Immigrants

The immigrant population in the United States has burgeoned over the past few decades. From 1990 to 2006, the number of immigrants rose from 20 million to more than 37 million. Urban Institute immigration policy experts study how the foreign-born population is growing, integrating, and changing.

We have analyzed immigrants' contributions to the labor force and the economy, tracked fast-growing immigrant communities, studied the effect of No Child Left Behind on immigrant children and English Language Learners, and surveyed foreign-born households’ health, well-being, and economic mobility. Read more.

Featured Links

• Metrotrends: Immigration and Employment

  Contact an expert on Immigration Policy

• Children of Immigrants Data Tool
• Five Questions: Rosa Maria Castaneda on immigration raids and their effects on children and communities

Related Policy Centers

• Center on Labor, Human Resources, & Population

Publications on Immigrants

Children of immigrants have nearly doubled as a share of pre-K to 3rd grade students since 1990. The share of children under age 8 with immigrant parents stood at 24 percent in 2008, up from 13 percent in 1990. Young children of immigrants account for more than 30 percent of children in seven states, with California leading the nation at 50 percent. The majority (93 percent) of children of immigrants are U.S. citizens. This fact sheet also includes state-by-state data on the number of children of immigrants and the number of children whose parents come from more than 130 countries.

Intervening in the parent generation can improve current and future prospects in the child generation. Such two-generation strategies target either parents’ life circumstances or parenting behaviors. Because many immigrants do not have the English capabilities, inside knowledge about schools, or social standing, engaging them more fully in the educational process in the home, school, and community could bring academic returns for children. This paper describes two-generation approaches to the education of young children from immigrant families that center on parental involvement in education. It focuses on Latin American and Asian immigrants, who make up the bulk of the immigrant population.

Children from immigrant families are the fastest growing group of children in the United States. High-quality child care and early education opportunities will be critical to these children’s success in school and in life. Yet, the early experiences of children in immigrant families are as diverse and varied as immigrant families themselves. While many immigrant families face numerous barriers to accessing high-quality child care and early education for their young children, these barriers are not insurmountable. The paper discusses state and local solutions to improving access for immigrant families and specific strategies and collaborations among providers, policymakers, and immigrant-serving organizations.

Immigration policy and reform debates test our ability to think about what's at stake when we open (and close) our doors to a diverse range of newcomers, and how ongoing immigration affects our future. As the debate on how immigrant workers and families continue to reshape the country gathers steam, the public is often misled about the challenges and opportunities stemming from policies about who can come to (and stay in) the US.

Organizations face increasing pressures to improve, and document, their performance. Good performance management systematically identifies desired ends, selects reasonable indicators of progress through means to those ends, and promotes continuous improvement over time. Key preconditions include assessing organizational measurement-readiness and overcoming inertia—and fear—among middle managers and front-line staff. To succeed, performance measurement must be seen as helping people do their jobs better, not creating new chains for yanking. Nurses and their employers have far to go to figure out how best to organize their caregiving and their administrative supports so as to improve quality and safety while constraining costs. Journal of Nursing Regulation 1(2):60 (July 2010); Marr, Bernard. Managing and Delivering Performance. Elsevier Ltd, 2009.