Immigration Policy

This brief discusses how immigration policy keeps families apart and presents national data attesting to these family separations. Immigrants are more likely than natives to be married with spouse absent, their households are more likely to be headed by men with no wife present, and foreign-born children are more likely to be in nonchild relationships to the householder than natives. In a subset of foreign-born children with at least one parent in the United States, 21 percent were separated from their mothers and 34 percent from their fathers for 1 year or more.

If the United States were to move toward a more employment-intensive immigration system, the representation of women in the immigration flow will likely decline, immigrants will be older, there will be less country diversity, and more immigrant families will come already formed, instead of forming them in the United States. These implications should be considered when discussing the merits of skilled immigration.

A key measure of success of state prekindergarten initiatives is their ability to reach and serve children who are likely to face challenges in school. This study adds to our understanding of the challenges faced by immigrant children and families in Chicago, Illinois, by focusing on the extent to which families from smaller immigrant communities - particularly Pakistani, Nigerian, Vietnamese, Polish, and Haitian families-face barriers in accessing the Illinois prekindergarten program. Based on focus groups with parents and interviews with prekindergarten providers, this study finds a number of barriers, including lack of knowledge, language barriers, and logistical challenges around enrollment.

Smaller immigrant communities can face barriers to participating in prekindergarten programs, in particular lack of knowledge about the program, language barriers and enrollment logistics. Community-based organizations working with these communities can support outreach efforts and play a role in overcoming all of these barriers. This study presents findings from focus groups of a number of community-based organizations working with smaller immigrant populations in the Chicago metro area, and identifies a number of strategies that could be employed to support prekindergarten participation among immigrant families.

State prekindergarten initiatives can only succeed if they actually reach at-risk children. This brief summarizes findings from two studies around prekindergarten access for smaller immigrant populations. One study examines the extent to which Pakistani, Nigerian, Vietnamese, Polish, and Haitian families face barriers in accessing the Illinois prekindergarten program; it finds barriers such as lack of knowledge of the program, language barriers, and enrollment challenges. The second presents findings from focus groups of community-based organizations serving smaller immigrant populations in the Chicago metro area, and identifies a number of strategies that could be employed to support prekindergarten participation among immigrant families.

The Immigrant Access to Health and Human Services study maps and describes the policy context that can affect immigrant access to health and human services and the well-being of immigrants and their children. This paper summarizes federal provisions and key aspects of state-level variation related to immigrants' eligibility for TANF, SNAP, Medicaid, and CHIP based on a review of literature and the latest information. It provides a building block for the fieldwork and in-depth assessment of the policy context around immigrant access to health and human services.

Many children and youth - abroad and here, with their families or unaccompanied - flee their toxic surroundings, hoping to find new homes elsewhere and create new lives. With a panel of experts whose knowledge spans the globe, this forum will plumb the experiences of vulnerable youth who are displaced or on the move and examine ways to protect them, sparking an overdue exchange on policy lessons from America and abroad.

Foreign-born workers, spanning all skill levels, are a significant part of the U.S. workforce. But in the midst of a weak economy beset by many pockets of double-digit unemployment, some policymakers are concerned that low-skilled immigrants take jobs away from their native-born counterparts. Others contend the United States is losing its competitive edge by limiting the entrance of high-skilled foreign workers