EMIGRATION FROM THE USA - MULTIPLICITY SURVEY EVIDENCE

Special national surveys in the 1980s give the only recent data about emigrants from the USA, based on asking residents about their parents, siblings, and children Living outside the USA who ever lived here. Ea ch of the three surveys yielded an initial or minimal estimate of at l east one million surviving emigrants. Adjusting for probable omission of emigrants without a resident immediate relative, the number of emig rants surviving as of 1990 is likely to exceed two million and, with a lternative assumptions, could exceed three million. Due to inherent un certainties in differing methodologies for measuring emigration for th e past three decades, the implied level of emigration of permanent res idents for the 1980s may be similar to previous levels. This finding c ontradicts popular belief of a simple direct association, i.e., that i ncreasing immigration levels would be associated with increasing emigr ation levels. Emigration levels result from population heterogeneity o n such characteristics as origin country, location and strength of fam ilial ties, and reasons for coming to the USA, and associated probabil ities of emigration. For many of the post-1965 immigrant cohorts, ther e is one or more decades during which emigration may yet occur.