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  • Author(s): Espenshade, Thomas J.
  • Source:
    Social Science Quarterly (University of Texas Press). Dec94, Vol. 75 Issue 4, p730-733. 4p.
  • Additional Information
    • Subject Terms:
      IMMIGRANTS; DONATO, Katharine M.; UNITED States emigration & immigration; NINETEEN forties; SOCIOLOGISTS
    • Subject Terms:
      UNITED States
    • Abstract:
      The article comments on the sociologist Katharine M. Donato's report "U.S. Policy and Mexican Migration to the United States, 1946-92," by examining how changes in United States immigration policy from the 1940s to the 90s affected the volume of Mexican migration to the United States. Donato's purpose is to examine how changes in U.S. immigration policy from the 1940s to the present have affected the volume and composition of Mexican migration to the United States. These migration flows contain both legal and illegal (or undocumented) migrants. The surface appeal of the Mexican community data is that they contain samples of both legal and undocumented Mexico-U.S. migrants. The question that must nevertheless still be asked is how representative are these data of actual Mexico-U.S. migration flows. There are two reasons for doubting their representativeness. First, the 17 communities have not been randomly selected but rather were purposely chosen to reflect a broad range of migrant community characteristics. Second, Donato does not include in the analysis all sample migrant trips that were made to the linked States over this 50-year period. Only data corresponding to the first U.S. trip for each migrant are analyzed.