How the use of publicly available data immigrants should lead to reform the US immigration system.

What is it about?

The Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) initiated its “Democratizing Data” project in 2013 to make detailed demographic information widely available on the US undocumented, eligible to naturalize, and other non-citizen populations. The paper examines and refutes four persistent misconceptions that have inhibited public understanding and needed policy change: (1) migrants never leave the United States; (2) most undocumented migrants arrive by illegally crossing the US-Mexico border; (3) each Border Patrol apprehension translates into a new undocumented resident; and (4) immigrants are less skilled than US-born workers. The paper then offers new analyses in support of select policy recommendations drawn from a decade of making data on immigrants publicly available to policymakers, service providers, the press, and others.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

US immigration policies are not evidence-based to the detriment of immigrants, their circles of association, their communities, and the country more broadly.

Perspectives