With few exceptions, naturalization extends rights similar to those of citizenship by birth (see Chapter 4 for details). Citizens are protected from deportation and have full access to social services, which creates stability and improves integration opportunities for naturalized immigrants and their families (Table 3-1). Overall, 61% of eligible immigrants are naturalized, although there are significant differences by source region (Gonzalez-Barrera et al. 2014). The panel discusses naturalization patterns and possible explanations for different naturalization rates in detail in Chapter 4, but it should be noted that when refugees and asylum seekers receive the most direct integration support, they face the same potential barriers to integration as immigrants with other legal statuses (Portes and Zhou, 1993). For example, many are Black or Muslim (or both) and may therefore be exposed to discriminatory attitudes and stigmatized for outward manifestations of their faith (McBrien, 2005). In addition, many refugees and asylum-seekers are fleeing violence and may have been forcibly separated from their homes. “Acute” refugees who flee suddenly with little preparation are likely to have very little material wealth and may have been separated from family members (Kunz, 1973). Acute refugees also tend to have lower levels of education and skills than voluntary migrants (Zhou, 2001). And the settlement of refugees in new gateway cities can strain local resources and create tensions with native-born populations (Singer and Wilson, 2007). Within the immigrant community, economic outcomes also vary by legal status. A study by George Borjas and Marta Tienda found that before 1986, Mexican immigrants legally earned 6% more in the United States than unauthorized Mexican immigrants.
Research suggests that undocumented immigrants are more clandestine today than they were in 1986, and that they have an even larger wage gap. Katherine Donato and Blake Sisk, for example, found that between 2003 and 2009, the average hourly wage of Mexican immigrants legally residing in the United States was 28.3 percent higher than that of undocumented Mexican immigrants. Although the previous chapter describes the history and current state of immigration policy, a wide range of research has also examined the impact of policy change on immigrants and their descendants. These political changes have contributed to the spread of legal status, with important consequences for the integration of immigrants. This chapter examines the impact of legal status on integration opportunities and examines possible long-term consequences for immigrants and their descendants. It begins with a general introduction to the impact of legal status on various aspects of life that are crucial for integration. It then describes the categories of legal status as well as the opportunities and obstacles that legal status brings to integration. The proliferation of disparate legal statuses interacts in many ways with integration trajectories and complicates all efforts to determine when integration into American society begins for individuals. More than half (52%) of people who obtain lawful permanent resident (LPR) status do so after living for some time in the United States under a different legal status adapted to LPR status. And many undocumented migrants live in the United States for decades without officially “immigrating.” Civic engagement and socialization in mixed-status families also “ooze” from children to parents (Wong & Tseng, 2008); Children connect their parents with political institutions and community organizations, contributing to the political socialization of parents (Bloemraad & Trost, 2008). In these cases, children`s participation outside the home contributes to a sense of belonging and belonging (Solis et al., 2013). In this way, the younger generation develops a sense of citizenship and offers the rest of the family ways to advance their integration.