Immigrant Integration

Immigrant integration is the process of economic mobility and social inclusion for newcomers and their children. As such, integration touches upon the institutions and mechanisms that promote development and growth within society, including early childhood care; elementary, postsecondary, and adult education systems; workforce development; health care; provision of government services to communities with linguistic diversity; and more. Successful integration builds communities that are stronger economically and more inclusive socially and culturally.

Recent Activity

Commentaries June 2020 COVID-19 Spotlights the Inequities Facing English Learner Students, as Nonprofit Organizations Seek to Mitigate Challenges By Melissa Lazarin	Reports June 2020 Using Evidence to Improve Refugee Resettlement: A Monitoring and Evaluation Road Map By Aliyyah Ahad, Camille Le Coz and Hanne Beirens
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	Reports May 2020 European Cities on the Front Line: New and Emerging Governance Models for Migrant Inclusion By Liam Patuzzi
Articles May 14, 2020 Immigrant Health-Care Workers in the United States By Jeanne Batalova	Fact Sheets May 2020 Barriers to COVID-19 Testing and Treatment: Immigrants without Health Coverage in the United States By Randy Capps and Julia Gelatt
Articles April 24, 2020 Vulnerable to COVID-19 and in Frontline Jobs, Immigrants Are Mostly Shut Out of U.S. Relief By Muzaffar Chishti and Jessica Bolter	Articles April 16, 2020 A Proxy War on Minorities? India Crafts Citizenship and Refugee Policies through the Lens of Religion By Neeraj Kaushal

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Reports October 2014 Benign Neglect? Policies to Support Upward Mobility for Immigrants in the United Kingdom By Rachel Marangozov	Reports October 2014 Selling Visas and Citizenship: Policy Questions from the Global Boom in Investor Immigration By Madeleine Sumption and Kate Hooper
Reports October 2014 Building an Integration System: Policies to Support Immigrants’ Progression in the Czech Labor Market By Dušan Drbohlav and Ondřej Valenta	Reports September 2014 Rotterdam: A Long-Time Port of Call and Home to Immigrants By Han Entzinger and Godfried Engbersen
Reports September 2014 Diploma, Please: Promoting Educational Attainment for DACA- and Potential DREAM Act-Eligible Youth By Margie McHugh	Reports September 2014 Smart Inclusive Cities: How New Apps, Big Data, and Collaborative Technologies Are Transforming Immigrant Integration By Meghan Benton
Reports September 2014 Fostering an Inclusive Identity Where It Matters Most: At the Local Level (Transatlantic Council Statement) By Demetrios G. Papademetriou	Reports September 2014 Decentralising Immigrant Integration: Denmark’s Mainstreaming Initiatives in Employment, Education, and Social Affairs By Martin Bak Jørgensen

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Feature

January 16, 2014

Assessing Immigrant Integration in Sweden after the May 2013 Riots

This article explores the underlying causes of the May 2013 riots across several Stockholm suburbs that have high proportions of foreign-born residents, and asks whether rapid increases in the size of Sweden's immigrant population or the government's integration efforts played a central role.

Feature

September 4, 2013

Integrating Immigrant Youth: Transatlantic Perspectives

This article examines common challenges and factors influencing the development of local labor-market integration initiatives targeting immigrant youth, based on four city case studies conducted in the United States and the European Union.

Feature

May 10, 2013

Integrating Europe's Muslim Minorities: Public Anxieties, Policy Responses

Muslim integration is one of the most contentious issues in the immigration debate in Europe, and one that gets to the heart of public anxieties about immigration. This article explores public perception toward Muslims in Western Europe and the array of integration policies that countries in the region have adopted during the past several years.

Feature

April 2, 2013

Health Outcomes of Mexican Immigrant Women in the United States

This article provides a comparative analysis of health outcomes of Mexican immigrant women in the United States, assessing the results against what is known as the immigrant paradox—the idea that these women enjoy a better state of health overall than might be expected, given their socioeconomic status and very limited health insurance coverage.

Feature

August 2, 2012

Shaping Citizenship Policies to Strengthen Immigrant Integration

In recent years, many governments have tightened their citizenship requirements as a way to promote better immigrant integration. In examining citizenship policy in the United States, Canada, and countries in the European Union, this article considers the balance policymakers face between requirements that may be too difficult for immigrants to meet and ones that will better help them find success in their new countries of residence.

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Video, Audio

August 7, 2012

The New Deferred Action Program: Strategies for Success

Join MPI as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas discusses the application process and policies that the agency has announced to implement the administration’s deferred action program.

Video, Audio

July 30, 2012

Unaccompanied Minors and Their Journey through the U.S. Immigration System

MPI is pleased to host a discussion with experts from both KIND and the Women’s Refugee Commission, focusing on the causes of the increase in unaccompanied minor migrants, the situation these minors face once detained or apprehended, and the challenges confronting both nongovernmental organizations trying to provide aid and the U.S. government agencies responsible for processing minors through the system.

Video, Audio

May 23, 2012

The Role of National Governments in Promoting Immigrant Integration

A discussion with Rosario Farmhouse, Alejandro Mayorkas, Jasenko Selimovic, Peter Sylvester, and Demetrios G. Papademetriou, MPI President.

Audio

May 8, 2012

Federal Update: A Conversation on Language Access with the U.S. Department of Justice

This MPI webinar features U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials discussing the department’s efforts to improve communications with Limited English Proficient (LEP) communities in federal and federally-funded programs and activities.

Video, Audio

April 19, 2012

MPI's 10th Anniversary Celebration

The Migration Policy Institute celebrated its first decade as the authoritative, unimpeachable resource on immigration and immigrant integration analysis and policy design in the United States and internationally.

Recent Activity

Fact Sheets

April 2019

How Many Unauthorized Immigrants Graduate from U.S. High Schools Annually?

A high school diploma has been a core requirement of proposed DREAM Act legislation and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Yet a fresh estimate of the number of unauthorized immigrants graduating annually from U.S. high schools has long been missing from the debate. This fact sheet provides up-to-date estimates for the United States and top 15 states, estimating 98,000 such students graduate yearly.

Reports

April 2019

Immigrant Families and Child Welfare Systems: Emerging Needs and Promising Policies

With the children of immigrants a growing share of all U.S. children, and federal immigration enforcement and other policies undergoing significant change, some state and local child welfare agencies are developing new ways to improve how they work with immigrant families. This report examines key cultural, linguistic, and legal challenges, and how agencies are adjusting staffing, training, placement, and other policies to tackle them.

Articles

April 18, 2019

“Us” or “Them”? How Policies, Public Opinion, and Political Rhetoric Affect Immigrants’ Sense of Belonging

Citizenship and integration policies are often thought of as markers for whether a country is welcoming to immigrants. Yet research suggests that public opinion and political rhetoric play a bigger role in immigrants' sense of belonging. This article explores how boundaries between "us" and "them" are drawn through popular conceptions of nationhood and political rhetoric, and their impact on immigrants' belonging.

Video, Audio, Webinars

April 3, 2019

Addressing Trauma in Young Children in Immigrant and Refugee Families through Early Childhood Programs

During this webinar, speakers provide an overview of an MPI policy brief that seeks to raise awareness of the intersection of trauma and early childhood development, and how U.S. early childhood programs could more effectively address this trauma in young children in refugee and immigrant households. The participants discuss efforts to integrate trauma-informed approaches into early childhood systems and how home visiting services can effectively address trauma and mental health through a two-generation approach.

Articles

April 3, 2019

Foreign Fighters: Will Revoking Citizenship Mitigate the Threat?

Even with the collapse of the Islamic State's "caliphate," thousands of Western foreign fighters are estimated to remain in the Middle East. Deciding how to handle the return of the radicalized—and their dependents—is no easy issue. Some countries seek to revoke their citizenship. Yet citizenship revocation has unclear impact and raises deep questions about the limits of a state’s responsibility to its citizens, as this article explores.

Policy Briefs

April 2019

Mitigating the Effects of Trauma among Young Children of Immigrants and Refugees: The Role of Early Childhood Programs

The first years of a child’s life are a time of immense growth, and exposure to trauma—if left unaddressed—can have significant, lifelong effects. This issue brief examines how young children of refugees and other immigrants may be affected by trauma, and what early childhood education and care programs, health-care providers, and others can do to mitigate its adverse effects.

Policy Briefs

March 2019

Money Wise: Improving How EU Funds Support Migration and Integration Policy Objectives

European policymakers are negotiating the blueprint for the next EU funding cycle—a plan that will determine how much money is available for migration and integration aims, what it can be used for, and who can access it. This policy brief explores some of the limitations of EU funds, as well as strategies that could help them more effectively serve migration and integration policy goals.

Fact Sheets

March 2019

Immigrant-Origin Adults without Postsecondary Credentials: A 50-State Profile

With immigrants and their U.S.-born children poised to be the main source of labor-force growth, these adults are an important target for efforts to build the skills of the U.S. workforce to meet the knowledge-based economy of tomorrow. This fact sheet and state data snapshots explore the characteristics of adults without an academic degree or professional credential, by immigrant generation, race/ethnicity, and more.

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Immigrant Integration

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