E.g., 10/06/2022
E.g., 10/06/2022
North America

North America

United States
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.

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

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Articles
August 10, 2016
Naturalization Trends in the United States
By Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova
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Policy Briefs
August 2016
DACA at Four: Participation in the Deferred Action Program and Impacts on Recipients
By  Faye Hipsman, Bárbara Gómez-Aguiñaga and Randy Capps
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Articles
July 28, 2016
Republican and Democratic Party Platforms Reflect Parallel Universes on Immigration Policy
By Muzaffar Chishti and Sarah Pierce
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Articles
July 21, 2016
Chasing Growth: The Role of National Economies in U.S. Visa Refusal Rates
By Karl Miller
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Multimedia
July 14, 2016
Beyond Brexit: The Policy and Political Lessons for Immigration-Anxious Countries
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Reports
July 2016
Understanding and Addressing Public Anxiety About Immigration (Transatlantic Council Statement)
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan
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Articles
July 13, 2016
Brazilian Immigrants in the United States
By Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova
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Policy Briefs
July 2016
The Immigration Act of 1990: Unfinished Business a Quarter-Century Later
By  Muzaffar Chishti and Stephen Yale-Loehr

Pages

Profile
September 15, 2011
Canada's Immigration Policy: a Focus on Human Capital

Canada has long been a country of net immigration and has designed its current immigration policy around attracting highly educated and skilled migrants for entry into its labor force. In this country profile, Ashley Challinor discusses the challenges associated with this approach and provides a sense of the actual scale and nature of migration into Canada.

Policy Beat
September 8, 2011
Post-9/11 Policies Dramatically Alter the U.S. Immigration Landscape

Muzaffar Chishti and Claire Bergeron report on the immigration measures enacted in response to 9/11 and the fate of those measures ten years later.

Spotlight
August 23, 2011
Refugees and Asylees in the United States

In 2010, the United States granted humanitarian protection to nearly 95,000 immigrants, including some 73,000 refugees and 21,000 asylum seekers. MPI's Monica Li and Jeanne Batalova take a detailed look at the most recent refugee and asylum data in the United States.

Policy Beat
August 16, 2011
Justice Department Sues Alabama over Nation's Most Severe State-Level Immigration Law

MPI's Muzaffar Chishti and Claire Bergeron report on the U.S. Justice Department's lawsuit against Alabama's new immigration enforcement law, policy changes in the Secure Communities program, and more.

Spotlight
July 21, 2011
African Immigrants in the United States in 2009

The 1.5 million African immigrants residing in the United States in 2009 accounted for 3.9 percent of all U.S. immigrants. MPI's Kristen McCabe examines the origins, socioeconomic characteristics, and legal status of the African-born immigrant population.

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Recent Activity

Articles
August 10, 2016

Naturalization Trends in the United States

More than 653,000 immigrants became U.S. citizens in fiscal year 2014, bringing the total number of naturalized U.S. citizens to 20 million—nearly half the overall immigrant population of 42.4 million. Over the past decade, naturalizations have ranged from about 537,000 yearly to just more than 1 million. Learn more about naturalization trends in the United States with this Spotlight article.

Policy Briefs
August 2016

DACA at Four: Participation in the Deferred Action Program and Impacts on Recipients

At the fourth anniversary of the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, this issue brief describes the populations eligible for DACA as of 2016; discusses recent policy developments; presents trends in DACA requests and application rates nationwide, by state, and for top countries of origin; and examines the impacts that DACA has had on qualifying young unauthorized immigrants.

Articles
July 28, 2016

Republican and Democratic Party Platforms Reflect Parallel Universes on Immigration Policy

The stark contrast between the Republican and Democratic parties on immigration was codified in their 2016 party platforms, and showcased in the rosters of convention speakers—featuring victims of unauthorized immigrant crimes on the one hand, and unauthorized immigrants living in fear on the other. This article explores the evidence, even compared to earlier platforms, of two divergent universes regarding immigration.

Articles
July 21, 2016

Chasing Growth: The Role of National Economies in U.S. Visa Refusal Rates

As many as half of all unauthorized immigrants in the United States entered legally and overstayed a visa. This article explores a possible way to refine visa policies: Examine the economic growth of travelers' home countries. The author examines the correlation between economic growth and the rate at which a country’s nationals are denied visas, and explores how this might inform visa policy.

Audio, Webinars
July 14, 2016

Beyond Brexit: The Policy and Political Lessons for Immigration-Anxious Countries

The UK vote to exit the European Union has given new momentum to euroskeptic, anti-immigration movements elsewhere. Experts discuss the political and policy lessons that can be learned from Brexit and applied to debates in Europe and North America, including how to address public anxiety over immigration and identity while managing migration in a globalized economy.

Reports
July 2016

Understanding and Addressing Public Anxiety About Immigration (Transatlantic Council Statement)

What factors are fueling rising public anxiety over immigration seen in Europe and North America? This Transatlantic Council report outlines and analyzes the factors that can set the stage for such public unease—some of which have their roots outside of immigration policy per se, and are instead deeply embedded in the global, national, and local contexts within which migration occurs—and offers policymakers strategies to respond.

Articles
July 13, 2016

Brazilian Immigrants in the United States

The Brazilian immigrant population in the United States doubled during the 1980s and almost tripled in the 1990s, but stabilized following the Great Recession. While this population has long included a significant share of unauthorized immigrants, Brazilians are increasingly coming to the United States through family, employment, and study channels. Learn more about Brazilian immigrants with this Spotlight.

Policy Briefs
July 2016

The Immigration Act of 1990: Unfinished Business a Quarter-Century Later

Twenty-five years after enactment of the Immigration Act of 1990, the law remains the framework for the current U.S. legal immigration system. This issue brief examines the legislation, which sought to admit more immigrants based on their skills and education, finding it has only modestly increased the employment-based immigration share. The law also created the diversity visa program and Temporary Protected Status.

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