J E A N N E B ATA L O VA , P H D

SENIOR POLICY ANALYST AND DATA HUB MANAGER

MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE

A M A N D A B E R G S O N - S H I L C O C K

COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

IMPRINT

Who Are the Skilled Immigrants in Your

Community? Gathering the Data January 23, 2013

Dial-in: (218) 895-2222 Code: 9943637

PRESENTERS

Did You Receive Today’s Slides?

Today’s webinar will cover a significant amount of

information.

Every participant should have already received a PDF

of today’s slides.

A recording of the webinar will also be available afterward.

Note: If you have not received the slides, please e-mail

contact@imprintproject.org ASAP.

IMPRINT is a national umbrella

organization specialized in skilled

immigrant integration. IMPRINT:

• Disseminates promising

practices

• Creates and distributes

resources for practitioners

• Advocates for effective policies

to support skilled immigrant

workforce integration

• More at: www.imprintproject.org

MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS

Community College Consortium for

Immigrant Education

www.cccie.org

Upwardly Global

www.upwardlyglobal.org

World Education Services

www.wes.org/gtb

Welcoming Center for New

Pennsylvanians

www.welcomingcenter.org

Welcome Back Initiative

www.welcomebackinitiative.org

Policy, Advocacy & Promising Practices

Pre-Webinar Survey Results

Your experience and resources

Expected uses of data on skilled immigrants

Challenges in data

Questions for presenters

Today’s Agenda

Questions to Be Addressed in Today’s

Webinar

1. What kind of data is available?

2. How can you obtain it?

3. How can you make sense of it?

4. When should you consider gathering it yourself?

Today’s Agenda

AGENDA

Pt. I: An Overview of Data Sources

Pt. II: Going after Data Yourself

Pt. III: Advanced Data Collection Using IPUMS

Today’s Agenda Part I

An Overview of Data Sources

Knowing What Data Is Out There

US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), accessed

through:

American FactFinder http://factfinder2.census.gov

Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS): http://usa.ipums.org/usa

Third-party analyses of Census Bureau data (MPI, CensusScope)

Other sources:

Population Reference Bureau, STEM worker data sources:

http://www.prb.org/Reports/2010/stemworkers.aspx

NSF, National Survey of College Graduates: www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvygrads/

MPI’s Data Guide: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/2008DataGuide.pdf (will be

updated soon!)

First: Has Someone

Already Done the Work?

The Migration Policy

Institute report Uneven

Progress drew on Census

data to systematically

document skilled

immigrant issues at the

national level.

Findings from Uneven Progress

“Brain waste” affects more than one in five college-educated immigrants.

In 2011: about 23% or 1.6 million (compared to 17% of US born)

Higher Unemployment Rates: Recent arrivals and African born

Latin-American and African-born immigrants are more likely to be

underemployed.

Other factors: longer US residence, US degree, stronger English skills,

and class of admission (employment-based vs. others)

Institutional barriers

Source: Migration Policy Institute analysis of the microdata from the US Census Bureau’s ACS and from the

New Immigrant Survey.

Other Data Analyzed by MPI

The 2011 ACS-based profile of college-educated immigrant and

native workers in the United States overall:

http://www.migrationinformation.org/USfocus/display.cfm?id=927

Among college-educated adults in the country: 9.4 million or 16% are

immigrants

The college-educated immigrant population grew faster than their

native counterparts in the 1990s and 2000s

About 17% of college-educated immigrants are Latinos

California, New York, Florida, and Texas accounted for half of the 7.2

million college-educated immigrants in the labor force

College-educated immigrants are more likely to be unemployed and

underemployed than the native born

Source: Migration Policy Institute analysis of the microdata from the US Census Bureau’s ACS.

Other Data Analyzed by MPI, Cont.

The 2010 and 2011 ACS-based profiles of immigrants and natives in the

United States and by state:

http://www.migrationinformation.org/datahub/acscensus.cfm

Demographic and Social: top countries of birth, geographic mobility,

children in immigrant families

Language and Education: rates of limited English proficiency and levels of

educational attainment, rates of linguistic isolation, and adult English literacy

Workforce: immigrants’ share among all, low-educated, and high-educated

workers, top occupations and industries, skill underutilization of college-

educated immigrants

Income and Poverty: average incomes, income distributions, poverty rates

Source: US Census Bureau’s American FactFinder tables and MPI analysis of the ACS microdata.

Today’s Agenda Part II

Going after Data Yourself

What If the Data You Need

Is NOT Pre-Crunched?

Options include:

• Using the American Fact Finder tool

to get what you need

• Using IPUMS to get what you need

(Jeanne will review this tool at the

end of today’s webinar)

• Collecting your own data

Searching By Yourself:

Census vs. ACS

Both data sets can be searched using the Census Bureau’s

American Fact Finder tool at factfinder2.census.gov

The US Census is conducted every 10

years and contains basic info about all

310+ million Americans

The ACS data is released every 1 year

and contains more detailed information

about a representative sample of

Americans

Questions You Can Answer

with FactFinder

What percentage of the immigrants in my [city/county/metro area]

have a college education? Search: Place of Birth by Educational Attainment

What region of the world do college-educated immigrants come from? Search: Selected Characteristics of the Foreign Born by Region of Birth

What percentage of college-educated immigrants speak only

English? Search: Educational Attainment and Employment Status by Language

Spoken at Home

Note: Many of these facts can be found in more than one American FactFinder table. The

above examples are not comprehensive. Useful profile-like tables are S0501, S0201, and

S0502-S0506 (by region of birth)

How Do I Find Data Using

Fact Finder? A 3-step process from the factfinder2.census.gov page:

Step 1. Choose the geographic area you

want to search

Click on “Geographies.” Type or highlight the city, state, or other

area you want, then click on “Add to your selections”. The name of

the area (e.g., “New York”) should zoom to the upper left corner of

your screen, in the Your Selections box.

Close the Select Geographies sub-window by clicking on the X in the

upper right corner of the GRAY BOX (not the full screen!)

Note: You can select more than one geographical area if you want to compare them -- for

example, two neighboring counties.

Step 2. Choose the Dataset

You Want to Search

We recommend using the American Community Survey 3-year data for

state-level estimates and 5-year data for other geographies. Currently,

the most recently available data tables are 2009-2011 and 2007-2011.

Click on Topics

Select Dataset

Choose 2011 ACS 5-year estimates

Beware that if you are comparing trends over time in the ACS, you should use the same

time-span in your data set, for example, 2011 ACS 5-year with 2010 ACS 5-year. Other

comparisons are invalid.

Step 3. Choose the Variable

You Need

If you know the name of the variable you need, you can search it by

keyword (e.g. “Place of Birth” to find the countries of origin for a

given group of immigrants)

If you do NOT know the name of the variable, you can browse

commonly-used tables for ideas (e.g, “Selected Characteristics of the

Native and Foreign-Born Populations”)

Be aware that the word “immigrant” does not appear in Census data.

Instead, use the term “foreign born.”

If necessary, use the Glossary to help you understand the definition of Census terms. To

access it, click on the “Glossary” link in the upper right corner of Fact Finder’s home page.

A pop-up box will appear. Under the Table of Contents at left, click again on the word

“Glossary.”

Bao - add Screenshot of Step 3

Making Sense of the Data

You can download the data in PDF form or as an Excel file.

An Example…

Collecting Your Own Data

Questions to Answer:

What data do you truly need to know?

Is it best to gather it via a one-time event

or as part of ongoing client intake?

What medium is likely to garner the most

useful results (paper form, online survey,

oral interview)?

For Example….

Need: My organization wants to know what

percentage of our graduating ESL students have

degrees from abroad, and if they are pursuing work

in that field.

Solution: We plan to add 3 questions to our existing

“exit interview” of students to gather this information.

?

!

Tips for Gathering Data You Can

Use

Use precise phrasing (“In what country did

you earn your degree?” rather than

“Where…?”)

Be succinct (“Do you have a job now?”)

Don’t make assumptions (“Do you want to

work in the field of your degree?”)

Make sure answers can be aggregated (ask

for year of graduation rather than “How long

ago did you get your degree?”)

Wait!

Before You Implement Your Plan,

Ask:

Who can review your draft data collection

plan and tools to help you catch potential

problems?

Tip: Seek out a professional evaluator who works

in a nonprofit setting

Who can help you beta-test your data

collection tool?

Tip: Consider foreign-born colleagues as a

resource

STOP

Telling Your Own Story

Once your data is gathered and analyzed, it’s time to share.

Whether briefing your colleagues or an external audience, make sure to:

Explain how the data was collected and what it

includes

Provide context to illuminate the findings

Example: “There are 300,000 immigrants in our region, representing

8% of the total population. Approximately 1 in 3 of those

immigrants, or 100,000 people, have a college degree.”

Use your findings to illustrate why you are

recommending a program model, course of action,

or policy change

Questions?

Before we move to the last

segment of this webinar, any

questions?

Today’s Agenda Part III

Advanced Data Collection

Using IPUMS

Quick Definitions

The Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS): an online collection of

data from 15 federal censuses (1860-2000) and from the 2000-2011 American

Community Surveys. IPUMS is a project of the Minnesota Population Center.

http://usa.ipums.org/usa

Census microdata: individual records with information collected on persons and

households.

Aggregate data vs. microdata

Aggregate data are compiled statistics, such as a table showing educational

attainment of immigrants (overall) in New York from the American FactFinder.

Microdata are flexible. You can generate your own statistics such as age,

gender, and Latino origin of college-educated immigrants in New York.

Analyzing ACS Microdata Using

the IPUMS Website:

http://usa.ipums.org/usa

1. Advanced analysis: Download microdata, learn about

and recode the variables; requires quantitative research

skills and software packages such as STATA, SPSS, or

SAS

2. Online IPUMS tables: Learn about the variables

(e.g., characteristics such as citizenship status or place

of residence), register for a free account, select the

variables using an online interface, apply filters, and done!

Step 1: Learn the Definitions and

Structure of ACS Variables

Step 1, Cont.

Step 1: “Citizen” Example

Code 2+ 3 = Foreign born or

Immigrants

Step 1: “EDUC” Example

College educated

Note: Some variable like EDUC have also

“detailed” codes. Will give you a

breakdown by advanced degree

Step 2: Use Analyze Online Data

to Generate a Table

Draw from ACS 2011 data under data sources

Step 2, Cont.

Desired table: Number of college-educated immigrant and native-born men and

women age 25 and older

Double-check your year selection

Select your variables from the list

Step 2, Cont.

Desired table: Number of college-educated immigrant and native-born men and

women age 25 and older

Variables used: EDUC, CITIZEN, GENDER, AGE

1

2 3

Click “Run the Table”

4

Step 2, Cont.

Desired table: Number of college-educated immigrant and native-born men and

women age 25 and older

Always double-check your filter

selections!

• Copy/paste to Excel

• “Natz citizen” + “Not a citz” =

“Immigrants”

• “N/A” + “Born abroad of Am

parents” = “Native Born”

• Calculate percentages if

needed

• Repeat for a specific state,

another year, another group,

etc.

J e a n n e B a t a l o v a , P h D

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