Introduction to a Special Issue on the Impact of Immigrant Legalization Initiatives: International Perspectives on Immigration and the World of Work

This article is the third in a series to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the ILR Review. The series features articles that analyze the state of research and future directions for important themes the journal has featured over its many years of publication. In this issue, we also feature a special cluster of articles and book reviews on one of the most critical labor market issues across the globe—the legalization and integration of immigrants into national labor markets. Despite the urgent need for immigration reform in the United States, there is a paucity of US research that looks at the impact of a shift from unauthorized to legal immigrant status in the workplace. The US immigration literature has also paid little attention to immigrant legalization policies outside of the United States, despite the fact that other countries have implemented such policies with far more regularity. The articles in this special issue draw on studies of legalization initiatives in major immigrant destinations: Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Together they underscore the importance of cross-national perspectives for understanding the range of legalization programs and their impact on immigrant workers, the workplace, and the labor market. These findings contribute to key questions in migration scholarship and inform the global policy debate surrounding the integration and well-being of immigrants.

The Wartime Transformation of Student Visitors into Refugee Citizens, 1943–1955

This chapter explores how the Chinese people present in America on temporary visas as students, technical trainees, diplomats, sailors, and so forth suddenly found themselves stranded by the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War. For instance, C.Y. Lee, the author of Flower Drum Song, was rescued from refugee status by changes in immigration laws and procedures that allowed resident Chinese in good standing to receive permanent status. On behalf of this group of elite, highly educated Chinese, the State Department and Congress made accommodations rather than force such usefully trained workers to return to a now hostile state. Lee's transformation from student to refugee and then to legal immigrant mirrors that of thousands of other Chinese intellectuals who received American assistance to remain, enter the U.S. workforce, and become citizens.

Challenges and Opportunities to Improve Tuberculosis Screening among Immigrant Plantation Workers in Sabah, Malaysia

Tuberculosis (TB) among immigrants has substantial contribution to the TB epidemiology in Sabah. This study aimed to determine the yield of screening for TB disease among immigrant plantation workers in Sabah, Malaysia. This was a prospective cohort study involving 482 legal immigrant workers aged 18 years and above, consented and available at study sites during the study period. Workers with previous history of TB or currently on TB treatment were excluded from participation. Symptom based questionnaire was administered along with both chest radiograph and sputum samples collection for symptomatics participants. Out of<strong> </strong>482 plantation workers creened, there was no case of active TB detected among the 44 (9.1%) symptomatics participants. Finding of low TB yield in this study was rather unexpected but this indicates the real challenges for the local health authority to come out with more cost effective screening programs, including reducing stigma, in active TB screening among migrant population.

Challenges and Opportunities to Improve Tuberculosis Screening among Immigrant Plantation Workers in Sabah, Malaysia

Tuberculosis (TB) among immigrants has substantial contribution to the TB epidemiology in Sabah. This study aimed to determine the yield of screening for TB disease among immigrant plantation workers in Sabah, Malaysia. This was a prospective cohort study involving 482 legal immigrant workers aged 18 years and above, consented and available at study sites during the study period. Workers with previous history of TB or currently on TB treatment were excluded from participation. Symptom based questionnaire was administered along with both chest radiograph and sputum samples collection for symptomatics participants. Out of<strong> </strong>482 plantation workers creened, there was no case of active TB detected among the 44 (9.1%) symptomatics participants. Finding of low TB yield in this study was rather unexpected but this indicates the real challenges for the local health authority to come out with more cost effective screening programs, including reducing stigma, in active TB screening among migrant population.

Dominican Family Networks and United States Immigration Policy: A Case Study

This paper presents an analysis of the acculturative process of one Dominican family, focusing on the adaptation of extended families to United States immigration policy, and the implications these adaptations may hold for the traditional Dominican family. It is the contention of this paper that the definition of “family” according to United States immigration regulations does not reflect the cooperating kin group which is the “family” in Dominican culture and this gives rise to the need for a variety of extra-legal immigrant adaptive strategies