Employment-Based Immigration: Research
When refugees can access mainstream work visas, this offers opportunities to find safety while also helping destination countries meet pressing labor needs. Yet the design of many work visas puts them out of reach for well-qualified refugees. This visa evaluation framework and scorecard highlight how different characteristics can make a visa more or less accessible, transparent, and predictable.
Labor and skills shortages threaten the European Union’s economic growth. Attracting workers with sought-after skills from abroad will be an important means of addressing these challenges. This report examines best practices for designing and managing labor migration corridors between EU and non-EU countries, with the aim of benefiting countries of destination and origin, employers, and migrant workers alike.
European employers are increasingly reporting difficulties finding workers with the right mix of skills, in sectors ranging from health care to information and communications technology. Alongside investments in workforce training and reskilling, a more joined-up EU approach to attracting and admitting immigrant workers with in-demand skills could help European societies address these shortages, as this report describes.
No country has been more critical to U.S. border enforcement than Mexico, with Mexican policies central to reductions in irregular border arrivals witnessed since the start of 2024. As the United States and Mexico navigate the next chapter in their long-standing engagement on migration issues, this policy brief provides an account of how migration patterns and policy responses changed in recent years and the challenges ahead.
Even as advanced economies with aging populations are increasingly reliant on immigrant workers, concerns have grown about how immigration could affect the cost of living and public infrastructure, causing support for even lawful immigration to wane. This issue brief explores why long-term planning is so challenging—yet essential—in the migration policy sphere, and identifies ways to create room for this strategic thinking.
Humanitarian admission, sponsorship, and education- and employment-based mobility programs are becoming important tools for refugee protection, alongside traditional resettlement. Yet even as these complementary pathways gain in popularity, they have generally remained small. This report explores strategies and forms of support that could help these programs grow and better fulfill their objectives.
The time-critical work of cutting global emissions depends on countries’ ability to cultivate a workforce with the skills needed in sectors such as clean energy. Immigrants are already playing a role in this green transition. But a more proactive strategy is needed to balance smart admissions policies with investments in (re)training and leveraging the skills of local workers, as well as international cooperation to build the global talent pool.
Policymakers across the Americas are weighing whether and how to expand legal migration pathways as alternatives to unauthorized movement. But what pathways already exist, and how widely are they used? This fact sheet provides an overview of available pathways to the United States for migrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, and data on the changing use of these channels.
Refugee labor pathways offer a potential win-win solution for displaced people with in-demand skills and industries facing acute labor shortages. Why and how do employers engage with these programs? This first-of-its-kind study examines the experiences, motives, and constraints of employers who have recruited workers through these pathways, and what those insights mean for discussions about scaling these programs up.
Los países a través de las Américas intentan gestionar eficazmente la migración. La meta es facilitar el movimiento a beneficio de las sociedades receptoras, los migrantes y sus países de origen y a la vez disuadir las llegadas irregulares. Pero como explora este informe, crear vías legales que sean alternatives reales a la migración irregular requerirá un esfuerzo concertado.
Countries across the Americas are grappling with how to effectively manage migration. The aim is to facilitate movement in a way that benefits receiving societies, migrants, and their origin countries, while discouraging irregular arrivals. But creating legal pathways that represent real alternatives to irregular migration remains a challenge and will require concerted effort, as this report explores.
In the global race for talent, governments in Europe and beyond are exploring ways to attract workers with needed skills. At the same time, some lower- and middle-income countries are seeking to expand their nationals’ access to economic opportunities abroad. This policy brief examines employment- and skills-based mobility projects that seek to facilitate the movement of workers with in-demand skills, including their unique value-add and common challenges.
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