E.g., 04/19/2024
E.g., 04/19/2024
Michael Fix
Experts & Staff
Photo of Michael Fix

Michael Fix

Senior Fellow

Michael Fix is a Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, and previously served as its President. He joined MPI in 2005, as Co-Director of MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy and later assumed positions as Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and CEO. 

Mr. Fix’s research focus is on immigrant integration and the education of immigrant children in the United States and Europe, as well as citizenship policy, immigrant children and families, the effect of welfare reform on immigrants, and the impact of immigrants on the U.S. labor force.

Media Requests
Michelle Mittelstadt
+1 202-266-1910
[email protected]

General Inquiries
+1 202-266-1941

Prior to joining MPI, Mr. Fix was Director of Immigration Studies at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC, where his focus was on immigration and integration policy, race and the measurement of discrimination, and federalism.

Mr. Fix is a Policy Fellow with IZA in Bonn, Germany. In December 2013, he was nominated to be a member of the National Research Council’s Committee on the Integration of Immigrants into U.S. Society, which produced a seminal study on the integration of immigrants in the United States.

Previously, he served on the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on the Redesign of U.S. Naturalization Tests and on the Committee on the Health and Adjustment of Immigrant Children. He also served as a member of the Advisory Panel to the Foundation for Child Development’s Young Scholars Program. In 2005 he was appointed to the State of Illinois’ New Americans Advisory Council, and in 2009 to the State of Maryland’s Council for New Americans.

Mr. Fix received a JD from the University of Virginia and a bachelor of the arts degree from Princeton University. He did additional graduate work at the London School of Economics.

Bio Page Tabs

A woman walks alongside a train in Mexico.

In recent years, women from Central America have begun to make up a greater share of migrant apprehensions in Mexico and at the U.S. Southwest border. Systemic insecurity, poverty, and corruption are among the factors driving women and others to flee. This article explores the increase in female migration from Central America and the challenges these women face on their journey.

Contrary to a widely held view, not all immigrants have little education. About one in three immigrants is a person with either a U.S. or foreign college degree.

Michael Fix and Randy Capps of the Urban Institute explore the changing student population and the trends shaping U.S. urban schools' response to educational reforms such as the No Child Left Behind Act.

Photo of woman walking around a school campus.
Commentaries
November 2021
By  Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
BreadforWorld_DACA_3
Commentaries
February 2021
By  Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
HealthCare BrainWaste Commentary CDC
Commentaries
December 2020
By  Michael Fix, Jeanne Batalova and José Ramón Fernández-Peña
LatinoMentalHealth commentary December2020
Commentaries
December 2020
By  Randy Capps and Michael Fix
SNAP commentary USDA Flickr
Commentaries
August 2019
By  Jeanne Batalova, Michael Fix and Mark Greenberg
UnauthorizedMethodologyCommentary Photo
Commentaries
September 2018
By  Julia Gelatt, Michael Fix and Jennifer Van Hook
FamilySnapBenefits
Commentaries
August 2018
By  Jeanne Batalova, Michael Fix and Mark Greenberg
_DREAMer
Commentaries
December 2017
By  Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
_ImmigrantBusinessLeader2
Commentaries
June 2017
By  Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
Constitution
Commentaries
August 2015
By  Michael Fix
DACAtool 1
Commentaries
September 2014
By  Sarah Hooker and Michael Fix
Testimony
July 2006

Michael Fix, Vice President and Director of Studies, and Co-Director, National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means.

Recent Activity

Reports
June 2009

This report examines the funding formula used to distribute Workforce Investment Act Title II federal funds for adult education, literacy, and English as a Second Language instruction, and argues that the formula fails to account for the size and needs of adults with limited English proficiency.

Reports
December 2008

This report looks at E-Verify, the Internet-based employment verification program operated by the Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the Social Security Administration. The program gives employers a means to electronically verify the work eligibility of newly hired employees.

 

Articles

Contrary to a widely held view, not all immigrants have little education. About one in three immigrants is a person with either a U.S. or foreign college degree.

Reports
October 2008

This exploratory study provides an unprecedented assessment of the “brain-waste” phenomenon in the United States—a serious waste of human capital resulting from the unemployment or underemployment of highly skilled college-educated immigrants.

Reports
September 2008

This report views Nevada’s significant population growth between 1990 and 2006 through an immigration and immigrant integration lens—it outlines the reasons that make Nevada’s case unique and worthy of study; and analyzes the educational challenges the state will confront as it responds to rapid demographic change.

Reports
April 2008

This report examines the large presence of unauthorized and mixed-status families, and the growing size of the second generation and its concerns within Los Angeles County and in California, drawing comparisons to broader national demographic trends and rationales for immigrant integration.

Reports
July 2007

This report seeks to capture the extent of the existing need for adult English language instruction services by analyzing the number and characteristics of lawful permanent residents and unauthorized immigrants, and translating these numbers into estimates of service hours and financial costs necessary to advance the language and literacy skills of these immigrants.

Policy Briefs
March 2007

This brief investigates the relationship between immigration and the decline in both the overall number and share of native-born workers in the low-wage and lower-skilled labor force.

Pages