E.g., 08/03/2021
E.g., 08/03/2021
U.S. Immigration Policy Program

U.S. Immigration Policy Program

Border Security
Immigrant Profiles & Demographics
Employment & the Economy
Illegal Immigration & Interior Enforcement
Immigrant Integration
Immigration Policy & Law
Refugee & Asylum Policy
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Policy Briefs
June 2021

Immigrant and Other U.S. Workers a Year into the Pandemic: A Focus on Top Immigrant States

Receptionist wearing personal protective equipment while interacting with a customer
iStock.com/Mustafa Gull

Immigrant workers have been hit hard by the pandemic-related economic crisis across the United States and in many states with the largest immigrant populations. This issue brief examines how workers in different states and different industries have fared, looking at how employment trends have been shaped by state-level factors such as the length and timing of stay-at-home orders and definitions of who is an “essential” worker.

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Commentaries
June 2021

Lessons from Europe: The U.S. Opportunity to Rethink the Links Between Development Assistance and Migration

Photo of woman in Central African Republic participating in cash for work program
Amanda Nero/IOM

As the United States embarks on a new strategy to address the root causes of migration and displacement from Central America, there is much that it can learn from Europe's experience in linking up migration and development aid. This commentary examines the experience of the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), drawing five key lessons directly applicable to the situation in Central America.

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Reports
June 2021

Leaving Money on the Table: The Persistence of Brain Waste among College-Educated Immigrants

A young medical professional at a clinic
iStock.com/Charday Penn

While the educational credentials of recent immigrants to the United States have steadily risen, licensing and other barriers continue to prevent many college-educated immigrants from working at their skill level. This underutilization is particularly acute for Black and Latino college graduates, even after controlling for sociodemographic and educational characteristics. This report offers a U.S. and state profile of underemployment, and possible policy remedies.

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Commentaries
May 2021

U.S. Government Makes Significant Strides in Receiving Unaccompanied Children but Major Challenges Remain

Unaccompanied children in CBP custody before being turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement
Jaime Rodriguez Sr./CBP

The federal government has made notable progress since March 2021 in getting unaccompanied children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border out of Border Patrol facilities and into Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) custody, and then releasing them to parents or other sponsors. Yet there are serious concerns about standards of care and conditions in a new type of ORR facility: emergency intake sites, as this commentary explores.

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Policy Briefs
May 2021

Rethinking the U.S. Legal Immigration System: A Policy Road Map

Man fills out immigration paperwork on a clipboard
iStock

The U.S. legal immigration system, last significantly updated by Congress in 1990, is profoundly misaligned with demographic and other realities—resulting in enormous consequences for the country and for its economy. This road map sketches the broad contours of some of the most needed reforms in the legal immigration system, made all the more urgent by U.S. population aging and changing labor market demands.

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Policy Briefs
April 2021

The Integration of Immigrant Health Professionals: Looking beyond the COVID-19 Crisis

A health-care provider places a bandage on the injection site of a patient who just received a vaccine.
Lauren Bishop/CDC

The U.S. health-care workforce came under incredible strain during the COVID-19 pandemic. Longer-term trends—including the aging and increasing diversity of the U.S. population, and health-care worker retirement—are also shaping demand for services and the supply of health workers. This issue brief looks at how the skills and expertise of underutilized immigrant and refugee health professionals in the United States can be better leveraged to meet these challenges.

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Rethinking US Immigration CMS

Featured

The Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy Initiative is generating a big-picture, evidence-driven vision of the role immigration can and should play in America’s future. In a range of reports and other analyses, the Rethinking Initiative is examining the state of the U.S. asylum system, border enforcement, the legal immigration system, immigration detention, and the immigration courts, and is advancing pragmatic policy solutions to fix the long dysfunctional immigration system.

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Rising Child Migration to the United States

Find in one place the relevant MPI resources on increasing unaccompanied child migration to the United States from Central America. Research, articles, data tools, and public briefings that analyze the trends and policy developments surrounding this growing phenomenon, first seen in 2014, are collected here. Data on Central American immigrant populations in the United States and country profiles of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are also accessible here.

Recent Activity

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Reports
September 2006
Immigration and America's Future: A New Chapter (Executive Summary)
By  Doris Meissner, Deborah W. Meyers, Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Michael Fix
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Reports
September 2006
Immigration and America's Future: A New Chapter
By  Doris Meissner, Deborah W. Meyers, Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Michael Fix
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Reports
September 2006
America's Human Rights Challenge: International Human Rights Implications of U.S. Immigration Enforcement Actions Post-September 11
By  Susan Gzesh
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Policy Briefs
August 2006
The Impact of Immigration on Native Workers: A Fresh Look at the Evidence
By  Julie Murray, Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
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Policy Briefs
July 2006
Immigration Enforcement: Beyond the Border and the Workplace
By  David A. Martin
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Policy Briefs
July 2006
Immigrants and Labor Force Trends: The Future, Past, and Present
By  Julia Gelatt, Jeanne Batalova and B. Lindsay Lowell
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Policy Briefs
July 2006
The Contributions of High-Skilled Immigrants
By  Michael Fix and Neeraj Kaushal
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Reports
February 2006
Countering Terrorist Mobility: Shaping an Operational Strategy
By  Susan Ginsburg

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Recent Activity

Reports
September 2006

Immigration and America's Future: A New Chapter

The culminating report of the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America’s Future seeks to design a new and simplified immigration regime that averts illegal immigration, and at the same time, harnesses the benefits of immigration for the future.

Reports
September 2006

Immigration and America's Future: A New Chapter (Executive Summary)

The culminating report of the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America’s Future seeks to design a new and simplified immigration regime that averts illegal immigration, and at the same time, harnesses the benefits of immigration for the future. .

Reports
September 2006

La inmigración y el futuro de los Estados Unidos: Un nuevo capítulo (Resumen ejecutivo)

¿Qué clase de política y sistema de inmigración podría aprovechar los beneficios de la inmigración para avanzar los intereses nacionales de EE.UU. en el siglo XXI? El Grupo de Trabajo sobre Inmigración y el Futuro de los Estados Unidos fue convocado por el Instituto de Política Migratoria (MPI) debatir este tema.

Policy Briefs
August 2006

The Impact of Immigration on Native Workers: A Fresh Look at the Evidence

This report examines the debate over whether immigrants depress wages and displace native workers in the U.S. labor market. It provides an overview of research since the mid-1990s studying the impact of immigration on native wages and job displacement, and reviews additional factors that may affect labor markets.

Policy Briefs
July 2006

The Contributions of High-Skilled Immigrants

This report provides a background for policy discussion on high-skilled immigration to the United States by presenting an occupational profile of foreign-born professionals and highlighting their contributions to the U.S. economy.

Policy Briefs
July 2006

Immigrants and Labor Force Trends: The Future, Past, and Present

Debates on immigration policy often discuss calibrating immigration levels to meet the labor needs of the nation’s economy. Indeed, it is clear that immigration strongly affects U.S. labor markets – over the past thirty years, foreign-born workers have grown to record numbers.

Policy Briefs
July 2006

Immigration Enforcement: Beyond the Border and the Workplace

New immigration legislation must include changes to achieve effective and resolute enforcement of the immigration laws. Because border and workplace enforcement have been addressed elsewhere, this policy brief offers suggestions for other key enforcement improvements that Congress should implement.

Reports
February 2006

Countering Terrorist Mobility: Shaping an Operational Strategy

This report examines how counterterrorism strategy relates to border security and immigration reform, and how terrorist mobility should be countered. The author argues that terrorist mobility comprises a set of problems distinct from the challenges of managing large-scale global migration.

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