[colombiamigra] Fw: New MPI Report: Citizenship Confers Economic Gains for Immigrants in United States
- From: william mejia <wmejia8a@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "colombiamigra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <colombiamigra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2012 21:35:34 -0700 (PDT)
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From: MPI Communications <communications@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 9:46 AM
Subject: New MPI Report: Citizenship Confers Economic Gains for Immigrants in
United States
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Press Release
September 11, 2012
Contact: Michelle Mittelstadt
202-266-1910
mmittelstadt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
MPI Report: Immigrants Appear to Earn Wage Premium from Citizenship
WASHINGTON — Beyond imparting political and social rights, naturalization
appears to confer economic gains for immigrants in the United States, with a
wage premium of at least 5 percent, according to a new Migration Policy
Institute study (MPI) released today.
The report, The Economic Value of Citizenship for Immigrants in the United
States, analyzes the impact of naturalization on immigrants and assesses a
number of studies that have examined the earnings gap between naturalized and
noncitizen immigrants — a divide that widened over the economic crisis. Even
after accounting for the fact that naturalized immigrants have higher levels of
education, better language skills and more work experience in the United States
than noncitizens, the MPI study concludes there is some evidence of a wage
premium of at least 5 percent resulting from citizenship.
"This wage premium may be even larger for Latino immigrants and for women,"
said MPI Senior Policy Analyst Madeleine Sumption, the study's lead author.
"While it is difficult to separate the impact of citizenship from the favorable
characteristics of immigrants who are motivated to naturalize, the best
evidence available suggests that a citizenship premium does exist."
The report, funded through a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation, finds that naturalized citizens appear to have weathered the
effects of the recession more successfully than noncitizens, experiencing a
decline in median annual earnings of 5 percent from 2006 to 2010, compared to
19 percent for noncitizens and 8 percent for the US born.
Despite the benefits of U.S. citizenship, which range from the right to vote in
national elections and run for public office, access to certain public-sector
jobs and the ability to petition to bring family members more quickly to the
United States, naturalization rates are lower than most other countries in the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Slightly more
than 40 percent of the 40 million immigrants in the United States held U.S.
citizenship in 2010. By comparison, 79 percent of immigrants in Canada and 68
percent in Australia were naturalized.
More than 8 million legal immigrants, representing about two-thirds of all
legal permanent residents in the United States, are eligible to apply for
naturalization but have not done so, according to the Department of Homeland
Security.
"Some of the key barriers to naturalization include limited English proficiency
and the $680 cost to apply, which is higher than in many other leading
immigrant destinations," said Michael Fix, MPI's senior vice president and
director of studies.
The study also notes that refugees and immigrants from politically troubled
countries naturalize at higher-than-average rates. By contrast, immigrants from
high-income countries are less likely to naturalize despite higher levels of
education and language proficiency, perhaps because they perceive U.S.
citizenship as providing fewer benefits relative to their existing nationality.
The report is available at:
www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/citizenship-premium.pdf.
# # #
The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) is an independent, non-partisan,
non-profit think tank in Washington, DC dedicated to analysis of the movement
of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of
migration and refugee policies at the local, national and international levels.
For more on MPI, please visit ww.migrationpolicy.org.
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