Uncertainty About the Size of the Unauthorized Foreign-Born Population in the United States.

ABSTRACT: One of the most common methods for estimating the U.S. unauthorized foreign-born population is the residual method. Over the last decade, residual estimates have typically fallen within a narrow range of 10.5 to 12 million. Yet it remains unclear how sensitive residual estimates are to their underlying assumptions. We examine the extent to which estimates may plausibly vary owing to uncertainties in their underlying assumptions about coverage error, emigration, and mortality. Findings show that most of the range in residual estimates derives from uncertainty about emigration rates among legal permanent residents, naturalized citizens, and humanitarian entrants (LNH); estimates are less sensitive to assumptions about mortality among the LNH foreign-born and coverage error for the unauthoriz

SUBMITTER: Van Hook J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9107075 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature