Immigration Politics and Policy Research Paper

Immigration Politics and Policy

Research Paper Assignment

Your final research paper can be on ANY important immigration policy issue of your choosing. Your assignment will be to provide a policy advocacy memo that provides the background on the issue and states a clear position that is well supported by the evidence. You should clear your topic with me beforehand so I know what you are doing and can provide some guidance.

Paper Length 12-15 pages

Due Date December 10

Selecting a Topic

Below is a list of immigration policy think think tanks from a variety of competing points of views, more from the expansionist perspective admittedly, but that is what the internet environment looks like. The most prominent ones are those listed with a description of the organization. There are also a list of subjects, blogs and organizations. I would encourage you to peruse these sites to find a topic or issue that seems compelling and interesting to you.

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The Nativist Lobby: the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and NumbersUSA
Center for Immigration Studies

http://www.cis.org/
The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research organization founded in 1985. The Center provides publications, reports, statistical information, and research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States. CIS also operates two free e-mail information services (listservs) on immigration news (CISNEWS). There are usually two long postings each business day, one for U.S. news and the other for overseas news, plus occasional messages listing new publications or upcoming events from around the world.

Federation for American Immigration Reform http://www.fairus.org
“The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a national, nonprofit, public-interest, membership organization of concerned citizens who share a common belief that our nation's immigration policies must be reformed to serve the national interest. FAIR seeks to improve border security, to stop illegal immigration, and to promote immigration levels consistent with the national interest—more traditional rates of about 300,000 a year.”

NumbersUSA for Lower Immigration Levels http://www.numbersusa.com

-conservative, Restrictionist Immigration Organization

Immigration Policy Center
http://www.immigrationpolicy.org
The Immigration Policy Center in Washington, D.C. is a nonprofit think tank dedicated to research on immigration law and policy. IPC studies analyze the economic, demographic and social impacts of immigration on the United States. In addition, the IPC serves as a resource on immigration law and policy for Congress and other immigration policy makers as well as for the media.

Migration Policy Institute
http://www.migrationpolicy.org/
A private, nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank in Washington, DC. MPI runs the “Migration Information Source” (http://www.migrationinformation.org/) which offers some excellent, short policy overview papers (e.g., on current immigration bills in Congress), overviews of immigration policies around the world, and they have an international "data center" that carries immigration, refugee and citizenship stats from a variety of countries in an easy-to-use format. Their U.S. data center has profiles of large (and some small) immigrant groups in the U.S., including maps of settlement. Most of the data are national and international (comparative), but it is site worth exploring since it is user-friendly and has excellent data.

Pew Hispanic Center
http://pewhispanic.org
Founded in 2001, the Pew Hispanic Center is a nonpartisan research organization supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Although the center’s primary focus is on the Latino population, its research and surveys often also include some information on other groups. The website has reports about demography, economics, education, identity, attitudes (of Latinos, and of non-Latinos towards Latinos), immigration, labor, politics, and remittances.

Public Policy Institute of California
http://www.ppic.org/main/home.asp
A private, nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank in San Francisco that does research on population, economy, and governance and public finance in California. PPIC does not have publicly available raw data, but researchers at PPIC regularly publish reports and working papers on migrants in California, including on the undocumented, naturalization and educational achievement.

The Urban Institute, Immigration Studies Program
http://www.urban.org/toolkit/issues/immigration.cfm
The Immigration Studies Program addresses many of the critical issues that surround the integration of newcomers. For instance, immigrants are increasingly dispersed across the United States, settling in smaller cities, towns and rural areas. Immigrant populations are growing especially rapidly in Southeastern, Midwestern, and interior Western states, many of which have little experience in incorporating newcomers. How these states and communities deal with the challenges involved in integrating these new populations is one central area of our research.

Brookings Institute, Social Policy, Immigration
http://www.brookings.edu/index/taxonomy.htm?taxonomy=Social%20Policy*Immigration
The Brookings Institute is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank devoted to independent research and policy solutions. Scholars at the institute write for policy-makers, the media, and academics. Within its “Social Policy” area, the Institute has a number of publications, links to Op-eds and speech transcripts on immigration by those affiliated with Brookings.

CATO Unbound
http://www.cato-unbound.org/archives/august-2006/
Provides excellent articles on Mexican immigrations by leading scholars (e.g., Massey) and writers (e.g., Rodriguez) in this country.

Congressional Research Service Reports , See section on Immigration, Visas, and Border Security

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/crs/#immigration

Data Resources on Immigrants in the United States http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/2008DataGuide.pdf

National Conference of State Legislators review of state immigration policies http://www.ncsl.org/programs/immig/

The New York Immigration Coalition http://www.thenyic.org/

Potential Research Topic Ideas – some are more ideas than subjects- aka refugee policy

Undocumented immigrant students and access to higher education

Bilingual education

DREAM Act

287 Program

Immigrants and crime

Immigrants and public assistance