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.

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Multimedia January 16, 2019 Promising Strategies for Reintegration of Migrants Returning to Mexico and Central America	Reports January 2019 Communicating Strategically about Immigrant Integration: Policymaker Perspectives By Aliyyah Ahad and Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan
Commentaries January 2019 Too Little, Too Late? Contingency Planning for UK Nationals in Case of a No-Deal Brexit By Meghan Benton and Aliyyah Ahad	Reports January 2019 Doing More with Less: A New Toolkit for Integration Policy By Meghan Benton and Alexandra Embiricos
Reports January 2019 Sustainable Reintegration: Strategies to Support Migrants Returning to Mexico and Central America By Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas, Luis Argueta and Randy Capps	Articles December 21, 2018 As Venezuelan Crisis Deepens, South America Braces for More Arrivals and Indefinite Stays By Sara Staedicke
Reports December 2018 Promoting Refugee Integration in Challenging Times: The Potential of Two-Generation Strategies By Mark Greenberg, Julia Gelatt, Jessica Bolter, Essey Workie and Isabelle Charo	Articles December 11, 2018 Threat of Hard Brexit Looms as Exit Date Nears By Alessandro Regio and Lauren Shaw

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Reports October 2009 Immigrating from Facts to Values: Political Rhetoric in the U.S. Immigration Debate By Drew Westen	Reports October 2009 The Evolution of German Media Coverage of Migration By Gualtiero Zambonini
Reports October 2009 Political Rhetoric in the Netherlands: Reframing Crises in the Media By Maarten Hajer and Wytske Versteeg	Reports October 2009 Future Immigration Patterns and Policies in the United Kingdom By Will Somerville
Reports October 2009 The Future of Migration and Integration Policy in Germany By Rita Süssmuth	Reports October 2009 Memo to President Obama Regarding Immigration Policy By Frank Sharry
Reports October 2009 The Media and Migration in the United Kingdom, 1999 to 2009 By Terry Threadgold	Reports October 2009 British Attitudes to Immigration in the 21 st Century By Ben Page

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Policy Beat

February 13, 2014

Republican Congressional Leaders Shelve Immigration Reform for 2014

The small window for enactment of a major U.S. immigration overhaul during 2014 seems to have closed. A trial balloon testing House Republicans’ willingness to proceed this year was quickly floated and dropped. Amid a focus on politics and timing, less noted was the reality that for the first time, House Republican leaders have affirmed support for a policy that would move the party closer to compromise over the most vexing question holding up immigration reform: what to do with the nation’s unauthorized immigrants.

Policy Beat

January 9, 2014

U.S. Immigration Reform Didn't Happen in 2013; Will 2014 Be the Year?

While some argue that the clock has run out on immigration reform in the 113th Congress, which runs through 2014, others counter that the finish line remains in sight.

Spotlight

October 24, 2013

Naturalization Trends in the United States

About 757,000 immigrants took U.S. citizenship in 2012, a 9 percent increase from the year before. As of 2012, 46 percent of the nation’s 40.8 million immigrants were naturalized Americans. This article examines the latest naturalization data available for the United States, including historical trends, data by country of origin and state of residence, as well as socioeconomic characteristics of the 18.7 million naturalized U.S. citizens residing in the United States in 2012.

Feature

September 18, 2013

Labor Migration in the United Arab Emirates: Challenges and Responses

The United Arab Emirates has the fifth-largest international migrant stock in the world, with 7.8 million migrants out of a total population of 9.2 million. Heavily reliant on foreign labor to sustain economic growth, the UAE government in 1971 introduced a temporary guest worker program. This article examines the economic, social, and political challenges and implications of the program for the government, Emirati nationals, and migrant workers in the UAE.

Feature

October 9, 2012

Immigration Federalism: Which Policy Prevails?

This article dissects the current patchwork of overlapping and potentially conflicting authorities for immigration enforcement and policymaking in the United States, based on unique, country-wide surveys and city case studies.

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Explainers

April 2019

Explainer: How the U.S. Legal Immigration System Works

Through which visa categories can immigrants move temporarily or permanently to the United States? What are the main channels by which people come, and who can sponsor them for a green card? Are there limits on visa categories? And who is waiting in the green-card backlog? This explainer answers basic questions about temporary and permanent immigration via family, employment, humanitarian, and other channels.

Articles

April 25, 2019

Despite Flurry of Actions, Trump Administration Faces Constraints in Achieving Its Immigration Agenda

Though it has achieved success in some areas, the Trump administration’s many efforts to stiffen immigration enforcement in the U.S. interior and at the Southwest border are being consistently stymied by court injunctions, existing laws and settlements, state and local resistance, congressional pushback, and migration pressures that are beyond the government’s ability to swiftly address, as this article explores.

Video, Audio, Webinars

April 23, 2019

Children of Immigrants and Child Welfare Systems: Key Policy and Practice

Marking the release of an MPI report, this webinar examines what the growing intersection between U.S. immigration and child welfare systems means for protection agencies. Speakers also discuss promising child welfare policies and agency approaches to address the needs of children of immigrants and their families amid demographic change and rising immigration enforcement.

Reports

April 2019

The Canadian Express Entry System for Selecting Economic Immigrants: Progress and Persistent Challenges

Since its launch in 2015, the Express Entry system has changed how economic immigration to Canada happens and how it fits into public and political debates. And while it has proven successful in cutting through application backlogs, some challenges remain. This report looks at how and why this points-based system was introduced, what its impact has been, and how it could be further finetuned.

Fact Sheets

April 2019

How Many Unauthorized Immigrants Graduate from U.S. High Schools Annually?

A high school diploma has been a core requirement of proposed DREAM Act legislation and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Yet a fresh estimate of the number of unauthorized immigrants graduating annually from U.S. high schools has long been missing from the debate. This fact sheet provides up-to-date estimates for the United States and top 15 states, estimating 98,000 such students graduate yearly.

Reports

April 2019

Immigrant Families and Child Welfare Systems: Emerging Needs and Promising Policies

With the children of immigrants a growing share of all U.S. children, and federal immigration enforcement and other policies undergoing significant change, some state and local child welfare agencies are developing new ways to improve how they work with immigrant families. This report examines key cultural, linguistic, and legal challenges, and how agencies are adjusting staffing, training, placement, and other policies to tackle them.

Video, Audio

April 16, 2019

Is U.S.-Mexico Cooperation on Migration Possible?

Over recent months, the number of Central American migrants apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border has surged, presenting a critical challenge in the relationship between the two neighboring countries. Experts from a Study Group on U.S.-Mexico Migration convened by El Colegio de México and MPI discuss current trends, policies, and politics surrounding migration from the Northern Triangle of Central America and the U.S.-Mexico relationship, ways to improve U.S. and Mexican asylum systems, possible new approaches to labor migration, ways to address smuggling networks, and modernize border management.

Articles

April 18, 2019

“Us” or “Them”? How Policies, Public Opinion, and Political Rhetoric Affect Immigrants’ Sense of Belonging

Citizenship and integration policies are often thought of as markers for whether a country is welcoming to immigrants. Yet research suggests that public opinion and political rhetoric play a bigger role in immigrants' sense of belonging. This article explores how boundaries between "us" and "them" are drawn through popular conceptions of nationhood and political rhetoric, and their impact on immigrants' belonging.

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