Circular, invisible, and ambiguous migrants: Components of difference in estimates of the number of unauthorized Mexican migrants in the United States

Abstract

Based on an equation that can be used with available data and that provides a basis for facilitating decomposition analyses, this research estimates that about 2.54 million total (as opposed to enumerated) unauthorized Mexicans resided in the United States in 1996. Comparing this figure with an estimate of about 2.70 million released by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) during the 1990s, we find that the two estimates involve different assumptions about circular, invisible, and ambiguous migrants. Such differences not only can have important policy implications; they can also be sizable and can operate in opposite directions, as illustrated by findings from a components-of-difference analysis. The results are also extrapolated to 2000, and implications for 2000 census counts are discussed.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Familias Unidas for Hispanic Adolescents With Behavior Problems

“…First, the present sample is not representative of the U.S. Hispanic population, and hence the results should be generalized with caution. The U.S. Hispanic population is comprised mostly of Mexican Americans, who represent 65% of all legal U.S. Hispanic residents (10) and a large majority of unauthorized migrants (47)—but who were not well represented in our sample. It is important, then, to replicate the present results with a representative sample of Hispanic adolescents and their families.…”

Undocumented Migration from Latin America in an Era of Rising U.S. Enforcement

“…Official statistics come from records of apprehension and deportation maintained and published each year by the DHS, but they contain little personal information and are plagued by missing data (Massey and Capoferro 2004). Although undocumented migrants are known to be enumerated in the Decennial Census and Current Population Survey (see Woodrow-Lafield 1998), it is not possible to identify which foreign-born have documents and which do not (Bean et al 2001), thus making it impossible to distinguish between legal and illegal migrants in census- or survey-based studies, which causes many problems for analysis (Massey and Bartley 2005). Although the NIS does identify legal immigrants with prior undocumented experience (Massey and Malone 2003), this group is necessarily a selective subset of all undocumented migrants, and until the NIS follow-up survey becomes available, prospective longitudinal data of any sort will not exist.…”

Why Do Immigrant Youths Who Never Enroll in U.S. Schools Matter? School Enrollment Among Mexicans and Non-Hispanic Whites

“…Immigration from Mexico is at center stage in these debates because of the large number of Mexican immigrants and the substantial share of undocumented migrants among them. Currently, there are 10–12 million foreign-born persons from Mexico living in the United States, more than half of whom are undocumented (Bean 2001; Grieco 2003; Passel 2002). Although evidence on their educational selectivity is mixed, this large number of documented and undocumented Mexican immigrants has raised concerns about whether the relative educational “quality” of immigrants is declining and about their long-term prospects for assimilation (see Borjas 1999; Chiquiar and Hanson 2005; Feliciano 2005; Ibarraran and Lubotsky 2005; Orrenius and Zavodny 2005).…”