French speaking country, indirect immigrants are more likely to speak English and/or French capably than direct migrants born in such countries. The paper also contains bivariate logit estimates of a model of geographically indirect Canadian immigration. This model suggests that indirect migrants tend to be influenced by personal characteristics (age, sex, marital status, occupation, language ability), as well as by various characteristics of the country of birth (distance from Canada, income level, political conditions). (CANADA, IMMIGRANTS, TEMPORARY MIGRATION)

97.11.4 - English -Theodore P. LIANOS, Athens University of Economics and Business, Athnes (Greece)

Factors determining migrant remittances: The case of Greece (p. 72-87)

This article examines the flow of migrant remittances from Germany, Belgium, and Sweden to Greece. The statistical analysis uses the following determining factors: migrant's income, family income, the rate of interest, the rate of inflation, the exchange rate, the rate of unemployment, and the number of migrants. The results of this study reaffirm some earlier results of other studies, but they differ in some respects. An attempt is also made to detect cohort effects on the propensity to remit, and the evidence is that such effects do exist. (GREECE, EMIGRANTS, REMITTANCES)

97.11.5 - English -Leo R. CHAVEZ, F. Allan HUBBELL, Shiraz I. MISHRA, University of California, Irvine (U.S.A.), and R. BURCIAGA VALDEZ, University of California, Los Angeles (U.S.A.)

Undocumented Latina immigrants in Orange county, California: A comparative analysis (p. 88-107)

This article examines a unique data set randomly collected from Latinas (including 160 undocumented immigrants) and non-Hispanic white women in Orange County, California, including undocumented and documented Latina immigrants, Latina citizens, and non-Hispanic white women. Our survey suggests that undocumented Latinas are younger than documented Latinas, and immigrant Latinas are generally younger than US-citizen Latinas and Anglo women. Undocumented and documented Latinas work in menial service sector jobs, often in domestic services. Most do not have job-related benefits such as medical insurance. Despite low incomes and likelihood of having children under age 18 living with them, their use of public assistance was low. Undocumented and documented Latina immigrants lived in households that often contained extended family members; they were likely than other women in the study to lack a regular source of health care, to utilize health clinics, public health centers, and hospital emergency rooms rather than private physicians or HMOs, and to underutilize preventative cancer screening services. Despite their immigration status, undocumented Latina immigrants often viewed themselves as part of a community in the United States, which significantly influenced their intentions to stay in the United States. Contrary to much of the recent public policy debate over immigration, we did not find that social services influenced Latina immigrants' intentions to stay in the United States. (UNITED STATES, LATIN AMERICA, WOMEN, IMMIGRANTS, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, MIGRANT ASSIMILATION)

97.11.6 - English -Daniel M. GOODKIND, University of Michigan (U.S.A.)

The Vietnamese double marriage squeeze (p. 108-127)

According to Guttentag and Secord, the relative balance of power between the sexes is determined by dynamic interactions of dyadic and structural power. Dyadic power accrues to whichever sex is relatively rare owing to the larger proportion of potential relationships available to it, the demographic dimensions of which are commonly known as a marriage squeeze. Structural power refers to control over economic, political, or legal resources: men or women, according to the thesis, attempt to overcome existing deficits in dyadic power by gaining such resources. The unique dual case study presented here illuminates the state political institutions and other contextual conditions under which both dyadically disadvantaged men and women have been unable to garner such structural resources. Young women in Vietnam during the 1970s and 1980s faced a severe deficit of male partners due to population growth, war, and excess male migration. At the other end of the Vietnamese diaspora, overseas Vietnamese men during the 1980s and 1990s have faced an even greater shortage of Vietnamese women. In each area, the sex in surplus has not only been forced to delay or forego marriage but has also lost structural power. Women's advocates in Vietnam have been weakened in the postreunification era due in part to the implementation of free market reforms in a non-democratic political context. Overseas men have been disadvantaged due to a more equitable Western social and legal climate that has eroded their former advantage. (VIET NAM, MARRIAGEABLE POPULATION, EMIGRATION)

97.11.7 - English -Parimal ROY and Ian HAMILTON, Monash University Gippsland Campus (Australia)

Interethnic marriage: Identifying the second generation in Australia (p. 128-142)

Studies in Australia show that an increasing proportion of the population have ancestors from more than one country. Evidence regarding differences in the marriage patterns of first and second generation migrants has been restricted in scope as published marriage registration data includes only birthplace of partners. Marriage registration records include information about the birthplace of parents of partners but it is available only through specially produced tabulations. Changes in the Census for 1986 and 1991 make it possible to identify the second generation in households and this paper examines the use of Census data as an alternative to marriage registration records in tracing changes in intermarriage patterns and differences between urban and rural areas. (AUSTRALIA, MIXED MARRIAGE, ETHNIC ORIGIN, SECOND GENERATION MIGRANTS, DATA COLLECTION)

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