Publications on Immigration
This section features selected Pew Research Center reports (since 2005) on immigration trends and analysis of their impact. Individual project websites may contain more reports related to this topic. In particular, please see Pew Hispanic Center for public opinion, economic, and other social science research related to Latino immigrants.
Non-Citizen Immigrant Households Suffer Sharp Decline in Income, 2006-2007
2 Oct 08The current economic slowdown has taken a far greater toll on households headed by non-citizens than it has on the U.S. population as a whole, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of new Census data.
Pew Hispanic Center
Undocumented Immigration Now Trails Legal Inflow, Reversing Decade-Long Trend
2 Oct 08Estimates now show that the unauthorized immigrant population grew more slowly from 2005 to 2008 than it did earlier in the decade, although its size has increased by more than 40% since 2000, and now constitutes 4% of the total U.S. population.
Pew Hispanic Center
Hispanics See Their Situation in U.S. Deteriorating
Large Majorities Oppose Most Key Immigration Enforcement Measures
18 Sep 08Increasingly widespread pessimism among Hispanics, as well as their strong opposition to federal enforcement policies, could well have consequences in the political arena.
Pew Hispanic Center
One-in-Five and Growing Fast: A Profile of Hispanic Public School Students
26 Aug 08The number of Latino students in public schools nearly doubled from 1990 to 2006, accounting for 60% of the total growth in school enrollments. Projections now show there will be more school-age Hispanic children than school-age non-Hispanic white children by 2050.
Pew Hispanic Center
Hispanics and Health Care in the United States: Access, Information and Knowledge
A Joint Pew Hispanic Center and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Research Report
13 Aug 08A Pew Hispanic Center/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study finds that more than one-fourth of Hispanic adults in the U.S. lack a usual health care provider, but when asked about why that is so, a plurality (41%) say the principal reason is that they are seldom sick.
Pew Hispanic Center
Explaining the English Language Learner Achievement Gap
26 Jun 08A new analysis finds that lagging scores of students designated as English language learners can be partly explained by their concentration in low-performing schools.
Pew Hispanic Center
Latino Labor Report, 2008: Construction Reverses Job Growth for Latinos
4 Jun 08The slump in the construction industry has taken a heavy toll on Latino workers. From a historic low in late 2006, the unemployment rate for Latinos rose sharply in 2007 and currently stands well above the rate for non-Latinos. Immigrant Latino workers have been hit especially hard.
Pew Hispanic Center
A Statistical Portrait of Hispanic Women in the U.S.
8 May 08Annual births to Hispanic women in the U.S. exceeded one million in 2006, and one-in-four children in the U.S. under age 5 is Hispanic. These and other interesting data are included in a new Pew Hispanic Center fact sheet.
Pew Hispanic Center
States Think Smaller, Slower On Immigration
3 Apr 08Under pressure from business groups and budget stringency, states are no longer rushing to pass immigration control measures.
Stateline.org
Immigration to Play Lead Role In Future U.S. Growth
U.S. Population Projections: 2005-2050
11 Feb 08If current trends continue, immigrants arriving from 2005 to 2050 and their descendants will account for 82% of the population growth in the United States during this period, according to new projections from the Pew Research Center.
Pew Research Center
Do Blacks and Hispanics Get Along?
Yes, but Not Always, and Not about Everything
31 Jan 08In general the nation's two largest minorities think well of each other, but there are some important differences, a Pew survey finds.
Social & Demographic Trends
Arizona's Population Growth Parallels America's
Demography of the State's Population and Labor Force, 2000-2006
24 Jan 08How will Arizona's new law penalizing businesses for hiring unauthorized immigrants affect its labor force? The Pew Hispanic Center provides up-to-date estimates of the state's demographics as well as two other fact sheets analyzing the characteristics of the overall Latino population in the U.S. and of foreign-born immigrants of all origins.
Pew Hispanic Center
With Feds Stuck, States Tackle Immigration
13 Dec 07State lawmakers have taken widely divergent approaches to dealing with an influx of immigrants; some are rolling out welcome mats while others are slamming shut their doors.
Stateline.org
The Immigration Debate: Controversy Heats Up, Hispanics Feel a Chill
13 Dec 07The 2007 National Survey of Latinos finds that Hispanics in the U.S. are feeling a range of negative effects from increased public attention and stepped up enforcement measures.
Pew Hispanic Center
Hispanics and the 2008 Election: A Swing Vote?
6 Dec 07Earlier Republican Party gains among Latinos have dissipated in the past year, a new Pew Hispanic Center survey finds. Hispanics also comprise a sizable share of voters in four "swing states" that President Bush narrowly carried in 2004.
Pew Hispanic Center
English Usage among Hispanics in the United States
29 Nov 07A new analysis of six Pew Hispanic Center surveys finds a dramatic increase in English-language ability from one generation of Hispanics to the next.
Pew Hispanic Center
Between Here and There: How Attached Do Latino Immigrants Remain to Their Native Country?
25 Oct 07Most maintain some kind of connection to their native country, but only one-in-ten can be considered to be highly attached.
Pew Hispanic Center
World Publics Welcome Global Trade -- But Not Immigration
4 Oct 07A 47-nation survey finds broad support for the key tenets of economic globalization, including free trade, multinational corporations and free markets. Yet concerns exist about inequality, threats to traditional culture, threats to the environment and threats posed by immigration.
Pew Global Attitudes Project
1995-2005: Foreign-Born Latinos Make Progress on Wages
21 Aug 07Foreign-born Latino workers made notable progress between 1995 and 2005 when ranked by hourly wage. The proportion of foreign-born Latino workers in the lowest quintile of the wage distribution decreased to 36% from 42% while many workers moved into the middle quintiles.
Pew Hispanic Center
The Latino Electorate: A Widening Gap between Voters and the Larger Hispanic Population in the U.S.
24 Jul 07Latinos made up a slightly larger share of the total voter turnout in the 2006 election than in 2002; but, a new Pew Hispanic analysis finds, the Latino vote continued to lag well behind growth of the Latino population primarily because a high percentage of the new Hispanics in the U.S. are either too young to vote or are not citizens.
Pew Hispanic Center
"Frequently Asked Questions" about Pew's Muslim American Survey
The Facts behind the Design, Conduct and Analysis of a High-Profile Study
2 Jul 07A recent report, "Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream," attracted a great deal of attention but also raised a number of questions about the research. Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
Did Talk Hosts Help Derail the Immigration Bill?
PEJ's Index Finds that in Weeks Preceding the Senate Vote Failure, Immigration was the Second-Most Popular Talk Topic and that Critics of the Legislation Dominated the Airwaves
18 Jun 07PEJ's Talk Show Index finds immigration was the second-most popular topic from May 13-June 8, and airwaves discussion was dominated by hosts opposed to the legislation who often referred to it with the politically damning term "amnesty bill."
Project for Excellence in Journalism
Mixed Views on Immigration Bill
Democratic Leaders Face Growing Disapproval, Criticism on Iraq
7 Jun 07The public is ambivalent about the immigration bill being debated in the Senate, but a majority favors one of its key goals - providing a way for illegal aliens to become citizens. The public supports such a provision even when it is described as "amnesty," a new Pew survey finds.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
¡Here Come 'Los Evangélicos'!
6 Jun 07Next week's National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. illustrates the growing presence and increasing political influence of Latino evangelicals. If Republicans have a prayer of making deep inroads into the Hispanic community, evangelicals may well provide their most direct route.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
How Far Behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners?
6 Jun 07As Congress considers reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law, a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of national standardized tests shows that the one-in-ten public school students designated as "English language learners" lag far behind whites in reading and math.
Pew Hispanic Center
A Slower Flow from Mexico?
Indicators Suggest a Recent Slowing of Migration across the U.S. Border
30 May 07While short-term changes in immigration flows are difficult to measure, several indicators suggest a possible slackening in migration across the U.S. border since mid-2006.
Pew Hispanic Center
Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream
22 May 07The first-ever, nationwide, random sample survey of Muslim Americans finds them to be largely assimilated, happy with their lives, and moderate with respect to many of the issues that have divided Muslims and Westerners around the world.
Pew Research Center
Changing Faiths: Latinos and the Transformation of American Religion
25 Apr 07Hispanics are altering the profile of American religion by their growing numbers and by their distinctive practice of Christianity. A new study by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life also finds Latinos' influence on U.S. politics and public affairs is strongly affected by the particular characteristics of their faith.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
The Immigration Divide
Reform is a Potential Wedge Issue for Both Republicans and Democrats
12 Apr 07With his renewed push for a comprehensive immigration bill, President Bush is advancing a potentially powerful political wedge issue, but one with an unlikely twist: Immigration fractures the president's own party at least as much as it divides the opposition.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
Growing Share of Immigrants Choosing Naturalization
28 Mar 07Today's legal immigrants are signing on to a closer relationship with Uncle Sam more quickly and at higher rates than was the case a decade or two ago.
Pew Hispanic Center
Latinos Online
They're a lot less likely to use the internet, but lower education levels and limited English ability largely explain the gap between Hispanics and non-Hispanics in the U.S.
14 Mar 07A new joint report from the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that low levels of education and limited English ability largely explain the gap in internet use between Hispanics and non-Hispanics living in the U.S.
Pew Internet & American Life Project
Construction Jobs Expand for Latinos Despite Slump in Housing Market
Foreign-Born Fill Vast Majority of New Jobs
7 Mar 07Despite the housing slump, Hispanic workers find a ready market for their skills.
Pew Hispanic Center
Bush Builds on States' Agenda
24 Jan 07It's too soon to know how far the new Congress might go in accepting the president's State of the Union proposals on health care, energy, immigration and education, but states aren't waiting to find out - they've taken the lead on these domestic issues.
Stateline.org
Are You a Citizen? Prove It
8 Jan 07Worries about voter fraud, terrorism and illegal immigration are driving a surge in stiff new identification requirements. To weed out those who aren't citizens, all Americans increasingly need a paper trail to qualify for some of the perks of citizenship -- from driver's licenses to Medicaid help.
Stateline.org
Few Latinos Now Support the War in Iraq
Hispanics Favor Troop Withdrawals Even More Strongly Than Does the General Public
4 Jan 07Two out of every three Latinos now believe that U.S. troops should be brought home from Iraq as soon as possible and only one in four thinks the U.S. made the right decision in using military force, according to a new survey by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Pew Hispanic Center
Parsing the '06 Latino Vote
Hispanic Voters Returned to their '02 Pattern in Supporting Democrats
27 Nov 06Widely cited findings from the national exit polls suggest Latinos tilted heavily Democratic in the 2006 election, taking back most of the support they had granted the Republicans just two years earlier. Does that mean the Latinos who flirted with the Republican Party are now firmly back in the Democratic camp?
Pew Hispanic Center
Who Are the Immigrants?
A Statistical View of the Foreign-Born Population at Mid-Decade
17 Oct 06This Pew Hispanic Center statistical profile provides a detailed look at the foreign-born population in the United States.
With a foreign-born population of over 35 million, who are these immigrants and what do we know about them?
Pew Hispanic Center
From 200 Million to 300 Million: The Numbers behind Population Growth
Hispanics account for most of last 100 million
10 Oct 06The U.S. population will reach 300 million some time this month. This fact sheet presents an analysis, by race/ethnicity and nativity, of the 100 million people who were added to the population since 1966-67. In addition, the fact sheet breaks down the U.S. population, again by race/ethnicity and nativity, when it was 200 million and at the 300 million mark.
Pew Hispanic Center
The Changing Landscape of American Public Education
New Students, New Schools
5 Oct 06Public school enrollment in the U.S. has risen sharply since the early 1990s, with Hispanic students accounting for about two-thirds of the increase. The growth has triggered a surge in new school construction, but two-thirds of the new facilities are not serving Hispanic students.
Pew Hispanic Center
Iraq Looms Large in a Nationalized Election
Congressional Race Unchanged After Foley's Resignation
5 Oct 06A new poll finds dismay about U.S. military action in Iraq at its highest level since the war began and many voters say the issue will be primary in their ballot decisions come November. Resignation of Rep. Foley has little impact so far.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
41.9 Million and Counting
A Statistical View of Hispanics at Mid-Decade
28 Sep 06A statistical view of Hispanics at mid-decade
Pew Hispanic Center
In Statehouses, 2006 is Year of Surpluses, Social Issues
14 Sep 06Minimum wage hikes and new rights of self-defense for crime victims have been popular with state lawmakers this year. Also, with a budget climate that's been the sunniest in six years, lawmakers have splurged on a host of new projects.
Stateline.org
Cubans in the United States
25 Aug 06A minority within a minority, Cuban-Americans are older, better educated and have a higher level of income than other Hispanics in this country. They also lean more toward the Republican Party.
Pew Hispanic Center
Does Immigration Hurt U.S. Workers?
24 Aug 06One of the questions at the heart of the immigration policy debate is whether the influx of workers from abroad hurts the employment prospects of U.S.-born workers. But it's a question with no simple answers, according to our analysis of state level employment data.
Pew Hispanic Center
Growth in the Foreign-Born Workforce and Employment of the Native Born
10 Aug 06Rapid increases in the foreign-born population at the state level are not associated with negative effects on the employment of native-born workers, according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Pew Hispanic Center
2006 National Survey of Latinos: The Immigration Debate
13 Jul 06New survey finds Hispanics in the U.S. are feeling discriminated against, politically energized and unified following the immigration policy debate and the pro-immigration marches this spring.
Pew Hispanic Center
Muslims in Europe
Economic - Not Religious - Worries Top Their Concerns
6 Jul 06Muslims living in Europe worry about their future, and many say they have had a bad experience as a result of their religion or ethnicity. But Muslims there do not generally believe most Europeans are hostile toward people of their faith.
Pew Global Attitudes Project
'Enthusiasm Gap' Favors Democrats This Year
A Reversal from 1994
27 Jun 06A new poll finds Democrats more eager to vote, but also less happy with their party.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
The Optimistic Immigrant
Among Latinos, the Recently Arrived Have the Most Hope for the Future
30 May 06Hispanics in general, and recent immigrants in particular, are more inclined than blacks or whites to take an upbeat view about one of the most enduring tenets of the American dream -- that each generation will do better in life than the one that preceded it.
Pew Hispanic Center
The Overstayers
23 May 06Nearly half of all the unauthorized migrants now living in the U.S. entered the country legally, according to a new Pew Hispanic Center estimate.
Pew Hispanic Center
Attitudes Toward Immigration in Red and Blue
In Democratic-dominated counties, foreign-born residents are more populous - and more welcome
9 May 06New analysis finds predominantly Republican "red" as well as swing counties significantly more opposed to immigration - both legal and illegal - than are predominantly Democratic "blue" counties, where immigrants are much more populous.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
Attitudes Toward Immigration: In Black and White
26 Apr 06African Americans are often more sympathetic to immigrants - except when it comes to jobs.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
Attitudes Toward Immigration: In the Pulpit and the Pew
26 Apr 06Church leaders and members don't always agree about undocumented migrants.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Congress Faces Record Public Discontent
Anti-Incumbent Sentiment Echoes 1994
20 Apr 06Belief that this Congress has accomplished less than its predecessors is higher than at any point in the past nine years; Republican leaders take the blame.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
America's Immigration Quandary
No Consensus on Immigration Problem or Proposed Fixes
4 Apr 06Americans worry about unauthorized immigration, but disagree about specific policies to deal with it.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
The Complex Tapestry of the Undocumented
Day Laborers Are Just One Strand
28 Mar 06Ubiquitous as they are in the public debate over immigration, day laborers are only one part of a diverse population of unauthorized migrants
Pew Hispanic Center
Unauthorized Migrants Number 11.5-12 Million
7 Mar 06The population of unauthorized migrants in the U.S. is between 11.5 million and 12 million, according to a new report from the Pew Hispanic Center.
Pew Hispanic Center
States, Flush with Cash, Still Face Tough Issues
13 Feb 06From Medicaid to immigration, state lawmakers grapple with contentious issues as elections loom.
Stateline.org
The Occupational Status and Mobility of Hispanics
15 Dec 05Hispanics and whites perform different types of work in the labor market. Moreover, the occupational divide between the two largest segments of the labor force appears to be widening. The occupations in which Hispanics are concentrated rank low in wages, educational requirements and other indicators of socioeconomic status.
Pew Hispanic Center
Mapping the Political Landscape 2005
1 Sep 05The Center's report offers a richly textured portrait of the American electorate, including a new analysis of 2004 election returns that reveals the congruence between where people live and how they vote.
Pew Research Center
Trends 2005
20 Jan 05The first publication of the Pew Research Center explores American public opinion and values, religion and public life, media, the Internet, Hispanics, the states and global opinion.
Pew Research Center