E.g., 04/02/2023
E.g., 04/02/2023
Immigration Policy & Law

Immigration Policy & Law

Civil Liberties
Comprehensive Immigration Reform
DREAM Act/Deferred Action
Employment-Based Immigration
Family Reunification
Integration Policy
International Students
Legalization/Regularization
Selection Systems
Visa Policy
_ImmigrationPolicy+Law

Immigration legislative and administrative policies, legal statutes and court decisions, and regulations collectively shape nations' immigration systems—from visa allotments and immigrant-selection mechanisms to immigrant integration programs, border controls, and more. As international migration has increased in size and spread and as a number of nations are more flexibly adjusting their immigration systems, the research offered here examines the many permutations of immigration policy and law, often with a comparative lens.

Recent Activity

Canadian family on Canada Day
Articles
June 7, 2018
Canadian Immigrants in the United States
By Elijah Alperin and Jeanne Batalova
A boy peers through fencing at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Articles
May 24, 2018
Family Separation and “Zero-Tolerance” Policies Rolled Out to Stem Unwanted Migrants, But May Face Challenges
By Muzaffar Chishti and Jessica Bolter
IMG_8034
Multimedia
May 8, 2018
The Changing Landscape of Interior Immigration Enforcement Under Trump
Eloy Detention Center
Articles
May 2, 2018
Profiting from Enforcement: The Role of Private Prisons in U.S. Immigration Detention
By Livia Luan
Coverthumb_ImmigrationEnforcement FullReport
Reports
May 2018
Revving Up the Deportation Machinery: Enforcement under Trump and the Pushback
By  Randy Capps, Muzaffar Chishti, Julia Gelatt, Jessica Bolter and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto
Troops at the border
Articles
April 25, 2018
National Guard Heads to Southern Border Amid Differing Reality from Earlier Deployments
By Muzaffar Chishti, Sarah Pierce, and Austin Rose
Fishing boats
Articles
April 18, 2018
Once Homogenous, Tiny Iceland Opens Its Doors to Immigrants
By Timothy Heleniak and Hjördis Rut Sigurjonsdottir
Coverthumb_BrexpatsDeal
Reports
April 2018
Next Steps: Implementing a Brexit Deal for UK Citizens Living in the EU-27
By  Meghan Benton, Aliyyah Ahad, Michaela Benson, Katherine Collins, Helen McCarthy and Karen O’Reilly

Pages

cover transinfoshare
Reports
January 2010
Transatlantic Information Sharing: At a Crossroads
By  Rocco Bellanova, Susan Ginsburg, Paul De Hert and Hiroyuki Tanaka
cover UKnewEuros
Reports
January 2010
The UK's New Europeans: Progress and Challenges Five Years After Accession
By  Madeleine Sumption and Will Somerville
cover proectionIntegration
Reports
January 2010
Protection through Integration: The Mexican Government's Efforts to Aid Migrants in the United States
By  Laureen Laglagaron
cover illegalimmUS
Reports
December 2009
The Economics and Policy of Illegal Immigration in the United States
By  Gordon H. Hanson
cover binationaloption
Reports
November 2009
The Binational Option: Meeting the Instructional Needs of Limited English Proficient Students
By  Aaron Terrazas and Michael Fix
cover Germanmedia
Reports
October 2009
The Evolution of German Media Coverage of Migration
By  Gualtiero Zambonini
cover NetherlandsRhetoric
Reports
October 2009
Political Rhetoric in the Netherlands: Reframing Crises in the Media
By  Maarten Hajer and Wytske Versteeg
cover FuturePatternsUK
Reports
October 2009
Future Immigration Patterns and Policies in the United Kingdom
By  Will Somerville

Pages

Feature
October 1, 2007
Mujeres Migrantes en Tránsito y Detenidas en México

Click here to read the article in English.

México es uno de los principales países de tránsito de migrantes en el mundo, particularmente para los miles de centroamericanos que viajan cada año por el país con el objetivo de alcanzar los Estados Unidos.

Feature
September 11, 2007
Unauthorized Youths and Higher Education: The Ongoing Debate

Dawn Konet provides an overview of the arguments for and against granting in-state tuition rates to the unauthorized in the United States, and looks at relevant legislation at the state and federal levels.

Feature
May 18, 2007
Selecting Economic Stream Immigrants through Points Systems

The U.S. Congress is considering a bill that includes a points system for permanent immigration. MPI's Demetrios G. Papademetriou outlines how points systems work, which countries have used them, their political benefits, and trends in points-system use.

Feature
March 1, 2007
Women Migrants in Transit and Detention in Mexico

Since 2000, Mexico has further intensified efforts to detain and deport irregular migrants. Gabriela Diaz and Gretchen Kuhner investigate the experiences of women migrants, the majority of them from Latin America, who have been detained in Mexico en route to the United States.

Feature
January 1, 2007
EU Enlargement in 2007: No Warm Welcome for Labor Migrants

The addition of Romania and Bulgaria to the European Union means another round of anxieties about labor migrants. Catherine Drew and Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah of the Institute for Public Policy Research in London explain how this enlargement is different from the historic one in 2004 and why most EU Member States favor temporary restriction.

Pages

archive >

Recent Activity

Articles
June 7, 2018

Canadian Immigrants in the United States

Though small, the population of Canadians in the United States is quite diverse, and includes students, highly skilled professionals on H-1B or NAFTA visas, family migrants, and retirees. Canadian immigrants have much higher educational attainment and incomes than the native- and overall foreign-born populations. This article offers an interesting data snapshot of Canadians in the United States.

Articles
May 24, 2018

Family Separation and “Zero-Tolerance” Policies Rolled Out to Stem Unwanted Migrants, But May Face Challenges

Frustrated by an uptick in migrant apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months, the Trump administration unveiled a set of sweeping changes, aiming to prosecute for federal immigration crimes every migrant apprehended crossing illegally. The policy will likely be hindered by legal challenges and capacity limitations, as this article explores.

Video, Audio
May 8, 2018

The Changing Landscape of Interior Immigration Enforcement Under Trump

Discussion at this event focused on findings from MPI's report examining the interior immigration enforcement system in the United States, including ICE data on deportations and arrests, and the responses of state and local governments, civil society, and consulates.  

Articles
May 2, 2018

Profiting from Enforcement: The Role of Private Prisons in U.S. Immigration Detention

Nearly 2.5 million immigrants have passed through the U.S. immigration detention system since 2003. As the United States has expanded detention in recent decades, it has increasingly relied on contracts with facilities run by for-profit companies to house large numbers of detainees. This article traces the growing involvement of the private prison industry in U.S. immigration enforcement.

Reports
May 2018

Revving Up the Deportation Machinery: Enforcement under Trump and the Pushback

The Trump administration has significantly cranked up the immigration enforcement machinery in the U.S. interior. Yet even as arrests and deportations are up in the early Trump months, they remain less than half their peaks. This report demonstrates how pushback from California and other "sanctuary" locations makes it quite unlikely that ICE will be able to match record enforcement levels.

Articles
April 25, 2018

National Guard Heads to Southern Border Amid Differing Reality from Earlier Deployments

Seizing on reports of a migrant “caravan” making its way northward through Mexico, President Donald Trump called for up to 4,000 National Guard troops to deploy to the Southern border. Although previous presidents took similar action in response to upticks in violence and apprehensions, the picture at the border today differs on several metrics. This article examines how the deployment compares to those under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Articles
April 18, 2018

Once Homogenous, Tiny Iceland Opens Its Doors to Immigrants

A small, isolated country, Iceland has been home to a largely homogenous population for much of its history. But in recent years, a booming economy and expanding tourism sector have drawn rising numbers of immigrants to the island nation. This article explores Iceland's balancing act of maintaining economic growth through immigration while preserving its culture and language.

Reports
April 2018

Next Steps: Implementing a Brexit Deal for UK Citizens Living in the EU-27

Even with an EU-UK deal on citizens' rights post-Brexit, there is much uncertainty for Britons living abroad in Europe. This report takes stock of what has (and has not) been agreed—from questions of continued residence and family rights to health-care and labor-market access. It breaks down the looming—and urgent—challenges EU Member States face in designing systems to adjust the legal status of their British residents.

Pages