The intense debate on immigration policy in the United States in recent years has largely focused on how to regulate immigrants’ roles as workers, their impact on public spending, and how to reconcile labor market, community, and family needs with workable and humane law enforcement. These are important debates, and their outcome will determine the character of U.S. society for generations to come. However, far less has been written about the role that immigrants play in the civic and political life of communities throughout the United States. This volume aims to fill that void by focusing on the contributions that Latin American immigrants are making to U.S. communities and the barriers they face in seeking to do so. more

Special reports: Environmental Degradation and Migration The U.S.-Mexico Case Study, by The Natural Heritage Institute; and Solving China’s Environmental Problems: Policy Options from the Working Group on Environment in U.S.-China Relations, by Aaron Frank. more

"Population distortions - in which populations grow too young, or too fast, or too urbanized - make it difficult for prevailing economic and administrative institutions to maintain stable socialization and labor-force absorption," says author Jack A. Goldstone. more

This report is part of a series on Latin American immigrant civic and political participation that looks at eight cities around the United States: Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Fresno, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Los Angeles, CA; Omaha, NE; Tucson, AZ; and Washington, DC. The reports on each city describe the opportunities and barriers that Latino immigrants face in participating as civic and political actors in cities around the United States. more