The 'explosiveness' of chain migration: research and policy issues. Introduction and overview

This is an introduction to Volume 23, Number 4, of the International Migration Review. This issue "focuses on the legislative and social science interface concerning the complex issue of whether the current system of United States legal immigration is promoting or facilitating an 'explosive' multiplication of immigrants.... The purpose of this collection of articles is to present the most current evidence and policy analyses of the size and composition of the immigration 'multiplier.' It assumes that there is merit in focusing attention on the overlapping interests of social science researchers and legislative analysts regarding how the system of legal immigration actually operates in promoting or reproducing future waves of immigrants."