UCI Experts:

Immigration Policy in the U.S. and Worldwide
Kitty Calavita, who attended the July 5 House hearings on immigration in San Diego, focuses her research on the links between U.S. immigration policy and prevailing economic, political and ideological forces. A professor of criminology, law and society, Calavita is interested in the relationship between law and social structure and has examined decision-making processes of the Immigration and Naturalization Service regarding the Bracero Program of the 1950s. She recently published a comparative study of European immigration and guest-worker policies in Immigrants at the Margins: Law, Race and Exclusion in Southern Europe. Contact Calavita at kccalavi@uci.edu.

Latino Political Incorporation and Activism
Louis DeSipio is an expert on Latino politics and immigrant political incorporation. His research extends to public policies on immigrant settlement, naturalization and voting rights, and he recently completed a two-year study with the National Academies’ National Research Council on the future of Latinos in America. He also has analyzed the long-term consequences of the legalization provisions of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. DeSipio, an associate professor of political science and in the Chicano/Latino studies program, is the author of Counting on the Latino Vote: Latinos as a New Electorate, and has surveyed Latino political values, attitudes and behaviors. Contact DeSipio at 949-824-1420 or ldesipio@uci.edu.

Language and Immigration
Rubén Rumbaut, a leading scholar of immigration, can provide insight on how immigrants acculturate. His research encompasses bilingualism and language loss, citizenship, socioeconomic mobility, educational achievement and aspirations, as well as the paradoxes of assimilations. He is particularly interested in the children of immigrants, including the “1.5 generation” (people who immigrated to the United States as children) and the second generation (people born in the United States to immigrant parents). Rumbaut, a sociology professor, is a lead investigator on a study of immigration and intergenerational mobility in metropolitan Los Angeles and a co-director of the landmark Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (1991 – ongoing). He co-directs with Frank Bean the UCI Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy. Rumbaut’s most recent book is Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation, winner of two American Sociological Association awards.
Contact Rumbaut at 949-824-2495, rrumbaut@uci.edu.

Other UCI Resources:

UCI’s Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy conducts policy-relevant research on international migration and other population processes. Much of the center’s research focuses on the experiences and incorporation of immigrants in the U.S. over the course of generations – focusing not only on the immigrants themselves, but their children and grandchildren in America. Faculty associated with the center have conducted research with grants from the National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and others. To learn more about the center, visit www.cri.uci.edu.

UCI’s expert alerts and tip sheets inform the media that a faculty member is available to provide insight, background, or perspective on an event or news feature. The expert opinions and perspectives of UCI faculty members are solely their own and represent neither the opinion nor position of the university.