Multiplying Diversity: Family Unification and the Regional Origins of Late-Age Immigrants, 1981-2009

This paper seeks to explain how the "seemingly benign" provisions of the 1965 Amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act led to an unintended "surge of immigration from Asia" and "aggravated population aging by adding parents of U.S. citizens to the uncapped family relatives category." The authors argue that Congress made a "gross miscalculation" of the impacts of the 1965 amendments, believing that the family reunification categories would tend to favor immigrants of European background. The bulk of the paper calculates "family migration multipliers" (number of relatives sponsored for immigration for each originating immigrant) for a succession of immigration cohorts broken down by region of origin.

The paper also examines the age distribution of immigrants by these various categories and suggests that current family reunification policies are leading to undesirable results. For example, the huge backlogs in the 5th preference (adult siblings of U.S. citizens) have led to decade-long delays in granting visas and have pushed up the arrival age of immigrants in this category. The authors conclude that "population aging and soaring Medicare costs" are major policy concerns and that the nation can ill afford policies that disregard "the social and economic costs of late-age migration." (Abstract courtesy Nick Montalto, PhD.)

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