U S Immigration Policy

Few issues on the American political agenda are more complex or divisive than immigration. There is no shortage of problems with current policies and practices, from the difficulties and delays that confront many legal immigrants to the large number of illegal immigrants living in the country. Moreover, few issues touch as many areas of U.S. domestic life and foreign policy. Immigration is a matter of homeland security and international competitiveness, as well as a deeply human issue central to the lives of millions of individuals and families. It cuts to the heart of questions of citizenship and American identity and plays a large role in shaping both America's reality and its image in the world. Immigration's emergence as a foreign policy issue coincides with the increasing reach of globalization. Not only must countries today compete to attract and retain talented people from around the world, but the view of the United States as a place of unparalleled openness and opportunity is also crucial to the maintenance of American leadership. There is a consensus that current policy is not serving the United States well on any of these fronts. Yet agreement on reform has proved elusive. The goal of the Independent Task Force on U.S. Immigration Policy was to examine this complex issue and craft a nuanced strategy for reforming immigration policies and practices.

Contents: (1) Overview; (2) Current Law and Policy; Worldwide Immigration Levels; Per-Country Ceilings; Other Permanent Immigration Categories; (3) Admissions Trends: Immigration Patterns, 1900-2008; FY 2008 Admissions; (4) Backlogs and Waiting Times: Visa Processing Dates: Family-Based Visa Priority Dates; Employment-Based Visa Retrogression; Petition Processing Backlogs; (5) Issues and Options in the 111th Congress: Effects of Current Economic Conditions on Legal Immigration; Family-Based Preferences; Permanent Partners; Point System; Immigration Commission; Interaction with Legalization Options; Lifting Per-Country Ceilings. Charts and tables.

The author examines the relationships between immigration policy, observed immigration patterns, and cultural differences between the United States and immigrants’ source countries. The entirety of U.S. immigration history (1607-present) is reviewed through a recounting of related legislative acts and by examining data on immigrant inflows and cross-societal cultural distances.

Collaboration can be a painful process, especially between authors of different disciplines. This book is an outgrowth of discussions between a Political Scientist and Economists at the School of Urban and Public Affairs, University of Louisville. The Economics perspective is found in Chapter 3 and was largely written by Frank Götzke. The Political Science oriented review, Chapters 2 and 6,aswellasall the case studies were largely provided by Steven Koven. Most of the book, but es- cially Chapters 4, 5, and 7 evolved as a consequence of conversations between the two authors. We believe the product of two disciplinary approaches has produced a collective outcome that is greater than the sum of individual parts would have been. In this book we have attempted to combine the analytical, empirical, historical, political, and economics approaches. Chapter 3 presents an analytical model, based on economics, Chapters 4 and 5 summarize empirical census data related to im- grants, and Chapter 6 reviews the legislative and political history of immigration.

A calculation of the social returns to innovation /Benjamin F. Jones and Lawrence H. Summers --Innovation and human capital policy /John Van Reenen --Immigration policy levers for US innovation and start-ups /Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr --Scientific grant funding /Pierre Azoulay and Danielle Li --Tax policy for innovation /Bronwyn H. Hall --Taxation and innovation: what do we know? /Ufuk Akcigit and Stefanie Stantcheva --Government incentives for entrepreneurship /Josh Lerner.

First Published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.