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Media Advisory
May 18, 2007
Contact: April Siruno
202-266-1908, asiruno@migrationpolicy.org
WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan group of Senators and the White House have agreed upon a comprehensive immigration bill to be debated in the Senate next week. The Migration Policy Institute has released new data and analysis to place the current proposal for a points-based system and overall reform in the context of the approximately 1.8 million immigrants the United States receives each year.
A feature of the new legislative proposal that has not appeared in previous bills or in the STRIVE Act recently proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives is a points system to be used as a mechanism for selecting people for permanent immigration. MPI President Demetrios Papademetriou has advised more than 20 countries on their migration policies and is a leading expert on the use of points systems internationally. Today he published an article on the Migration Information Source, MPI's online journal, that outlines the basics of points systems, which countries have used them, their political benefits, and trends in points-system use. The Source article, "Selecting Economic Stream Immigrants through Points Systems," is available online.
MPI also released an MPI Backgrounder today with data on the foreign born in the United States related to the immigrant selection criteria expected to be part of the points-system proposal going forward. These include age, educational attainment, occupation, English proficiency, and labor force participation -- factors that may be given more emphasis than extended family relationships. The Backgrounder, "Proposed Points System and Its Likely Impact on Prospective Immigrants," is available online.
As Congress debates comprehensive changes to the US immigration system, a new MPI Fact Sheet provides a breakdown of the permanent immigration flows that the United States is already absorbing. The Fact Sheet, "Actual Immigration to the United States: The Real Numbers," explains that while official figures show annual permanent immigration to the United States averaging about 1 million a year, in reality, actual annual immigration to the United States is about 1.8 million people. True numbers of people who enter the United States each year and ultimately remain permanently include not only those coming through official permanent immigration channels, but also those entering through certain temporary immigration streams, and those entering or remaining in the United States without authorization.
The Fact Sheet is available online.
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For questions or to arrange an interview, please contact April Siruno at 202-266-1908 or asiruno@migrationpolicy.org.
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