Surveying Immigrant Communities: Policy Imperatives and Technical Challenges

Immigration to the United States poses major challenges to society—and it is clearly a force on the rise. As the nation debates how immigrants affect society and the economy and how best to absorb them, participants at every level need more information about immigrants and how they affect the national life. The authors undertook a pilot study: The Los Angeles Community Survey (LACS) of Salvadorans and Filipinos, conducted in 1991. This report describes in detail the nature and results of that survey. This summary focuses more on the implications and recommendations for future surveys.