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E.g., 04/24/2024
United States

United States

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Historically a nation of immigrants, the United States is home to nearly 45 million immigrants, who represent 13.7 percent of the total population and play a key role in the economic, civic, and cultural life of the country. The research collected here covers many facets of immigration to the United States, by the numbers and how immigrants fare in the country's classrooms and workplaces, the policies and regulations that shape the admission of new immigrants, the enforcement programs and polices in place at U.S. borders and within the interior, and integration policies and efforts taking place in local communities, in states, and at the federal level.

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Reports

How Immigrants and Their U.S.-Born Children Fit into the Future U.S. Labor Market

The level of education and training expected of workers in the United States has increased considerably in recent decades, and this trend looks set to continue. This report explores the forces driving this change and how the education levels of immigrant-origin and other workers compare to those likely to be needed in the future U.S. workforce, overall and in key occupational groups.

A naturalization ceremony at the White House.
Articles

Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States

Immigration touches on many facets of life in the United States. Get the facts with this useful resource, which compiles in one place answers to some of the most often-asked questions about immigration and immigrants in the United States now and historically. This article contains essential data on the immigrant population, immigration levels, trends in immigration enforcement, and much more.

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Policy Briefs

A New Way Forward for Employment-Based Immigration: The Bridge Visa

U.S. employment-based visa policies, last updated in 1990, are not aligned with the country’s current and future labor market needs. This policy brief outlines MPI’s proposal for a new visa pathway that could help the United States better leverage immigration to meet its labor market needs, boost protections for both U.S.- and foreign-born workers, and flexibly adapt to future economic and demographic changes.

President Joe Biden signs an executive order.
Articles

Biden at the Three-Year Mark: The Most Active Immigration Presidency Yet Is Mired in Border Crisis Narrative

In three years, President Joe Biden has surpassed the number of immigration-focused executive actions taken by the Trump administration throughout its entire four-year term, making his the most active U.S. presidency ever on immigration. Yet the Biden administration has been repeatedly accused of inaction at the U.S.-Mexico border, where record levels of migrant encounters have occurred. This article reviews the Biden track record on immigration.

Recent Activity

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Commentaries
May 2022
Schools Should Engage Diverse Community Stakeholders to Promoting Equitable Allocation of Historic Funding to Reimagine Education
By  Jazmin Flores Peña
Report cover, From Fear to Solidarity
Reports
May 2022
From Fear to Solidarity: The Difficulty in Shifting Public Narratives about Refugees
By  Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan
cover image for Destination-Country Policies to Foster Diaspora Engagement in Development
Reports
April 2022
Destination-Country Policies to Foster Diaspora Engagement in Development
By  Kathleen Newland
U.S. immigration officials walk by a courthouse in Seattle.
Articles
April 27, 2022
For Overwhelmed Immigration Court System, New ICE Guidelines Could Lead to Dismissal of Many Low-Priority Cases
By Muzaffar Chishti and Julia Gelatt
Help Wanted sign offers employment in a restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland
Multimedia
April 20, 2022
With Millions of Unfilled U.S. Jobs, What Role Is There for Immigration?
Cover image for Digital Health Credentials and COVID-19: Can Vaccine and Testing Requirements Restar
Reports
April 2022
Digital Health Credentials and COVID-19: Can Vaccine and Testing Requirements Restart Global Mobility?
By  Lawrence Huang
Cover image for Leveraging the Skills of Immigrant Health-Care Professionals in Illinois and Chicago
Policy Briefs
April 2022
Leveraging the Skills of Immigrant Health-Care Professionals in Illinois and Chicago
By  Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
A teacher leads a lesson on the Korean alphabet in a U.S. dual-language immersion class
Articles
April 14, 2022
Korean Immigrants in the United States
By Cecilia Esterline and Jeanne Batalova

Pages

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Reports
April 2019
Immigrant Families and Child Welfare Systems: Emerging Needs and Promising Policies
By  Mark Greenberg, Randy Capps, Andrew Kalweit, Jennifer Grishkin and Ann Flagg
Competing Approaches to Selecting Economic Immigrants: Points-Based vs. Demand-Driven Systems
Reports
April 2019
Competing Approaches to Selecting Economic Immigrants: Points-Based vs. Demand-Driven Systems
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Kate Hooper
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Policy Briefs
April 2019
Mitigating the Effects of Trauma among Young Children of Immigrants and Refugees: The Role of Early Childhood Programs
By  Maki Park and Caitlin Katsiaficas
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Fact Sheets
March 2019
Immigrant-Origin Adults without Postsecondary Credentials: A 50-State Profile
By  Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
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Reports
March 2019
Credentials for the Future: Mapping the Potential for Immigrant-Origin Adults in the United States
By  Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
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Reports
January 2019
Sustainable Reintegration: Strategies to Support Migrants Returning to Mexico and Central America
By  Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas, Luis Argueta and Randy Capps
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Reports
December 2018
Promoting Refugee Integration in Challenging Times: The Potential of Two-Generation Strategies
By  Mark Greenberg, Julia Gelatt, Jessica Bolter, Essey Workie and Isabelle Charo
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Reports
November 2018
Minnesota’s Superdiverse and Growing Dual Language Learner Child Population
By  Caitlin Katsiaficas and Maki Park

Pages

People carry the flag of the Dominican Republic at a parade in Washington, DC.
Spotlight
April 15, 2021
Immigrants from the Dominican Republic in the United States

Immigrants from the Dominican Republic are the fourth-largest Hispanic immigrant group in the United States, and number nearly 1.2 million people. This population has increased almost tenfold since 1960, but remains mostly concentrated in just a few metro areas. This article provides an overview of Dominican immigrants in the United States.

Unaccompanied minors undergo processing at a temporary facility in Texas.
Policy Beat
April 1, 2021
Border Déjà Vu: Biden Confronts Similar Challenges as His Predecessors

The number of unaccompanied child migrants at the U.S. southern border has risen, presenting President Joe Biden with challenges similar to those faced by his predecessors in 2014 and 2019. This article examines the previous episodes and evaluates how Biden is mirroring or deviating from previous presidents' responses.

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Feature
March 24, 2021
Movement after Migration: Immigrants’ Disproportionate Reliance on Public Transportation

Across North America and Europe, immigrants rely on public transit at higher rates than the native born. This article explores why migrants are disproportionately more likely to use public transportation, the role these systems play in immigrant integration, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on commuter trips, budgets, and services.

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Spotlight
March 10, 2021
Immigrants from Asia in the United States

Nearly one-third of all immigrants in the United States come from Asia, and Asian countries such as India, China, and the Philippines are the origin for a growing number of foreign-born U.S. residents. Compared to overall immigrants and the U.S. born, the foreign born from Asia tend to earn higher incomes, work in management jobs, and have higher levels of education, as this article explores.

President Joe Biden signs executive orders on immigration in the White House.
Policy Beat
February 25, 2021
Legal Snags and Possible Increases in Border Arrivals Complicate Biden’s Immigration Agenda

President Joe Biden has grand ambitions to reshape the U.S. immigration system, but his administration has run into early stumbling blocks in rolling back the strict enforcement regime of his predecessor. Administrative resistance, a tangled web of legal agreements signed by the Trump administration, and anxieties about a possible uptick in immigrants and asylum seekers at the border have posed early challenges to Biden’s agenda.

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Video, Audio
April 12, 2018

Responding to Early Childhood Education and Care Needs of Children of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Europe and North America

On this webinar, authors discuss their findings, highlighting promising policies and practices for serving young children of refugees and asylum seekers in nine key host countries, as well as key areas in which ECEC services need to be strengthened.

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Video, Audio
April 10, 2018

Family Immigration Policy and Trends: How the United States Compares to Other Countries

How does U.S. policy on family migration compare to that of other significant immigrant-receiving countries? MPI experts discuss the trends and policies for Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

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Video, Audio
March 21, 2018

Supporting DLLs in Superdiverse PreK-3 Programs: Findings from Two Studies

This webinar focuses on patterns of home language use across different early childhood education and care (ECEC) program types, and the potential of the Sobrato Early Academic Language model to improve instruction and outcomes for DLLs in superdiverse settings. 

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Video, Audio
March 19, 2018

Immigration Data Matters: How to Find the Most Accurate Resources

With immigration increasingly visible in the news and the political space in the United States and internationally, getting access to accurate, high-quality data is essential to understand immigration’s demographic effects and impacts on the economy, education and labor systems, and communities. This event marks the release of the Immigration Data Matters guide.

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Audio
March 15, 2018

State and Local Labor Standards Enforcement in Immigrant-Dense Industries

This discussion, featuring California's Labor Commissioner and the head of the Tennessee Bureau of Workers' Compensation, launched a report that examines state innovations in labor standards enforcement in low-wage, immigrant-dense industries. With wage underpayment, payroll fraud, and other violations widespread in industries such as construction and car-washing, the discussion focused on how targeted enforcement can deter practices that hurt native-born and immigrant workers alike, cost state tax revenue, and disadvantage law-abiding employers. 

Pages

Recent Activity

Policy Briefs
May 2022

Humanitarian Pathways for Central Americans: Assessing Opportunities for the Future

For most Central Americans forced to flee their homes, traveling to Mexico or the United States to apply for asylum is their only option to seek international protection. To date, refugee resettlement has been used only sparingly in the region. This brief explores what role resettlement and other humanitarian pathways play in meeting these protection needs, and whether and how they could be scaled up.

Articles
May 11, 2022

Sub-Saharan African Immigrants in the United States

The population of sub-Saharan African immigrants in the United States is relatively small, but it has grown substantially over the last four decades and is likely to continue to increase. This group of 2.1 million people is highly diverse, including individuals with a range of ethnic, linguistic, and other backgrounds, as this article explains.

Reports
May 2022

English Learner Testing during the Pandemic: An Early Readout and Look Ahead

In addition to upending daily life in the classroom, the pandemic has affected how states administer annual assessments to their students—disrupting a key means of collecting data on new or growing learning gaps that demand attention. This report explores how states have approached testing English Learners during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what 2020-21 assessment data can and cannot tell us.

Policy Briefs
May 2022

Cultural Competency Secrets to Success with Immigrant and Refugee Families: Spreading and Adapting 2Gen Working Practices

As the United States becomes more diverse, changes in the cultural makeup of communities can challenge longstanding practices in human services delivery. This brief explores strategies service providers can employ to build their understanding of and responsiveness to the cultures of the communities they serve, leading to better outcomes for immigrant and refugee families.

Policy Briefs
May 2022

Growing Language Skills with Immigrant and Refugee Families: Spreading and Adapting 2Gen Working Practices

Language barriers can hinder immigrant families’ access to services and make it challenging for immigrant parents to find family-sustaining jobs and actively participate in their children’s education. This brief explores approaches service providers are using to make their offerings more culturally and linguistically responsive, and to support language learning among children and their parents.

Policy Briefs
May 2022

Better Responses to Differing Immigration Statuses: Spreading and Adapting 2Gen Working Practices

What status immigrants hold affects their access to U.S. public benefits and services. This brief examines approaches that two-generation programs are using to service immigrant families with a variety of statuses, including mixed-status families.

Policy Briefs
May 2022

Building Trust with Immigrant and Refugee Families: Spreading and Adapting 2Gen Working Practices

Building trust between service providers and immigrant and refugee families can be challenging, but it is also a key component of programs that successfully serve these families. This brief explores two-generation program strategies for creating trusting relationships, including hiring culturally competent staff and creating welcoming and safe spaces, and discusses the policy implications.

Reports
May 2022

COVID-19 and the State of Global Mobility in 2021

Despite high hopes that international movement would be revived in 2021 after the deep chill in 2020 with designation of a global pandemic, cross-border mobility remained limited as migrants and travelers faced complex rules, high costs, and uncertainty as new COVID-19 variants emerged. This report assesses global mobility in 2021, including changing use of travel restrictions, their impacts on mobile populations, and efforts to safely restart migration and travel.

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