Immigration Center Purpose and Research Activities
The purpose of the UCI Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy is to foster and conduct basic and policy-relevant research on international migration and other population processes, with a main focus on U.S. immigration. In order to encourage multi-investigator, multi-disciplinary, and interdisciplinary research projects, the Center organizes informal discussions of ideas for future research projects, “brainstorming” sessions about research funding opportunities,“brown-bag” presentations of research findings, and workshops and conferences.
Much of the Center's research focuses on the multigenerational incorporation experiences of immigrant groups in the United States, especially those occurring in diverse contexts such as Southern California. Investigations of this type often devote as much attention to what happens to the children and grandchildren of immigrants as to what happens to immigrants themselves.
Examples of current externally funded projects include studies examining
- the long-term experiences of the children of immigrants in San Diego and Miami;
- the nature and extent of incorporation among various second and later generation immigrant groups in Los Angeles;
- the implications of immigration for changing race/ethnicity and multiracial identification in the United States; and
- the volume, nature and legal status of U.S. and California immigration (especially Mexican immigration).