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KEY FINDINGS OF NIS-PILOT AND NIS-2003-1
- On average new legal immigrants are as well schooled as native-born
citizens; however, the schooling distribution of immigrants has
heavy tails, concentrated in both the very highly educated as well
those with few years of schooling.
- In married couples formed by a U.S. citizen sponsoring the immigration
of a spouse, spouses have similar levels of education, with the
U.S. citizen having a slightly better education. Among marriages
in which both spouses immigrate, there is a greater disparity
in education levels. Likewise, immigrants sponsored as spouses
of U.S. citizens who marry in the United States have higher schooling
and lower husband-wife disparity, confirming the American emphasis
on higher education and spousal similarity.
- While as children only slightly less than 10 percent spoke more
than one language, by the time of admission to LPR, 72 percent
spoke more than one language. Among monolingual children,
12 percent spoke English, and among these children, 22 percent
learned another language. Among non-English monolingual children,
73 percent possessed at least some level of English and another
3.5 percent possessed knowledge of another language or languages.
- Based on the pilot sample, 78 percent of immigrants reported
that they use English either at home or outside the home. 48
percent use English both in the home and outside. Those who
speak only English either at home or outside the home constituted
34 percent.
- Christianity constituted approximately two-thirds of the NIS-P
immigrants, a number significantly less than the 82% of the native-born
surveyed in the General Social Survey of 1996. However, the
proportion of Catholics is 42%, almost twice as large as among
the native-born (22%). 8% of the new immigrants were Muslim,
and 15% report no religion at all (compared with 12% of the native-born).
- The reduction in the smoking population of immigrants as compared
to native-born in the United States was also an area of interest. Within
the immigrant population, 25% of men and 7% percent of women smoke,
compared to 26% and 21%, respectively, within the native-born
population.
- Home ownership gives one of the best demonstrations of not
only economic class, but also intent of residence—a person who
owns a home feels assured that he does not run the risk of deportation. In
general, adjustees (who modify their status to LPR while living
in the US) possessed more than double the home ownership rate
of new-arrival immigrants, in all cases except those in which
U.S. citizens already owned a home before marrying and sponsoring
their immigrant spouse.
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