In sociology, people who permanently resettle to a new country are considered immigrants, regardless of the legal status of their citizenship or residency. The United States Census Bureau (USCB) uses the term "generational status" to refer to the place of birth of an individual or an individual's parents. First-generation immigrants are the first foreign-born family members to gain citizenship or permanent residency in the country. People beyond the first generation are not "immigrants" in the strictest sense of the word and, depending on local laws, may have received citizenship from birth. The categorization of immigrants into generations helps sociologists and demographers track how the children and subsequent generations of immigrant forebears compare to sections of the population that do not have immigrant background or to equivalent generations of prior eras.