North America

Canada

Mexico

North America is a dynamic migration region, with the United States home to more immigrants than any other country in the world, the Mexico-U.S. corridor the globe's top migration corridor, and Canada a leading destination for migrants. Research collected here focuses on everything from visa policy and border management to immigrant integration, national identity, the demographics of immigrants in the region and their educational and workforce outcomes, and ways to more effectively use migration policy as a lever for national and regional competitiveness.

Graphic image of man's hand touching screen with word skills

Commentaries

Canada's New Tech Talent Strategy Takes Aim at High-Skilled Immigrants in the United States

Canada’s Tech Talent Strategy is highly unusual for its explicit targeting of visa holders in another country. Opening a dedicated stream specifically for high-skilled immigrants in the United States who hold an H-1B visa is the latest salvo in a growing global competition for talent—one in which some countries are racing ahead of the United States in terms of policy dynamism, as this commentary explores.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other leaders at the 2022 Summit of the Americas

Commentaries

The Los Angeles Declaration Could Represent a Big Step for Real Migration Cooperation across the Americas

The Los Angeles Agreement on Migration and Protection signed by leaders from 20 countries across the Western Hemisphere at the 2022 Summit of the Americas marks a significant step forward in creating a common language and a coherent set of ideas for more cooperatively managing migration movements across a region that has seen very significant mobility in recent years, as this commentary explains.

Recent Activity

Articles September 21, 2023 Inmigrantes cubanos en los Estados Unidos By Jiaxin Wei y Jeanne Batalova	Commentaries September 2023 A Shrinking Number of DACA Participants Face Yet Another Adverse Court Ruling By Ariel G. Ruiz Soto and Julia Gelatt
Commentaries September 2023 A Turning Point for the Unauthorized Immigrant Population in the United States By Jennifer Van Hook, Julia Gelatt and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto	Articles September 7, 2023 Cuban Immigrants in the United States By Jiaxin Wei and Jeanne Batalova
Articles August 8, 2023 Filipino Immigrants in the United States By Caitlin Davis and Jeanne Batalova	Commentaries August 2023 Investing in the Future: Higher Ed Should Give Greater Focus to Growing Immigrant-Origin Student Population By Jeanne Batalova and Miriam Feldblum
Articles August 2, 2023 In the Twilight Zone: Record Number of U.S. Immigrants Are in Limbo Statuses By Muzaffar Chishti and Kathleen Bush-Joseph	Multimedia July 20, 2023 Straining under the Backlog: Fixing a U.S. Immigration Court System in Crisis

Pages

Policy Briefs June 2022 Immigrant Children’s Medicaid and CHIP Access and Participation: A Data Profile By Valerie Lacarte	Reports June 2022 The COVID-19 Catalyst: Learning from Pandemic-Driven Innovations in Immigrant Integration Policy By Jasmijn Slootjes
Reports June 2022 The Future of Remote Work: Digital Nomads and the Implications for Immigration Systems By Kate Hooper and Meghan Benton	Reports June 2022 Programas de trabajadores temporales en Canadá, México y Costa Rica: ¿Son vías prometedoras para gestionar la migración centroamericana? By Cristobal Ramón, Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, María Jesús Mora and Ana Martín Gil
Reports June 2022 Temporary Worker Programs in Canada, Mexico, and Costa Rica: Promising Pathways for Managing Central American Migration? By Cristobal Ramón, Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, María Jesús Mora and Ana Martín Gil	Reports June 2022 COVID-19’s Effects on U.S. Immigration and Immigrant Communities, Two Years On By Julia Gelatt and Muzaffar Chishti
Policy Briefs May 2022 Vías humanitarias para personas centroamericanas: Evaluando oportunidades para el futuro By Susan Fratzke and Andrea Tanco	Policy Briefs May 2022 Humanitarian Pathways for Central Americans: Assessing Opportunities for the Future By Susan Fratzke and Andrea Tanco

Pages

Feature

June 6, 2023

In Canada’s French-Speaking Quebec, Immigration Sparks Anxieties about Language and Identity

Canada's ambitions to dramatically increase immigration have met resistance in Quebec, the country's only majority-French province, where many worry their identity is under threat. Provincial officials have sought to fortify the role of the French language in society through academic, immigration, and linguistic policies, but the language nonetheless faces demographic threats, as this article explains.

Banderas de las naciones centroamericanas en una marcha en San Diego.

Spotlight

June 2, 2023

Inmigrantes centroamericanos en los Estados Unidos

Los centroamericanos representan menos de una décima parte de la población de inmigrantes en Estados Unidos. Pero su número se ha multiplicado por diez desde 1980. Este artículo proporciona una mirada integral a esta población.

A double border wall leads to a boat launch in Yuma, Arizona.

Feature

May 31, 2023

Global Spending on Immigration Enforcement Is Higher than Ever and Rising

Budgets for border security and interior immigration enforcement have been on the rise in places including the United States and the European Union. The spending is a result of the heightened focus on securitization by the Global North and has led to a ballooning private industry. This article explains the trend.

An abandoned shoe lies in the mud along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Policy Beat

May 25, 2023

U.S. Border Asylum Policy Enters New Territory Post-Title 42

The United States entered a new era with the end of the pandemic-era Title 42 expulsions policy. The government’s hopes of maintaining order at the U.S.-Mexico border post-Title 42 may be complicated by factors including authorities’ limited capacity, ongoing litigation, and cooperation from other countries. This article reviews the Biden administration's changing border policies and possible challenges ahead.

People hold flags of Central American nations at a march in San Diego.

Spotlight

May 10, 2023

Central American Immigrants in the United States

Central Americans comprise less than one-tenth of the overall U.S. foreign-born population, but their numbers have grown tenfold since 1980, amid economic challenges, political crises, and natural disasters in their region. This article provides a comprehensive look at this population.

Pages

Expert Q&A, Audio

February 7, 2022

A Note of Caution about Exaggerating the Climate-Migration Link

This episode of Changing Climate, Changing Migration checks in with migration scholar Hein de Haas about the predictions that vast numbers of people will be displaced by climate change and head to wealthy countries in North America and Europe—views he deems often misplaced.

Video, Audio

January 19, 2022

Biden at One: Assessing the Administration’s Immigration Record

This MPI discussion with leading experts, advocates, and a top official from the administration examines the Biden track record on immigration and what lays ahead

Expert Q&A, Audio

December 9, 2021

The Corporate World’s Response to COVID-19 Pandemic, its Omicron Variant, Digital Nomad Visas & More

How has the business world responded to disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic? In this episode of Moving Beyond Pandemic, we speak with two former government officials who are now in the private sector—Ian Robinson of the immigration law firm Fragomen and Brendan Ryan, CEO of Nomadic, about the trends and policy environment shaping business mobility decisions.

Expert Q&A, Audio

November 24, 2021

Thinking Regionally to Act Locally in Immigration Policy

With migration a dynamic phenomenon in the Americas, the U.S. government increasingly is realizing that migration management should be viewed in a regional context. This requires a new set of policies and ways of engagement with countries in North and Central America, and beyond, as MPI President Andrew Selee discusses with colleague Andrea Tanco in this episode of our World of Migration podcast.

Expert Q&A, Audio

November 12, 2021

Leveraging the Benefits That Immigration Can Bring

In this World of Migration podcast episode, MPI Senior Fellow Michael Fix speaks with Senior Policy Analyst Julia Gelatt about the fiscal impacts of immigration, the importance of immigrant integration, how a greater focus on credential recognition could allow immigrants to more fully utilize the academic and professional skills they bring with them, and much more.

Recent Activity

Commentaries

February 2021

Biden Administration Is Making Quick Progress on Asylum, but a Long, Complicated Road Lies Ahead

The Biden administration's challenge to dismantle Trump-era barriers to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border is akin to fixing a plane while flying it. This commentary examines actions taken to date and articulates a series of steps that could help establish an effective, humane asylum system that works in tandem with border management goals and efforts to reduce the drivers of migration through regional migration management measures with neighboring countries.

Articles

February 25, 2021

Legal Snags and Possible Increases in Border Arrivals Complicate Biden’s Immigration Agenda

President Joe Biden has grand ambitions to reshape the U.S. immigration system, but his administration has run into early stumbling blocks in rolling back the strict enforcement regime of his predecessor. Administrative resistance, a tangled web of legal agreements signed by the Trump administration, and anxieties about a possible uptick in immigrants and asylum seekers at the border have posed early challenges to Biden’s agenda.

Commentaries

February 2021

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.

Articles

February 11, 2021

Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States

Have a question about U.S. immigration trends and the country's immigrant population? This article collects in one place the most sought-after information about the world's largest immigrant population and how it has changed over time. Drawing from a wide array of authoritative data sources, this article provides an up-to-date snapshot of the immigrant population, visa and enforcement statistics, and information on emerging trends, including slowing immigration and changing origins.

Video, Webinars

February 4, 2021

Prospects for a U.S. Legalization Program and the Unauthorized Immigrant Groups that Could Factor in the Debate

Following President Biden's call on Congress to enact a sweeping immigration proposal that offers most unauthorized immigrants a pathway to citizenship, this discussion examines the prospects for any legislative efforts at immigration reform, what bipartisan support might develop, and the various legalization policy options. The event also showcases MPI estimates of subgroups within the unauthorized population, including DREAMers and essential workers.

Reports

February 2021

Back on the Table: U.S. Legalization and the Unauthorized Immigrant Groups that Could Factor in the Debate

With legalization of the U.S. unauthorized immigrant population back on the table, this report offers estimates and characteristics for subgroups that have particularly strong equities, including DREAMers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients, and parents and spouses of U.S. citizens. It also traces past legalizations and details the range and scope of legalization options that policymakers have.

Policy Briefs

February 2021

Rewiring Migrant Returns and Reintegration after the COVID-19 Shock

Migrant returns and reintegration have been the subject of intense international debate in recent years, and the COVID-19 pandemic has added an extra layer of complexity as millions of migrants have been expelled or returned voluntarily. This policy brief explores the effects of the pandemic on migrant returns, reception, and reintegration, and how countries of origin and destination can improve their policies and partnerships going forward, with a focus on sustainable reintegration.

Articles

January 27, 2021

Biden Sets the Stage for a Remarkably Active First 100 Days on Immigration

The Biden administration has set the pace for what could be the most active first 100 days on immigration policy by any White House in recent memory—even that of predecessor Donald Trump. The efforts, which represent a dramatic break from the Trump administration's view of immigration as threat, are likely to meet stiff opposition on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. This article evaluates Biden's early actions and what they suggest about the White House's ambitions on immigration.

Programs

Topics see all >

Regions see all >

Data

Featured Publication

Programs

You are here

North America

Recent Activity

Pages

Pages

Pages

Pages

Pages

Recent Activity

Pages