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 don’t have to fear loss of labor) • People who pay price for status quo: 12 million unauthorized immigrants

9. Today’s 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 (doesn’t 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

14. 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

17. 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 Isn’t 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 • Doesn’t 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 doesn’t 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)

24. 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 today’s 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 parent’s status

26. 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?