title: All about U.S. immigration statistics.
abstract: The quality of data collected by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is assessed, with a focus on differences between U.S. and U.N.  definitions of immigrants, emigrants, and refugees.  The author suggests that "gaps in migration data collected for the U.S. limit their usefulness for studying international migration and estimating national population change.  For example, no information is collected on emigration of legal permanent residents or U.S. citizens, nor is there any direct information on the immigration of U.S. citizens.  Data collected on legal immigrants are based on a legal and administrative definition that often conflicts with the demographic definition of an immigrant."
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hoefer
mesh_terms: D000569:Americas; D003625:Data Collection; D003710:Demography; D019049:Developed Countries; D003906:Developing Countries; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D007390:International Agencies; D009656:North America; D009938:Organizations; D011153:Population; D011154:Population Characteristics; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011158:Population Growth; D012036:Refugees; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012106:Research; D012107:Research Design; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014171:Transients and Migrants; D014480:United Nations; D014481:United States
keywords: Americas; Comparative Studies; Data Analysis; Data Collection; Data Sources; Demographic Factors; Developed Countries; Developing Countries; Estimation Technics; Evaluation; International Agencies; International Migration; Measurement; Migrants; Migration; Nonmigrants; North America; Northern America; Organizations; Population; Population Dynamics; Population Growth Estimation; Population Statistics; Refugees; Reliability; Research Methodology; Studies; Terminology; Un; United States