| The dissertation consists of three chapters relating to the measurement of immigration policies, which developed out of my work as an initial co-author of the International Migration Policy and Law Analysis (IMPALA) Database. The first chapter entitled, "Brain Gain? Measuring skill bias in U.S. migrant admissions policy," develops a conceptual and operational definition of skill bias. I apply the measure to new data revealing the level of skill bias in U.S. migrant admissions policy between 1965 and 2008. Skill bias in U.S. migrant admissions policy is both a critical determinant of the skill composition of the migrant population and a response to economic and public demand for highly skilled migrants. However, despite its central role, this is the first direct, comprehensive, annual measure of skill bias in U.S. migrant admissions policy.;The second chapter entitled, "Stalled in the Senate: Explaining change in U.S. migrant admissions policy since 1965," presents new data characterizing change in U.S. migrant admissions policy as both expansive and infrequent over recent decades. I present a new theory of policy change in U.S. migrant admissions policy that incorporates the role of supermajoritarian decision making procedures and organized anti-immigration groups to better account for both the expansive nature and the infrequency of policy change. The theory highlights the importance of a coalition of immigrant advocacy groups, employers and unions in achieving policy change and identifies the conditions under which this coalition is most likely to form and least likely to be blocked by an anti-immigration group opposition.;The third chapter entitled, "Post-coding aggregation: A methodological principle for independent data collection," presents a new technique developed to enable independent collection of flexible, high quality data post-coding aggregation. Post- coding aggregation is a methodological principle that minimizes data loss, increases transparency, and grants data analysts the ability to decide how best to aggregate information to produce measures. I demonstrate how it increases the flexibility of data use by expanding the utility of data collections for a wider range of research objectives and improves the reliability and the content validity of measures in data analysis. |
