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This article considers the accurate measurement of international migration to and from the United States, both legal and unauthorized, and how these measurement characteristics might affect the accuracy and utility of the 2010 census and other data sources. It provides a brief overview of the recent magnitude and impacts of US immigration. It delineates the role of immigration in determining an accurate census and discusses specific parameters that must be accurately measured in order to adequately assess immigration, both legal and unauthorized. It makes specific recommendations for addressing the effects of such factors,

Objective. The effects of the change in immigrant populations on the number of persons in poverty from 1980 to 1990 has received substantial attention. Methods. The effects of immigration are compared to the effects of other determinants of poverty for the total population and for three ethnic minority groups in 58 areas in the southwestern United States. Results. The results show significant direct and indirect effects of immigration on poverty in the total population but not in the minority subpopulations, and smaller relative direct effects for immigration than for other determinants of poverty. Conclusions. The fact that the largest effects of immigration are indirect through other socioeconomic factors, coupled with the lack of effects in the ethnic subgroups, suggest (paralleling findings by Bean et al. (1997) for social-service usage) that the effects of immigration on poverty are likely to result from change in the countries of origins of the immigrant pool rather than from increases in the number of poor immigrants from traditional countries of origin., Immigration has become a major topic of discussion among both policy analysts and scholars (Jensen, 1989; Borjas, 1990, 1996; Tienda and Liang, 1994; Smith and Edmonston, 1997). The economic, environmental, [...]

Decisions regarding hazardous waste facility siting are now open to extensive public debate. Efforts on the part of public officials and private companies to site waste management facilities have been thwarted by public opposition. Using survey data from leaders and residents in communities which are hosting or siting facilities, this study examines their sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge, levels of trust, perceptions of risk, perceptions of economic impacts, perceptions of equity issues and the differential effects of these factors on acceptance of local waste facility siting. Leaders in these communities were more supportive of local waste facility siting than were other community residents. The major determinant of leaders' acceptance of waste siting was their perceptions of the economic benefits of a facility to the community. Although this was also important to residents, perceptions of health, safety, and environmental contamination risks had larger effects on their acceptance of such facilities.

The authors present a study showing the impact of education, social standing, and economic development have on women's use of contraceptives in Bangladesh. Study methods, socioeconomic demographic profiles, and statistical data is provided.

Nonmetropolitan (nonmetro) residential segregation in 1990 and change in the preceding decade have received insufficient attention. A set of empirical hypotheses are derived and assessed using nonmetro and metropolitan (metro) counties in Texas. Places in nonmetro counties were more segregated than places in metro counties in 1990 as in 1980. Substantial declines in segregation occurred in both nonmetro and metro places but were largest in growing places in nonmetro counties. An analysis controlling for other determinants of segregation supports the premise that population change was a major determinant of 1980-1990 change in segregation. Implications for nonmetro areas in the 1990s are discussed.

Patterns of 1980-1990 migration differ markedly from those of the 1970s but they have received little conceptual or empirical analysis because of limited data and because their diversity has resisted theoretical generalization. An expanded human ecologicai perspective incorporating international dimensions is hypothesized to explain differentials in migration during the 1980s. Counties with key functions which operate in international ecosystems in which the United States is dominant are hypothesized to control more resources and to have the highest net immigration. Hypotheses are tested using regression analyses of 1980-1990 net migration for Texas' 254 counties. The results generally confirm that key functional activities were related to migration but less so in nonmetropolitan areas. Implications for rural development and for further research are discussed.

Post-1980 internal migration patterns were unanticipated, and prevailing explanations of them fail to account for the effects of new international relationships. A human ecological theory is developed which suggests an explanation based on the sphere of sustenance activities in ecosystems and relative dominance in these activities. Larger net migration was expected for countries specialized in activities that operate in international ecosystems in which the United States is dominant and less in other types of countries. The results for post-1980 migration in United States counties support these expectations and the utility of an expanded human ecological perspective.

Recent theoretical debates have focused on the utility of two alternative perspectives on ethnic identification. However, empirical support for either is neither consistent nor conclusive and previous analyses seldom conceptually or empirically examine the aggregate macrostructural determinants of ethnic identification. This study reevaluates the relative merits of the ethnic enclosure and ethnic competition perspectives among Texan Hispanics using aggregate 1980 Census of Population data for 139 Texas cities with large Hispanic populations. The rejection of the ethnic enclosure thesis in some recent research is unwarranted, as the empirical evidence provides it substantial support and little for the ethnic competition perspective. Further analyses of structural factors in ethnic identification are merited.

The principle of homophily is central to several social-science theories. When applied to the study of population change in geographic areas, these theories predict racial homogeneity in residential settlement patterns. The concentration of one group in an area is expected to attract same-group members while deterring others. We examine this prediction using data on 1980-90 population change for four ethnic groups in 1,672 U.S. suburban cities. The findings from our analysis contradict the principle of homophily. For example, during the 1980s, black populations grew faster in those suburbs that had smaller, rather than larger, percentages of blacks. We explain these findings by spatial-assimilation and place-stratification models. Minority suburbanization is viewed as a process driven primarily by status rather than by ethnic considerations., One widely accepted principle in the social sciences is that of homophily: the assumption that people are attracted to those like themselves and repelled by others who are racially different [...]