E.g., 03/31/2023
E.g., 03/31/2023
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

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Multimedia
February 14, 2018
The End of TPS: Policy Options, Social Impacts
Senate LegalizationCommentaryFeb2018
Commentaries
February 2018
A Path to Citizenship for 1.8 Million DREAMERs? Despite Talk, No Proposal Would Do So
By  Sarah Pierce
Chinese lanterns
Articles
February 15, 2018
Australia: A Welcoming Destination for Some
By Christine Inglis
DiversityVisa
Commentaries
February 2018
The Diversity Visa Program Holds Lessons for Future Legal Immigration Reform
By  Julia Gelatt
American SeanDavis Flickr crop
Articles
February 8, 2018
Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States
By Jie Zong, Jeanne Batalova, and Jeffrey Hallock
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Policy Briefs
January 2018
Welcome to Work? Legal Migration Pathways for Low-Skilled Workers
By  Kathleen Newland and Andrea Riester
WhiteHouse
Commentaries
January 2018
The Trump Immigration Plan: A Lopsided Proposal
By  Julia Gelatt and Sarah Pierce
7-Eleven in Los Angeles
Articles
January 24, 2018
Shifting Gears, Trump Administration Launches High-Profile Worksite Enforcement Operations
By Muzaffar Chishti, Sarah Pierce, and Jessica Bolter

Pages

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Reports
January 2009
Migration and the Economic Downturn: What to Expect in the European Union
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Madeleine Sumption and Will Somerville
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Reports
January 2009
America's Views of Immigration: The Evidence from Public Opinion Surveys
By  Roberto Suro
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Reports
January 2009
Talent, Competitiveness, and Migration (Transatlantic Council Statement)
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Annette Heuser
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Reports
November 2008
The Growing Global Demand for Students as Skilled Migrants
By  Lesleyanne Hawthorne
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Reports
October 2008
Regulating Immigration at the State Level: Highlights from the Database of 2007 State Immigration Legislation and the Methodology
By  Laureen Laglagaron and Cristina Rodríguez
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Reports
October 2008
Demographic Trends in Mexico: The Implications for Skilled Migration
By  Elena Zúñiga and Miguel Molina
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Reports
October 2008
Uneven Progress: The Employment Pathways of Skilled Immigrants in the United States
By  Jeanne Batalova, Michael Fix and Peter A. Creticos
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Reports
October 2008
Hybrid Immigrant-Selection Systems: The Next Generation of Economic Migration Schemes
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Will Somerville and Hiroyuki Tanaka

Pages

Feature
June 1, 2004
Temporary Movement of Labor Fuels GATS Debate
Oonagh Sands of the Center for Strategic and International Studies tackles the Mode 4 aspect of global trade talks, under which individuals enter another country’s job market to provide services.
Feature
November 1, 2003
Germany's High Court Allows Teacher to Wear Muslim Headscarf
Veysel Oezcan of Humboldt University Berlin reports on a key ruling affecting integration, religious freedom, and educators.
Feature
September 1, 2002
German Immigration Law Clears Final Hurdle
Following a bitterly contested vote in Parliament, Germany's president has signed the nation's first immigration law.

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Recent Activity

Video
February 14, 2018

The End of TPS: Policy Options, Social Impacts

Experts explore the significance of the Trump administration’s decision not to renew Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for the approximately 263,000 Salvadorans residing in the United States, including the social impact of terminating TPS and the likely effects on the U.S. and Salvadoran economies, migration, and criminal violence, as well as policy options to address the fallout from the decision.

Commentaries
February 2018

A Path to Citizenship for 1.8 Million DREAMERs? Despite Talk, No Proposal Would Do So

Even as the 1.8 million number swirls in the discussion of how many DREAMers would be placed on a path to citizenship, proposals debated in the Senate in February 2018 would have resulted in the legalization of smaller numbers, as this commentary explains. It offers estimates of potential beneficiaries of several Senate proposals, including one backed by the White House, and analysis of key criteria.

Articles
February 15, 2018

Australia: A Welcoming Destination for Some

Immigration has driven economic and social development in Australia for more than two centuries. Even as more than one-fourth of the country’s population is foreign born and Australia ranks third among top refugee resettlement countries worldwide, controversy surrounding its hardline treatment of asylum seekers arriving by boat has cast a shadow on its reputation as a welcoming country, as this article explores.

Commentaries
February 2018

The Diversity Visa Program Holds Lessons for Future Legal Immigration Reform

On paper, the Diversity Visa Program is not set up to bring in the highly skilled; applicants need only a high school diploma (or equivalent) or two years of mid-level work experience. Yet as this commentary explains, the green-card lottery has become a channel for entry of the highly skilled—with half of recipients coming to the United States in recent years having a college degree.

Articles
February 8, 2018

Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States

The United States is by far the world's top migration destination, home to roughly one-fifth of all global migrants. In 2016, nearly 44 million immigrants lived in the United States, comprising 13.5 percent of the country's population. Get the most sought-after data available on immigrants and immigration trends, including top countries of origin, legal immigration pathways, enforcement actions, health-care coverage, and much more.

Policy Briefs
January 2018

Welcome to Work? Legal Migration Pathways for Low-Skilled Workers

Although in many countries immigrants fill labor gaps in fields such as agriculture and construction, few legal migration pathways exist for low-skilled workers. As states meet to negotiate a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration, this policy brief takes stock of the channels available for such workers to move legally and take up work abroad, highlighting promising practices and policy gaps.

Commentaries
January 2018

The Trump Immigration Plan: A Lopsided Proposal

The White House immigration plan offered as a solution to resolve the fate of DREAMers seeks legal immigration cuts unlike any seen since 1924. In addition to a decrease of up to 40 percent in family-sponsored immigration, the proposal demands vast increases in enforcement and a retrenchment in protections for those seeking humanitarian relief. In exchange, one-sixth of the unauthorized population could gain legal status.

Articles
January 24, 2018

Shifting Gears, Trump Administration Launches High-Profile Worksite Enforcement Operations

An unannounced sweep of 98 convenience stores by U.S. immigration authorities—resulting in the arrest of 21 unauthorized workers—may signal a new approach to worksite enforcement under the Trump administration, moving away from a strategy of paper-based audits that resulted in higher employer fines and fewer worker arrests. This article explores worksite enforcement over recent decades.

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