Chinese Student and Labor Migration to the United States: Trends and Policies Since the 1980s.

This paper analyzes recent patterns of Chinese immigration to the United States. We mainly compare the migration trends of students and laborers. Foreign students enter the U.S. usually as temporary immigrants with F1 or M1 visas, thus they are easily distinguished from permanent immigrants. Labor immigrants come to the U.S. in either a permanent or temporary status. We examine and compare the trends of these groups of Chinese immigrants for the 23-year period of 1980 to 2002 and evaluate the degree to which U.S. immigration laws have influenced the trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]