Employment-Based Immigration

Immigration can be a powerful tool for supporting a country’s economic growth and prosperity, but its success in accomplishing that objective depends on well-designed and carefully implemented immigration policies that strategically facilitate immigration’s economic contribution. Major immigrant-receiving countries increasingly are examining how to select immigrants across a range of skill levels, retain those with the greatest potential to succeed, engage employers constructively in the immigration process, and facilitate immigrant integration, as the research here explores.

Recent Activity

Articles October 16, 2020 Indian Immigrants in the United States By Mary Hanna and Jeanne Batalova	Commentaries October 2020 Broad and Blunt, the Trump Administration’s H-1B Changes Miss the Opportunity for Real Reform By Sarah Pierce
Articles September 16, 2020 College-Educated Immigrants in the United States By Kira Olsen-Medina and Jeanne Batalova	Reports July 2020 Dismantling and Reconstructing the U.S. Immigration System: A Catalog of Changes under the Trump Presidency By Sarah Pierce and Jessica Bolter
Articles July 28, 2020 Impending USCIS Furloughs Will Contribute to a Historic Drop in U.S. Immigration Levels By Muzaffar Chishti, Sarah Pierce, and Kira Olsen-Medina	Articles July 9, 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic Profoundly Affects Bangladeshi Workers Abroad with Consequences for Origin Communities By M.N.I. Sorkar
Commentaries June 2020 USCIS Budget Implosion Owes to Far More than the Pandemic By Sarah Pierce and Doris Meissner	Articles June 5, 2020 A Warm Welcome for Some: Israel Embraces Immigration of Jewish Diaspora, Sharply Restricts Labor Migrants and Asylum Seekers By Rebeca Raijman

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Reports August 2011 U.S. Immigration Policy and Mexican/Central American Migration Flows: Then and Now By Marc R. Rosenblum and Kate Brick	Reports July 2011 Labor Standards Enforcement and Low-Wage Immigrants: Creating an Effective Enforcement System By Donald M. Kerwin and Kristen McCabe
Reports July 2011 Scientists, Managers, and Tourists: The Changing Shape of European Mobility to the United States By Xiaochu Hu and Madeleine Sumption	Reports July 2011 Running in Circles: Progress and Challenges in Regulating Recruitment of Filipino and Sri Lankan Labor Migrants to Jordan (In Arabic) By Dovelyn Rannveig Mendoza
Reports July 2011 Running in Circles: Progress and Challenges in Regulating Recruitment of Filipino and Sri Lankan Labor Migrants to Jordan By Dovelyn Rannveig Mendoza	Reports June 2011 Eight Policies to Boost the Economic Contribution of Employment-Based Immigration By Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Madeleine Sumption
Reports June 2011 Rethinking Points Systems and Employer-Selected Immigration By Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Madeleine Sumption	Books June 2011 Migration and the Great Recession: The Transatlantic Experience

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Feature

April 18, 2018

Once Homogenous, Tiny Iceland Opens Its Doors to Immigrants

A small, isolated country, Iceland has been home to a largely homogenous population for much of its history. But in recent years, a booming economy and expanding tourism sector have drawn rising numbers of immigrants to the island nation. This article explores Iceland's balancing act of maintaining economic growth through immigration while preserving its culture and language.

Policy Beat

March 22, 2018

Even as Congress Remains on Sidelines, the Trump Administration Slows Legal Immigration

While much attention has focused on President Trump's efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, the administration has moved, via a much wider scope of actions, to reduce legal immigration to the United States. This article explores changes including slowed processing of family- and employment-based visas, dramatic cuts in refugee admissions, and heightened vetting and evidence requirements for would-be immigrants.

Feature

March 7, 2018

Connecting the Dots: Emerging Migration Trends and Policy Questions in North and Central America

Together, Canada, Mexico, and the United States are home to nearly one-quarter of the world's migrants. Despite shifts in the profile of those who migrate and changing demographic realities across the region, such as population aging, perceptions and policies remain set in earlier eras. This article explores the intersection of migration and population dynamics in North America and the Northern Triangle of Central America.

Profile

February 15, 2018

Australia: A Welcoming Destination for Some

Immigration has driven economic and social development in Australia for more than two centuries. Even as more than one-fourth of the country’s population is foreign born and Australia ranks third among top refugee resettlement countries worldwide, controversy surrounding its hardline treatment of asylum seekers arriving by boat has cast a shadow on its reputation as a welcoming country, as this article explores.

Spotlight

February 8, 2018

Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States

The United States is by far the world's top migration destination, home to roughly one-fifth of all global migrants. In 2016, nearly 44 million immigrants lived in the United States, comprising 13.5 percent of the country's population. Get the most sought-after data available on immigrants and immigration trends, including top countries of origin, legal immigration pathways, enforcement actions, health-care coverage, and much more.

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Commentaries

May 2023

Regional Processing Centers: Can This Key Component of the Post-Title 42 U.S. Strategy Work?

Amid a potentially dramatic rethink in the U.S. approach to management of migration from the Western Hemisphere, the creation of Regional Processing Centers (now known as Safe Mobility Offices, or SMOs) across Latin America will be central to the post-Title 42 strategy, as this commentary explains.

Video, Audio, Webinars

April 11, 2023

Meeting Global Skills and Talent Needs in Changing Labor Markets

Marking the launch of MPI’s Global Skills and Talent Initiative, this webcast features senior policymakers and other experts discussing the extent to which labor market needs should shape future immigration policy decisions, and how countries are adjusting—and could adjust—their immigration systems to meet human capital and competitiveness needs.

Articles

April 11, 2023

El Cambio de los Patrones y Políticas Migratorios en las Américas

Los países de América Latina y el Caribe están siendo transformados por crisis políticas y económicas, nuevos acuerdos de libre circulación y otras tendencias. La cantidad de inmigrantes que viven en la región casi se ha duplicado desde 2010, un cambio increíble en un corto período de tiempo. Este artículo da sentido a una profunda transición en curso en el hemisferio occidental.

Articles

April 11, 2023

In a Dramatic Shift, the Americas Have Become a Leading Migration Destination

Political and economic crises, new free-movement arrangements, and other trends are transforming countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, a region once known primarily for its emigration. The number of immigrants living in the region has nearly doubled since 2010, an incredible change in a short period of time. This article makes sense of a profound transition underway in the Western Hemisphere.

Policy Briefs

April 2023

What Role Can Immigration Play in Addressing Current and Future Labor Shortages?

The labor shortages many countries are grappling with have reignited debates over the role immigration can and should play in meeting workforce needs—and how to balance this approach with investments in education and training, labor, and social policy. This brief explores these questions, plus opportunities for governments to refine how they factor shortages into economic immigration policies.

Articles

April 18, 2023

A Pragmatic Bet: The Evolution of Spain’s Immigration System

Historically a country of emigration, Spain rapidly transitioned to become one of Europe’s major immigration destinations in just a few years. Remarkably, this evolution occurred with minimal political backlash, even as the country suffered through a crippling economic and labor crisis. This country profile examines the trends and policies that led to this astonishing development.

Expert Q&A, Audio

March 30, 2023

New Avenues to Help Refugees Get to Safety and Restart Their Lives

How could humanitarian migrants with skills and experience use existing work or study visa pathways to fill labor market needs in destination countries? MPI’s Susan Fratzke speaks with Betsy Fisher, U.S. Director of the nonprofit Talent Beyond Boundaries, about complementary pathways as an innovative addition to refugee resettlement and asylum.

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.

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Employment-Based Immigration

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