E.g., 04/02/2023
E.g., 04/02/2023

Migration Information Source

The U.S. Supreme Court.
Architect of the Capitol

Virtually all major U.S. immigration policy reforms have faced lawsuits in recent years, giving federal judges wide latitude to shape national policy. The situation, which began during the Obama administration and has escalated, is a byproduct of congressional inaction and the emergence of immigration as a defining political wedge issue. This article tracks the trend, which has added new volatility to the immigration system with effects for millions, and places it in context.

A displaced Ukrainian in Prague.
© UNHCR/Michal Novotný

High-skilled immigration represents a potential major benefit to Czechia, which has undergone rapid economic growth since the transition from communism. The arrival of hundreds of thousands of new Ukrainians, many of whom are well educated, marks a moment for the country to re-evaluate its integration policies, as this article details.

A flag hangs at the vice president's residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, DC.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Sean Hur/DOD

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.

Crossers at the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border
World Bank

A political crisis marked by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s growing authoritarianism has sparked the largest emigration in the country’s modern history. Hundreds of thousands have fled, including intellectuals, artists, and academics. They increasingly are heading beyond the traditional destination of Costa Rica, to the United States and beyond, as this article details.

Women with children and a donkey in Ethiopia.
© FAO/Michael Tewelde

Can haphazard, unplanned climate displacement be turned into voluntary, safe migration? Projects explicitly aimed at addressing internal and international climate migration are rare, but development organizations increasingly are turning their attention to supporting them. This article catalogues climate mobility projects around the world and examines their primary goals, whether to support the movement or stay of people or help at destination.

President Joe Biden in the White House.
Adam Schultz/White House

Pandemic-related U.S. policies have led to more than 2.6 million migrant expulsions at the U.S.-Mexico border, expanded public benefits to cover millions more U.S. residents, and offered free COVID-19 vaccines and treatment. Many of these policies are now likely to end as the Biden administration in May 2023 formally declares the pandemic to be over, although what comes next remains unclear.

Recent Articles

AfghanMotherChildUNHCR MathiasDepardon

Hardline migration and asylum policies in the United States and Australia in 2018 hit turbulence when their effects on the most vulnerable—young children—provoked widespread public revulsion and prompted a retreat, at least temporarily. Still, public outcry over the treatment of child migrants and asylum seekers often runs up against the intractability of the problems facing governments and the lack of good solutions.

Sign left by No More Deaths activists in Arizona

As industrialized countries are adopting harder-edge immigration and asylum policies to deal with real and perceived crises, humanitarian actors have sought to blunt the effects of those policies by launching rescue missions at sea, rendering direct aid to migrants in need, and offering legal assistance. A concerted pushback to this resistance emerged in 2018, with governments using legislative, legal, and other tools to fight back.

Migrants returning to Ethiopia

Questions of how, when, and under what conditions migrants and asylum seekers can be returned to their origin countries have featured prominently in international discussions of migration in 2018. Crucially, so too has an increased interest on the part of both destination and origin countries in making reintegration assistance more effective to help ensure that return is sustainable.

MoriaReceptionCenter

Faced with absorbing vast numbers of asylum seekers who headed to Europe during the 2015-16 migration crisis and the ongoing arrival of much smaller, but steady flows of Central Americans at the U.S.-Mexico border, EU Member States and the United States in 2018 took or explored significant steps to narrow asylum and harden policies.

City view in Marrakech

The world’s first international agreement on migration was approved by 164 countries in December 2018, but not without turbulence. U.S. withdrawal from the nonbinding Global Compact on Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration, on grounds it could impinge on sovereignty, triggered similar actions by others, particularly in Eastern Europe. Amid ongoing political ripple effects, attention now turns to implementation of the deal's goals.

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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.

Though little recognized as such, the Workforce Investment Act represents one of the most important immigrant integration initiatives in the United States, assisting workers in obtaining the necessary training and language skills to advance in the workforce. Despite a steady increase of immigrants in need of these services, a decreasing share are able to access the programs to keep pace with a changing labor market.

For two decades, Australia has experimented with different asylum policies in response to an increase in refugees and asylum seekers entering the country. A look at the country's challenges in managing a hotly contested political and public debate.

For economic and political reasons, more governments are turning to visas to admit select groups of highly skilled immigrants (especially in high-tech and high-growth fields) to their countries to boost entrepreneurship and enhance job creation. A look at the challenges, opportunities, and increasing popularity of these entrepreneur visa programs.

Immigrant legalizations in the United States and Europe ("regularizations" in the EU context) have been used repeatedly for broad and discrete groups of immigrants. A look at how these programs have been implemented historically and the political and policy implications they face today.

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MPI's Deborah Meyers and Jennifer Yau highlight data from the 2003 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics.

Elizabeth Grieco takes a detailed look at the foreign born from the Dominican Republic in the United States.

MPI Senior Demographer Elizabeth Grieco takes a detailed look at the population of African foreign born in the United States.

MPI's Betsy Cooper and Senior Demographer Elizabeth Grieco map out the characteristics of Canadians in the United States.

This Spotlight examines the educational attainment of the five largest immigrant groups in the United States, including those from Mexico, the Philippines, India, China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan), and Vietnam. According to the results of Census 2000, 62 percent of all foreign born in the United States have at least a high school education. Other measures of educational attainment, such as college or graduate degrees, vary widely by country of origin. The data presented in this Spotlight were derived from the U.S. Census 2000 1 Percent Public Use Micro-Sample (PUMS) file.

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Subsidiary of Offshore Firm Wins $10 Billion DHS Contract... Government Moves to Cut Backlog of Immigration Benefits Applications... Government Sources Point to Border Security Flaws... Congress May Delay Biometric Passports Plan...
MPI's Maia Jachimowicz outlines the newly proposed immigration reform legislation: Safe, Orderly, Legal Visas and Enforcement Act of 2004 (SOLVE).
DHS Releases New Rules for Immigration Detainees... Changes Proposed for Visa-Waiver Countries... Supreme Court Hears Cases on Citizen and Non-Citizen Terrorism Suspects... Government Commission Calls Post-Sept. 11 Immigration Policies Ineffective...
Cap on H-2B Visas Reached... Border Initiative to Use Predator Drones... Border Restrictions Eased for Some Mexicans... DHS Issues Rules for Safe Third-Country Agreement...
Bush Proposes $40.2 Billion FY2005 DHS Budget... Judge Faults Adjustment Delays for Approved Asylees... H-1B Cap Reached Months Before End of FY2004... Fee Increase Proposed for Immigration Applications and Services...

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