INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH

New IPR Research: March 2026

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This month’s new research from our faculty experts examines methods researchers are using to understand the impacts of U.S. immigration policies and the effects of a workplace diversity program. It also looks at how English language learning programs can help immigrant families and how media coverage of gun violence varies by neighborhood.

Methods for Policy Research

Measuring the Effects of U.S. Immigration Policies

In International Migration Review, IPR sociologist Julia Behrman and her co-authors examine how new data sources and analytic tools are transforming research on U.S. immigration policy. With expanded access to government records and policy databases, researchers can now move beyond describing laws to measuring their real-world effects—both intended and unintended—on immigrants and non-immigrants alike. The authors highlight how scholars increasingly use enforcement data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, often obtained through public records requests and the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, as well as legislative databases from the National Conference of State Legislatures and the National Immigrant Legal Center. The authors show the range of strategies scholars use to analyze policies at the city, county, state, and federal levels, sometimes focusing on specific laws like Arizona’s SB1070 and other times building broader indices that capture whether a policy climate is more restrictive or more welcoming. The paper also highlights diverse research findings, for example, studies show that measures such as E-Verify can reduce unauthorized employment and that sanctuary policies can lower deportation rates. At the same time, restrictive policy environments are linked to poorer birth outcomes, lower enrollment in public programs, and greater psychological distress—even among U.S.-born Hispanic people. The authors call for more attention to how policies affect different subgroups, better methods to account for why policies are adopted in the first place, and clearer comparisons across policy measures. 

Race, Poverty, & Inequality

The Long-Term Impact of a Workplace Diversity Training Program

Does diversity training create lasting change? In the Journal of Social Issues, IPR social psychologist Ivuoma Onyeador and her co-authors assess the longer-term effects of a widely used program called Connecting with Others. The study evaluates whether the training shifts employee attitudes and motivations in a large hospital system—a real-world setting where evidence of lasting impact is limited. The program combines a full-day workshop with eight weeks of structured interracial interactions. Participants met weekly with a colleague of a different race to build connections and practice inclusive communication. The researchers used a quasi-experimental design, comparing employees who completed the training (pre- and post-test) with a control group measured only after the training period. They assessed outcomes two months later. The training produced meaningful, longer-term changes in two key areas. Participants showed less support for group-based hierarchy and more motivation to act without prejudice, both compared to their own baseline and, to a lesser degree, to the control group. However, the program did not significantly shift explicit bias, implicit bias, or affinity with right-wing authoritarianism. The authors suggest this may reflect already-low prejudice among volunteers or the need for more sustained contact to change deeply ingrained attitudes. Overall, the findings show that combining education with repeated interracial interaction can strengthen egalitarian orientations, and they underscore the value of testing diversity interventions in real workplace settings. 

Education & Human Development

A Two-Generation Approach to Learning English

Can innovative English-language programs help immigrant parents and children succeed together? In a two-year randomized controlled trial, a team led by IPR faculty assistant research professor Lauren Tighe, IPR research professor Terese Sommer, IPR developmental psychologist Terri Sabol, and professor and IPR fellow emerita Lindsay Chase-Lansdale evaluate a family-centered English as a Second Language (ESL) program in Tulsa. The program takes a two-generation approach, offering high-dosage, child-development-themed ESL classes for immigrant parents alongside high-quality Head Start services for their children, plus supports such as free childcare, financial incentives, and coaching. The study followed 189 immigrant families from Myanmar, Mexico, and Central and South America, randomly assigning parents either to the program or to standard Head Start services. Using parent surveys and focus groups along with child assessments, the researchers found that after two years, parents in the program reported stronger English writing skills, higher self-esteem, reduced material hardship, and less reliance on their children to translate. There were no significant differences in children’s vocabulary, English proficiency, early literacy, or working memory—likely because children in both groups were already performing near or above national Head Start averages. Parents cited supportive instructors, peer networks, and coaching as key to their progress. The findings suggest that aligning adult ESL instruction with parents’ goals of supporting their children may be a promising, scalable strategy for strengthening immigrant families’ wellbeing. 

Neighborhoods & Community Safety 

Coverage, Content, and Framing of Shootings in the Media

Incidents of gun violence often appear in the news. Do the media treat these incidents differently based on where they occurred? In a new article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, IPR Director and sociologist Andrew Papachristos and his colleagues use a large language model (LLM) to explore differences in coverage, content, and framing methods used by news media reporting in different communities. A computational linguistic analysis of 35,991 news articles revealed significant, generalized disparities in media coverage and portrayals of incidents in communities that are majority people of color (POC) as opposed to majority-White communities. Mass shootings receive more coverage when occurring in majority-White communities; police-involved shootings receive more coverage when occurring in majority-POC communities. Likewise, the content of articles reporting on majority-White neighborhoods focuses on complex personhood and roles of authority, while content on POC communities focuses on the broader narrative of gun violence. Overall, using the predictive abilities of their LLM, the authors conclude that a neighborhood’s majority race is associated with the focus of reporting on shootings in that neighborhood. This research works to counter imbalanced media coverage of gun violence and opens the door for future research on how gun violence and news coverage disproportionately impact communities of color.

Published: March 18, 2026.