E.g., 04/16/2024
E.g., 04/16/2024
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.

Graphic image of man's hand touching screen with word skills
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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Fact Sheets
March 2013
Key Immigration Laws and Policy Developments Since 1986
Cover Children Yoshikawa
Reports
March 2013
Unauthorized Immigrant Parents and Their Children's Development
By  Hirokazu Yoshikawa and Jenya Kholoptseva
cover CIR 1790Timeline
Fact Sheets
March 2013
Major U.S. Immigration Laws, 1790 - Present
MPI Cover ImmigrantsChangingLaborMarket
Books
March 2013
Immigrants in a Changing Labor Market: Responding to Economic Needs
Cover_CIR BackoftheLine
Policy Briefs
March 2013
Going to the Back of the Line: A Primer on Lines, Visa Categories, and Wait Times
By  Claire Bergeron
Articles
February 28, 2013
Mexican Immigrants in the United States
By Sierra Stoney and Jeanne Batalova
Articles
February 13, 2013
Immigration Reform Returns to Center Stage of U.S. Politics
By Muzaffar Chishti, Claire Bergeron, and Faye Hipsman
Cover RMSG_Nursing Sector
Reports
February 2013
Strengthening Health Systems in North and Central America: What Role for Migration?
By  Allison Squires and Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez

Pages

Spotlight
May 1, 2006
Detailed Characteristics of the South American Born in the United States in 2000

The majority of South American born counted in the 2000 census were from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. MPI's David Dixon and Julia Gelatt look at the social and economic profiles of the foreign born from this region.

Policy Beat
May 1, 2006
Senate Debate Resumes and DHS Boosts Internal Enforcement

MPI's Julia Gelatt reports on the provisions of the Senate compromise immigration bill; new strategies for internal immigration enforcement; and Georgia's strict new controls regarding unauthorized immigrants, plus other immigration news.

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Feature
May 1, 2006
American Immigration Reform from a Scandinavian Perspective
After watching the immigration reform debate intensify in the last few months, Thor Arne Aaas, Norway's Director General of the Department of Migration and a Visiting Fellow at MPI, characterizes the debate as "unfocused, unstructured, and very emotional." More on his views in this interview with Migration Information Source Editor Kirin Kalia.
Feature
May 1, 2006
Another Way to Assess the Second Generation: Look at the Parents

In seeking to explain why some second-generation children in the United States have higher levels of educational attainment than others, most arguments center on either cultural values or structural differences, such as class background and access to quality schools. Cynthia Feliciano of the University of California, Irvine shows that parents' status, relative to nonmigrants from their home country, is a factor.

Feature
May 1, 2006
Immigration Reform and the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church made headlines in March when of its U.S. cardinals spoke out against the House of Representatives' "enforcement only" bill. Donald Kerwin of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network explains the church's interest in immigration and its position on reforming immigration policy.

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Recent Activity

Fact Sheets
March 2013

Major U.S. Immigration Laws, 1790 - Present

A timeline of all major U.S. immigration laws from 1790 - 2013.

Fact Sheets
March 2013

Key Immigration Laws and Policy Developments Since 1986

A timeline of key immigration laws and policy developments between 1986 and 2013.

Books
March, 2013

Immigrants in a Changing Labor Market: Responding to Economic Needs

This volume, which brings together research by leading economists and labor market specialists, examines the role immigrants play in the U.S. workforce, how they fare in good and bad economic times, and the effects they have on native-born workers and the labor sectors in which they are engaged. The book traces the powerful economic forces at play in today’s globalized world and includes policy prescriptions for making the American immigration system more responsive to labor market needs.

Reports
March 2013

Unauthorized Immigrant Parents and Their Children's Development

This report examines how a parent’s unauthorized status affects child development. Based on a review of existing research that increasingly points to negative developmental consequences of parental unauthorized status across all stages of childhood, the authors explore possible options for policies and programs that could mitigate these risks, and propose ways to achieve this goal within the framework of proposed comprehensive immigration reform.

Policy Briefs
March 2013

Going to the Back of the Line: A Primer on Lines, Visa Categories, and Wait Times

This brief demystifies the technical meaning of going to the “back of the line”—a phrase adopted by lawmakers to convey the intent to grant legal status to unauthorized immigrants only after existing backlogs have been cleared—by explaining what “the line” refers to, who is in it, and what it means to be at the back of it.
Articles
February 28, 2013

Mexican Immigrants in the United States

Over the past five decades, Mexicans have constituted the single largest group of immigrants to the United States originating from Latin America. In 2011, 11.7 million Mexican immigrants resided in the United States, representing 29 percent of the U.S. immigrant population and close to 4 percent of the overall U.S. population. This article examines the latest data on Mexican immigrants in the United States, including population size, geographic distribution, admission categories, and demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.

Articles
February 13, 2013

Immigration Reform Returns to Center Stage of U.S. Politics

Immigration reform is squarely back on the agenda in Washington, with the unveiling of plans for major reform of the U.S. immigration system by the White House and a bipartisan group of senators known as the Gang of Eight. This article explores the policy and political aspects of this fast-moving debate, examines an uptick in apprehensions of illegal crossers, and more.

Fact Sheets
February 2013

Resumen del Sector: Sistema de Salud, Implicaciones para el Capital Humano y la Migración

Esta ficha informativa analiza los cambios demográficos, los perfiles epidemiológicos y  los patrones de migración en El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, México y los Estados Unidos.

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