Special Report

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Thinking Ahead About Our Immigrant Future: New Trends and Mutual Benefits in Our Aging Society

What is the real story about the importance of immigration for America’s future? Demographer Dowell Myers examines trends in U.S. immigration and finds that immigration has not only begun to level off, but immigrants are climbing the socio-economic ladder, and will become increasingly important to the U.S. economy as workers, taxpayers, and homebuyers supporting the aging Baby Boom generation. (January 2008)

"On the Beat": New Roles and Challenges for Immigrant Police and Firefighters

America’s streets are unquestionably safer and our neighborhoods more peaceful thanks to the growing number of immigrants available to serve and protect. (December 2007)

Wasted Talent and Broken Dreams: The Lost Potential of Undocumented Students

The current political debate over undocumented immigrants in the United States has largely ignored the plight of undocumented children. Yet children account for 1.8 million, or 15 percent, of the undocumented immigrants now living in this country. These children have, for the most part, grown up in the United States and received much of their primary and secondary educations here. But without a means to legalize their status, they are seldom able to go on to college and cannot work legally in this country.  This wasted talent imposes economic and emotional costs on undocumented students themselves and on U.S. society as a whole.  (October 2007)

Division and Dislocation: Regulating Immigration through Local Housing Ordinances

The failure of Congress and the White House to enact immigration reform legislation has led a number of policymakers to support local ordinances that target undocumented immigrants. In this IPC Special Report, author Jill Esbenshade finds that ordinance initiatives are correlated with a recent and rapid increase in the foreign-born or Latino share of the population, which creates the perception of an immigration “crisis.” But undocumented immigration will not be “solved” by the local ordinances that are unconstitutional, deny due process rights to renters and landlords, and foster anti-immigrant and anti-Latino discrimination. (Summer 2007)

Immigration and the Elderly: Foreign-Born Workers in Long-Term Care

Aging populations and the growing need to provide long-term care to the elderly are among the leading demographic, political, and social challenges facing industrialized countries like the United States. By 2030, the number of older people in the United States is likely to reach 72 million—or nearly one out of every five people.  The aging of larger numbers of Americans will require significant increases in financial and human resources for healthcare support and other social services. As a result, immigrants will continue to play a significant role in the growth of the U.S. labor force in general and the direct-care workforce in particular. It is in the best interests of long-term care clients, providers, and workers if governments and private donors foster training and placement programs rather than leaving the future of the direct-care industry to chance. August 2007 (Volume 5, Issue 12)

Out of Sync: New Temporary Worker Proposals Unlikely to Meet U.S. Labor Needs

The temporary worker program now taking shape in Congress is unlikely to provide the U.S. economy with the numbers or kinds of workers that U.S. industries need. (June 2007)

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Dollars without Sense: Underestimating the Value of Less-Educated Workers

A recent report from the Heritage Foundation is one in a long line of deeply flawed economic analyses which claim to estimate the contributions and "costs" of workers based solely on the amount of taxes they pay and the value of the public services they utilize. (May 2007)

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