Immigration Policy & 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

Reports July 2018 A Needed Evidence Revolution: Using Cost-Benefit Analysis to Improve Refugee Integration Programming By Meghan Benton and Paul Diegert	Reports July 2018 The Impact of Populist Radical-Right Parties on Immigration Policy Agendas: A Look at the Netherlands By Tjitske Akkerman
Articles June 29, 2018 In Upholding Travel Ban, Supreme Court Endorses Presidential Authority While Leaving Door Open for Future Challenges By Muzaffar Chishti, Sarah Pierce, and Laura Plata	Reports June 2018 The Growth of the Radical Right in Nordic Countries: Observations from the Past 20 Years By Anders Widfeldt
Reports June 2018 After the Storm: Learning from the EU Response to the Migration Crisis By Elizabeth Collett and Camille Le Coz	Commentaries June 2018 Europe Pushes to Outsource Asylum, Again By Elizabeth Collett and Susan Fratzke
Commentaries June 2018 Far from a Retreat, the Trump Administration’s Border Policies Advance its Enforcement Aims By Sarah Pierce	Commentaries June 2018 A Narrower Path in the House for Most DREAMers By Julia Gelatt and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto

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Policy Briefs January 2011 Earned Legalization: Effects of Proposed Requirements on Unauthorized Men, Women, and Children By Marc R. Rosenblum, Randy Capps and Serena Yi-Ying Lin	Reports January 2011 Immigration Policy and Less-Skilled Workers in the United States: Reflections on Future Directions for Reform By Harry J. Holzer
Fact Sheets December 2010 Updated Estimates of the 2010 DREAM Act	Policy Briefs December 2010 More than IRCA: U.S. Legalization Programs and the Current Policy Debate By Donald M. Kerwin
Policy Briefs December 2010 Immigrant Legalization in the United States and European Union: Policy Goals and Program Design By Marc R. Rosenblum	Policy Briefs November 2010 Structuring and Implementing an Immigrant Legalization Program: Registration as the First Step By Donald M. Kerwin and Laureen Laglagaron
Books November 2010 Prioritizing Integration	Reports October 2010 Migration and Immigrants Two Years after the Financial Collapse: Where Do We Stand? By Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Madeleine Sumption and Aaron Terrazas

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Feature

May 9, 2012

Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States and Europe: The Use of Legalization/Regularization as a Policy Tool

Immigrant legalizations in the United States and Europe ("regularizations" in the EU context) have been used repeatedly for broad and discrete groups of immigrants. A look at how these programs have been implemented historically and the political and policy implications they face today.

Feature

January 4, 2012

Living In Between: The Chinese in South Africa

The past decade has brought tens of thousands of Chinese migrants to Africa, and well over half of all Chinese migrants to the continent head to South Africa. Yoon Jung Park of Rhodes University discusses the history of Chinese migration to South Africa, the various communities of Chinese currently residing in the country, and their levels of political, social, and economic integration.

Feature

November 1, 2010

Hazleton and Beyond: Why Communities Try to Restrict Immigration

Nearly 200 localities in the United States have seriously considered policies intended to restrict immigration or its impact. Kevin O'Neil of Princeton University analyzes the types of laws local governments pursue and the reasons they take action.

Feature

April 29, 2010

Arrested on Entry: Operation Streamline and the Prosecution of Immigration Crimes

Those caught trying to enter the United States illegally in portions of five Southwest border sectors face criminal prosecution under Operation Streamline, which the Department of Homeland Security launched in 2005. MPI's Donald Kerwin and Kristen McCabe examine how Operation Streamline works, highlight trends in the prosecution of immigration offenses, and evaluate the program's outcomes.

Feature

June 2, 2008

Women Migrants in Detention in Mexico: Conditions and Due Process

Approximately 400,000 migrants transit through Mexico each year in order to reach the United States, many of them women from Latin America. Gabriela Diaz and Gretchen Kuhner explain how the detention system's structure and new detention procedures affect women.

Recent Activity

Reports

July 2018

A Needed Evidence Revolution: Using Cost-Benefit Analysis to Improve Refugee Integration Programming

European countries have ramped up their investments in helping refugees find work and integrate into society. Yet little hard evidence exists of what programs and policies work best. This report proposes a new framework for thinking smartly about integration programming, using cost-benefit analysis to look beyond short-term, economic outcomes to also measure indirect benefits through a social-value concept.

Reports

July 2018

The Impact of Populist Radical-Right Parties on Immigration Policy Agendas: A Look at the Netherlands

While commentators proclaimed the 2017 Dutch election results a rebuff of radical-right populism, this report makes clear that electoral success is not the only way to influence policymaking. Taking the Netherlands as a case study, it examines how radical-right parties in Western Europe have shaped immigration policy agendas and outcomes by rewriting narratives and forcing mainstream parties further to the right.

Articles

June 29, 2018

In Upholding Travel Ban, Supreme Court Endorses Presidential Authority While Leaving Door Open for Future Challenges

Though the Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a major victory by upholding its much-contested travel ban, less noted has been the fact that the ruling left an opening for future challenges to the policy of barring groups of foreign nationals from the country. This Policy Beat explores the evolution of the travel ban, the justices' arguments for and against, and changes in visa grants from travel-ban countries.

Reports

June 2018

The Growth of the Radical Right in Nordic Countries: Observations from the Past 20 Years

Though hardly new to most Nordic countries, radical-right parties have grown in popular support and political power in recent years. This report analyzes the role immigration has played in their rise and recent electoral fortunes in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. It also examines the strategies other parties have adopted in an attempt to limit their growth.

Reports

June 2018

After the Storm: Learning from the EU Response to the Migration Crisis

As maritime arrivals climbed in 2015, EU policymakers struggled to mount a coordinated response. A range of ad hoc crisis-response tools emerged, but many officials worry that if another migration emergency were to hit Europe, the European Union may still be unprepared. This report traces the evolution of the EU response to the 2015–16 crisis and lays out recommendations to lock in progress and shore up weaknesses.

Commentaries

June 2018

Europe Pushes to Outsource Asylum, Again

European leaders have settled on a recurring proposition to address the ongoing political crisis on migration: the creation of asylum processing centers beyond EU borders. The plans championed by various EU leaders are diverse, the details fuzzy. What they have in common is a near-universal focus on shifting responsibility for dealing with refugees and migrants upstream, as this commentary examines.

Commentaries

June 2018

Far from a Retreat, the Trump Administration’s Border Policies Advance its Enforcement Aims

Even as some pundits assess President Trump's temporary end to family separation as a defeat, the deeper reality is being lost: The administration’s plan to detain all asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, including families, is now on its way to completion. The “catch-and-release” that Donald Trump rails against is, at least in part, effectively over for now, though the price tag is a long way from being tallied, as this commentary explains.

Commentaries

June 2018

A Narrower Path in the House for Most DREAMers

In exchange for resolving the status of DREAMers, the White House and its congressional allies are demanding billions of dollars for a border wall and additional enforcement, sharp limits on asylum, cuts to legal immigration, and more. But what would the two bills expected to be voted on by the House do in terms of extending temporary or permanent status to DREAMers? This commentary offers estimates.

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