Jacobs Elizabeth M
Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Front Sociol. 2019 May 22;4:44. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2019.00044. eCollection 2019.
Despite impassioned debates about immigration reform brewing in the U.S. government, researchers know remarkably little about how immigration policy shapes migration behavior. There is still much to learn about the composition of specific classes of admission, how long migrants stay in the United States, and the legal channels they follow to permanent residency or emigration. This paper takes a life course perspective on skilled migration to examine the micro-level processes and various pathways that lead to permanent settlement and emigration, and identifies legal status transitions as a key sorting mechanism in processes of immigrant selection. I find that migrants who successfully underwent a previous legal status transition were more likely to pursue permanent residence, but also saw a wider array of avenues to obtain a green card. The mismatch in some migrants' permanent settlement intentions and temporary legal status can lead to feelings of alienation and frustration in the immigration system and the U.S. labor market, driving some to emigrate or seek channels outside of the skilled migration program to procure a green card. The findings of this paper deepen our understanding of the processes that shape selection effects among immigrants and highlight the need for more robust and granular longitudinal data on legal status indicators.
尽管美国政府内部关于移民改革的激烈辩论正在酝酿，但研究人员对移民政策如何塑造移民行为的了解却非常有限。关于特定类别的入境构成、移民在美国停留的时间以及他们获得永久居留权或移民所遵循的法律渠道，仍有许多需要了解的地方。本文从生命历程的角度审视技术移民，以研究导致永久定居和移民的微观层面过程及各种途径，并将法律身份转变确定为移民选择过程中的关键筛选机制。我发现，成功经历过先前法律身份转变的移民更有可能寻求永久居留权，而且获得绿卡的途径也更多。一些移民的永久定居意愿与临时法律身份之间的不匹配，可能会导致他们在移民系统和美国劳动力市场中产生疏离感和挫败感，促使一些人移民或寻求技术移民计划之外的渠道来获取绿卡。本文的研究结果加深了我们对塑造移民选择效应过程的理解，并强调需要有更全面、更细致的关于法律身份指标的纵向数据。
