E.g., 04/23/2024
E.g., 04/23/2024
North America

North America

United States
Canada
Mexico

North America is a dynamic migration region, with the United States home to more immigrants than any other country in the world, the Mexico-U.S. corridor the globe's top migration corridor, and Canada a leading destination for migrants. Research collected here focuses on everything from visa policy and border management to immigrant integration, national identity, the demographics of immigrants in the region and their educational and workforce outcomes, and ways to more effectively use migration policy as a lever for national and regional competitiveness.

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Commentaries

Canada's New Tech Talent Strategy Takes Aim at High-Skilled Immigrants in the United States

Canada’s Tech Talent Strategy is highly unusual for its explicit targeting of visa holders in another country. Opening a dedicated stream specifically for high-skilled immigrants in the United States who hold an H-1B visa is the latest salvo in a growing global competition for talent—one in which some countries are racing ahead of the United States in terms of policy dynamism, as this commentary explores.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other leaders at the 2022 Summit of the Americas
Commentaries

The Los Angeles Declaration Could Represent a Big Step for Real Migration Cooperation across the Americas

The Los Angeles Agreement on Migration and Protection signed by leaders from 20 countries across the Western Hemisphere at the 2022 Summit of the Americas marks a significant step forward in creating a common language and a coherent set of ideas for more cooperatively managing migration movements across a region that has seen very significant mobility in recent years, as this commentary explains.

Recent Activity

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Reports
December 2015
Stopping the Revolving Door: Reception and Reintegration Services for Central American Deportees
By  Victoria Rietig and Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas
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Articles
December 7, 2015
Shine Wears Off Investor Visa Programs as Questions about Economic Benefits and Fraud Lead to Reforms
By Kate Hooper and Demetrios G. Papademetriou
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Multimedia
December 1, 2015
Investor Visa Programs: Examining their Utility, Challenges, and Successes
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Articles
December 1, 2015
European Immigrants in the United States
By Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova
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Fact Sheets
November 2015
Profile of Syrian Immigrants in the United States
By  Jie Zong
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Articles
November 18, 2015
Immigrants in the Smart City: The Potential of City Digital Strategies to Facilitate Immigrant Integration
By Divia Mattoo, Corinne Goldberg, Jillian Johnson, Carolina Farias Riaño, and Aliyyah Ahad
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Articles
November 12, 2015
Recent Court Rulings Block Deferred Action Programs and Raise Questions for Accessing Birthright Citizenship
By Muzaffar Chishti and Faye Hipsman
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Commentaries
November 2015
Meeting the Education Needs of Rising Numbers of Newly Arrived Migrant Students in Europe and the United States
By  Julie Sugarman

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Feature
April 29, 2010
Arrested on Entry: Operation Streamline and the Prosecution of Immigration Crimes

Those caught trying to enter the United States illegally in portions of five Southwest border sectors face criminal prosecution under Operation Streamline, which the Department of Homeland Security launched in 2005. MPI's Donald Kerwin and Kristen McCabe examine how Operation Streamline works, highlight trends in the prosecution of immigration offenses, and evaluate the program's outcomes.

Policy Beat
April 15, 2010
Supreme Court Rules that Attorneys Must Inform Criminal Defendants of the Immigration Consequences of Pleading Guilty

MPI's Muzaffar Chishti and Claire Bergeron report on Padilla v. Kentucky, Arizona's passage of a controversial immigration bill, Senators Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham's immigration reform blueprint, the latest H-1B application numbers, and more

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Spotlight
April 7, 2010
Filipino Immigrants in the United States

The 1.7 million Filipino immigrants in the United States made them the countrys second-largest immigrant group in 2008. MPIs Aaron Terrazas and Jeanne Batalova use the latest federal data to explore the population's size, geographic distribution, and socioeconomic characteristics.

Feature
March 31, 2010
Hidden in Plain Sight: Indigenous Migrants, Their Movements, and Their Challenges

The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues estimates there are more than 370 million indigenous people in some 90 countries worldwide. Carlos Yescas of the New School for Social Research looks at the definition of indigenous people, the three types of indigenous-people flows, and how indigenous migrants maintain ties with their home communities.

Feature
March 29, 2010
In Mexico, Mother's Education and Remittances Matter in School Outcomes

Remittances would seem to boost the chances that children in Mexico complete high school. But money alone does not improve schooling outcomes in the educationally marginalized, migrant-sending regions of southern Mexico, as Adam Sawyer of the Harvard Graduate School of Education reports.

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Recent Activity

Expert Q&A, Audio
November 12, 2021

Leveraging the Benefits That Immigration Can Bring

In this World of Migration podcast episode, MPI Senior Fellow Michael Fix speaks with Senior Policy Analyst Julia Gelatt about the fiscal impacts of immigration, the importance of immigrant integration, how a greater focus on credential recognition could allow immigrants to more fully utilize the academic and professional skills they bring with them, and much more.

Articles
November 10, 2021

Naturalized Citizens in the United States

More than half of all immigrants in the United States are naturalized citizens. The number of new naturalizations has fluctuated from year to year, hitting a decade-long low in fiscal year 2020, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic and rising processing times. This article provides information on naturalized citizens in the United States, including historical trends and socioeconomic characteristics.

Video, Audio, Webinars
November 2, 2021

Effects of the Pandemic on High School English Learners and Ways to Help Them Recover

This webinar examines how the pandemic upended school life, the challenges for high school English Learners (ELs), state- and district-level efforts that can help ELs recover academically and address mental health needs, and the results of new research on the postsecondary aspirations of immigrant-background Latina/o students following the pandemic. 

Expert Q&A, Audio
November 5, 2021

Immigrant Integration: Essential to the Success of Immigration Policy

In this World of Migration podcast episode, Margie McHugh, director of MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, chats with Ivana Tú Nhi Giang about the important role of integration, for immigrants themselves and the broader society, and the varying degrees of intentionality in integration policy design around the world.

Policy Briefs
November 2021

Invertir en alternativas a la migración irregular desde Centroamérica: Opciones para expandir las vías de empleo en Estados Unidos

Es cada vez más claro que Estados Unidos, México y los países de origen de migrantes en Centroamérica tendrán que trabajar juntos para abordar el gran movimiento irregular de personas a través de la región. Este informe propone que además de mejorar la protección humanitaria para quienes la necesitan, ampliar las oportunidades legales para acceder a un empleo en el extranjero es otra parte de la ecuación.

Policy Briefs
November 2021

Investing in Alternatives to Irregular Migration from Central America: Options to Expand U.S. Employment Pathways

There is increasing recognition that the United States, Mexico, and migrant-origin countries in Central America will need to work together to address the large-scale, irregular movement of people through the region. While it is critical to improve humanitarian protection for those in need, expanding legal opportunities to take up employment abroad is another part of this equation, as this policy brief explores.

Commentaries
November 2021

Narrowing the Skills Gap: Equipping Immigrant-Origin Workers with Postsecondary Credentials

The number of U.S. adults who could benefit from efforts to boost postsecondary credential attainment is strikingly large. Nearly 96 million working-age adults lack a postsecondary credential, 28 million of them of immigrant origin, MPI estimates. This commentary examines how enabling immigrant-origin adults to attain credentials beyond a high school diploma is vital to both building a skilled workforce and closing equity gaps.

Reports
November 2021

The Impacts on English Learners of Key State High School Policies and Graduation Requirements

English Learners (ELs) in U.S. high schools often face unique challenges to navigating a path to graduation. This report examines the wide range of state policies that shape ELs’ education as they work toward high school completion—from the placement of newcomers to instructional design and graduation requirements. The report also presents opportunities for states to strengthen ELs’ access to a high-quality education.

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