E.g., 04/24/2024
E.g., 04/24/2024
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.

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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

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Fact Sheets
December 2010
Updated Estimates of the 2010 DREAM Act
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Fact Sheets
December 2010
Top Languages Spoken by English Language Learners Nationally and by State, 2009
By  Jeanne Batalova and Margie McHugh
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Multimedia
November 30, 2010
Diasporas: New Partners in Global Development Policy
Articles
November 15, 2010
Elections Alter the Political Landscape for Immigration Policy Debate
By Muzaffar Chishti, Claire Bergeron
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Articles
November 10, 2010
Immigration Enforcement in the United States
By Jeanne Batalova, Kristen McCabe
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Books
November 2010
Diasporas: New Partners in Global Development Policy
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Books
November 2010
Prioritizing Integration
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Policy Briefs
November 2010
Structuring and Implementing an Immigrant Legalization Program: Registration as the First Step
By  Donald M. Kerwin and Laureen Laglagaron

Pages

Policy Beat
January 1, 2003
Ridge Tapped to Head Homeland Security Department
Details Emerge Regarding Homeland Security Department... Justice Department Expands Expedited Removal Policy... Citizenship Requirement for Airport Screeners On Hold... Study Highlights Role of Immigrants in 1990s Boom...
January 1, 2003
The New Immigrant Survey in the U.S.: The Experience over Time
Large gaps exist in the social science and public policy research on immigration. Guillermina Jasso of New York University, Douglas S. Massey of the University of Pennsylvania, Mark R. Rosenzweig of Harvard University, and James P. Smith of RAND take an in-depth look at the New Immigrant Survey, which aims to bridge the chasm between information needs and existing data.
Spotlight
December 1, 2002
Characteristics of the Foreign Born in the United States: Results from Census 2000
This Spotlight by Elizabeth Grieco, MPI Data Manager, examines some of the demographic, social, and economic characteristics of the foreign-born population in the United States.
Policy Beat
December 1, 2002
Homeland Security Department Gets Green Light
Department of Homeland Security Bill Clears House and Senate... Registration of Foreigners to Expand... Bishops Advocate on Behalf of Migrants... President Signs Border Commuter Bill... Recent Caribbean Arrivals Highlight Inequities in U.S. Policy...
Doris Meissner
Feature
December 1, 2002
Interview with Doris Meissner

MPI Senior Fellow Doris Meissner, former head of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, shares her perspective on changes in U.S. migration policy since September 11, the prospects for an immigration agreement with Mexico, and the Department of Homeland Security.

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Recent Activity

Articles
July 27, 2021

U.S. Government Rush to Evacuate Afghan Allies and Allocate Sufficient Special Visas Comes at Eleventh Hour

The U.S. government is racing to speed up the evacuation and immigration of Afghan translators and others who provided assistance during the 20-year war in Afghanistan. The eleventh-hour moves are a response to long delays and backlogs that have plagued the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program since it was unveiled more than a decade ago. This article provides an overview of the SIV program and the rush to evacuate Afghan allies.

Video, Audio, Webinars
July 21, 2021

Supporting Unaccompanied Children in the U.S. Communities Where They Live

Featuring findings from a recent MPI report, speakers examined the process of releasing unaccompanied children to sponsors, the current structure of federal post-release services, and the most significant needs these children and their U.S. sponsors experience. The discussion also explored efforts by philanthropic, state, and local actors to address the needs of this population and their communities, what service gaps exist, and key recommendations to improve access to services.

Reports
July 2021

Future Scenarios for Global Mobility in the Shadow of Pandemic

More than 18 months since the first COVID-19-related travel restrictions were introduced, the pandemic’s effects on global mobility are still unfolding. With vaccination campaigns picking up speed in some places while only beginning in others, and new variants of the virus emerging, the timeline for restarting international migration and travel remains uncertain. This report explores how different policy choices could result in very different mobility realities.

Articles
July 15, 2021

Immigrants from Iran in the United States

The United States is home to the largest population of Iranian migrants in the world. More than half of Iranian immigrants in the United States live in California. This article explores key details of this immigrant population, which is older, more highly educated, and has significantly higher median household incomes than the U.S.-born and overall immigrant populations.

Articles
July 9, 2021

Canada’s Private Sponsorship Model Represents a Complementary Pathway for Refugee Resettlement

Canada is one of the world’s top countries for resettling refugees, relying on individual Canadians and nonprofit groups—not the government—for much of this resettlement. This article examines Canada’s unique system of private sponsorship, which has become a model for other countries as they seek to increase capacity for refugee resettlement at a time of record global need.

Reports
July 2021

Solidarity in Isolation? Social Cohesion at a Time of Physical Distance

Being there for one another is a fundamental response to adversity, but what happens when in-person interactions are limited in the interest of public health? This report explores the pandemic’s effects on social cohesion in Europe and North America, including its impact on bonds between and within diverse groups, on immigrant integration programming, and on volunteering and other forms of solidarity. It underscores the importance of planning for an inclusive recovery.

Policy Briefs
June 2021

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

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.

Articles
June 29, 2021

Texas Once Again Tests the Boundaries of State Authority in Immigration Enforcement

Texas seems set to become chief antagonist to President Joe Biden’s immigration agenda. This article explores Governor Greg Abbott's plans to build new barriers along the border, use state and local law enforcement to carry out arrests of unauthorized immigrants, and strip licensing from federally contracted shelters housing unaccompanied children.

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