Michael Fix
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 the 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.
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 was 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. In 2024, he was awarded an Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his work in the field of immigration.
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.
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Explore Content by Michael Fix
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Changing the Playbook: Immigrants and the COVID-19 Response in Two U.S. Communities
Immigrants in Nashville and the San Francisco Bay area served in essential COVID-19 roles while community groups bridged health gaps and pushed for foreign-born access to pandemic relief.
Leveraging the Skills of Immigrant Health-Care Professionals in Illinois and Chicago
Licensing barriers left an estimated 12,000 immigrant health professionals underemployed in Illinois in 2019, despite critical workforce shortages across the state.
A Tribute to the Life of Dr. Demetrios G. Papademetriou
MPI and MPI Europe celebrated the life and career of Dr. Demetrios G. Papademetriou, bringing together speakers from around the world to address his legacy.
Leveraging the Benefits That Immigration Can Bring
Immigration outcomes depend not just on who arrives, but on how effectively their skills are recognized and integrated into the economy.
Narrowing the Skills Gap: Equipping Immigrant-Origin Workers with Postsecondary Credentials
The number of U.S. adults who could benefit from efforts to boost postsecondary credential attainment is strikingly large. Nearly 96 million working-age adults lack a postsecondary credential, 28 million of them of immigrant origin, MPI estimates. This commentary examines how enabling immigrant-origin adults to attain credentials beyond a high school diploma is vital to both building a skilled workforce and closing equity gaps.
Leaving Money on the Table: The Persistence of Brain Waste among College-Educated Immigrants
As of 2019, 2 million college-educated immigrants were underemployed in the United States, with race, English proficiency, and legal status the key predictors of this brain waste.
The Integration of Immigrant Health Professionals: Looking beyond the COVID-19 Crisis
In 2019, about 270,000 immigrant and refugee health professionals in the United States were underemployed. This brief examines barriers and reforms to better tap their skills.
A Deeper Look at the DREAMers Who Could Feature in the Legalization Debate in Congress
The DREAM Act of 2021 could represent one of the narrower legalization measures with better prospects for passage in a narrowly divided Congress. MPI's latest estimates of the DREAMers who could gain conditional and then permanent legal status are offered here, as are the share of DREAMers who feature in another ongoing conversation, around essential workers in the U.S. labor market overall as well as in the health-care sector.
Nearly 3 Million U.S. Citizens and Legal Immigrants Initially Excluded under the CARES Act Are Covered under the December 2020 COVID-19 Stimulus
The pandemic-recovery stimulus package that passed Congress in December rectified what many had viewed as a significant oversight in the earlier CARES Act: Its exclusion of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants in mixed-status families. MPI researchers estimate nearly 3 million U.S. citizens and legal immigrants excluded from the earlier legislation can receive the later relief, as well as qualify retroactively for the CARES Act payment, as this commentary explores.
Anticipated “Chilling Effects” of the Public-Charge Rule Are Real: Census Data Reflect Steep Decline in Benefits Use by Immigrant Families
Researchers, service providers, and others have long predicted that sweeping revisions by the Trump administration to the definition of who constitutes a public charge would deter large numbers of immigrant-led households from using federal means-tested public benefits for which they are eligible. Recently released Census Bureau data show they were right: During the administration's first three years, program participation declined twice as fast among noncitizens as citizens.
