E.g., 04/24/2024
E.g., 04/24/2024
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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Policy Briefs
September 2008
Learning by Doing: Experiences of Circular Migration
By  Kathleen Newland, Dovelyn Rannveig Mendoza and Aaron Terrazas
Articles
August 15, 2008
Government Self-Deportation Program Attracts More Criticism Than Immigrants
By Muzaffar Chishti, Claire Bergeron
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Articles
August 12, 2008
Vietnamese Immigrants in the United States in 2006
By Aaron Terrazas
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Articles
July 15, 2008
Reports Spur Debate Over Immigrant Detention Conditions
By Muzaffar Chishti, Claire Bergeron
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Articles
July 11, 2008
Indian Immigrants in the United States
By Aaron Terrazas
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Policy Briefs
July 2008
Hometown Associations: An Untapped Resource for Immigrant Integration?
By  Aaron Terrazas, Jamie Durana and Will Somerville
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Articles
June 16, 2008
Iowa Raid Raises Questions about Stepped-Up Immigration Enforcement
By Muzaffar Chishti, Claire Bergeron
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Articles
June 13, 2008
Chinese Immigrants in the United States in 2006
By Aaron Terrazas, Bhavna Devani

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Recent Activity

Articles
March 30, 2023

Federal Judges Step into the Void to Set U.S. Immigration Policy

Virtually all major U.S. immigration policy reforms have faced lawsuits in recent years, giving federal judges wide latitude to shape national policy. The situation, which began during the Obama administration and has escalated, is a byproduct of congressional inaction and the emergence of immigration as a political wedge issue. This article tracks the trend, which has added new volatility to the immigration system, and places it in context.

Articles
March 14, 2023

Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States

Want to check a fact about U.S. immigration? Interested in putting recent trends into perspective? This article compiles authoritative, up-to-date information about the U.S. immigrant population and how it has changed over time. Data cover immigrants' demographic, educational, and linguistic characteristics; their top states of residence; enforcement activities; refugees and asylum seekers; naturalization trends; visa backlogs; and more.

Policy Briefs
March 2023

Recommendations for the Task Force on New Americans

The Task Force on New Americans launched by the Biden administration represents an important occasion to deepen understanding of immigrant integration issues and to identify ways to address them. MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, which has long argued for the need to create such an office within the White House, has developed recommendations for the task force in key areas, drawing from its extensive record of research, policy analysis, and technical assistance.

Commentaries
March 2023

Revamping Asylum at the U.S.-Mexico Border: A Workable Rescue?

The border asylum proposed rule the Biden administration unveiled in February represents a bid to save the U.S. asylum system, not shut it down, as some contend. Whether it can succeed, however, depends on how it is implemented and on other steps that are beyond the bounds of the proposed rule, as this commentary explains.

Policy Briefs
March 2023

SNAP Access and Participation in U.S.-Born and Immigrant Households: A Data Profile

The U.S. government created the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, to combat food insecurity. Under federal law, many lawfully present noncitizens in poor households are ineligible. This issue brief examines the size and characteristics of the population of immigrants with incomes low enough to qualify for SNAP and their eligibility for and participation in the program, at U.S. and state levels.  

Articles
February 23, 2023

Imminent End of Formal U.S. Pandemic Emergencies Marks New Era in Immigration Realm

Pandemic-related U.S. policies have led to more than 2.6 million migrant expulsions at the U.S.-Mexico border, expanded public benefits to cover millions more U.S. residents, and offered free COVID-19 vaccines and treatment. Many of these policies are now likely to end as the Biden administration in May 2023 formally declares the pandemic to be over, although what comes next remains unclear.

Policy Briefs
February 2023

Unblocking the U.S. Immigration System: Executive Actions to Facilitate the Migration of Needed Workers

Inefficiencies in the U.S. immigration system and case backlogs are preventing individuals eligible for immigration to the United States from filling some of the millions of job vacancies. This policy brief outlines executive actions that could facilitate the migration of needed workers, retain immigrants already in the U.S. workforce, and ease challenges experienced by U.S. employers and their foreign-born workers.

Reports
February 2023

External Processing: A Tool to Expand Protection or Further Restrict Territorial Asylum?

As asylum systems in many countries have come under considerable strain in recent years, there has been renewed interest in external processing—that is, conducting part or all of an asylum procedure outside a destination country’s territory. Some countries have pursued this to deter spontaneous arrivals, but as this report explores, others are using various external processing models to expand access to protection.

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