Sponsors, sponsorship rates and the immigration multiplier

Reviews the evidence pertaining to the extent to which US immigrants actually make use of the family reunification entitlements of United States immigration laws, examining the two available studies which are based on probability samples of immigrant entry cohorts. It then provides new estimates of the characteristics of the US citizen sponsors of immigrant spouses and parents. The first study examined, the 1986 Jasso-Rosenzweig study of the FY 1971 immigrant cohort, suggests that the multiplier is far less than its potential size but is not trival. The 1988 General Accounting Office (GAO) report based on the FY 1985 immigrant cohort indicates that the propensity to sponsor new immigrants is substantially higher for immigrants than for native born citizens and that immigrant sponsors of new immigrants tend to petition as soon as they are able to do so according to the law. -from Authors