The Center for Social Science Research: Research Projects

Projects

Immigration and the Election: The Mason Project on Immigration Releases a Statewide Survey of Virginia’s Registered Voters
A statewide survey of Virginians has found that despite strident opposition to unauthorized immigrants in some areas, prospective voters do not rank immigration as a priority issue in Tuesday’s general election. More

Barriers to Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Economic Activity and the Immigrant Experience
What social and institutional factors help explain why self-employment and business formation rates (both traditional routes of integration and empowerment) of Latinos have lagged behind those of other immigrant groups? What are the social, organizational, and cultural obstacles to entrepreneurship and wealth creation that immigrants experience? Funded by the Kauffman Foundation, our comparative multi-ethnic study tackles these questions. We examine commercial and informal lending practices; institutional influences on wealth creation; barriers to credit; cultural conceptions of borrowing and debt; and degree of immigrants’ social, cultural and economic integration to American society.

Immigrant Sentiment Study
Is anti-immigrant sentiment fueled by feelings of economic threat or cultural threat? Do feelings vary according to the amount of contact a person has with immigrants? Should undocumented children be allowed to attend public school? How do Virginians feel about building government sponsored day laborer centers? The Center for Social Science Research recently conducted over 1,000 phone surveys to measure immigrant sentiment across the state in order to contribute to research driven immigration policy and conflict reduction across communities.

Defining the Unmet Needs of Children in Northern Virginia: Opportunities and Challenges of a Diverse Community
This unique one-day forum brought together speakers and participants to highlight the needs of children in immigrant families. The forum was held at George Mason University in Fairfax on May 22, 2007.

Center for Social Science Research
Fairfax, VA 22030
703-993-2993 (Tel)
703-993-1002 (TDD)
703-246-8993 (Fax)

Center for Social Science Research Fairfax, VA 22030 703-993-2993 (Tel) 703-993-1002 (TDD) 703-246-8993 (Fax)	Updated 11.11.09 CSSR Contact:
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