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

Multimedia February 28, 2019 Una nueva política migratoria para una nueva era: Una conversación con la Secretaria de Gobernación Olga Sánchez Cordero	Multimedia February 28, 2019 A New Migration Policy for A New Era: A Conversation with Mexico's Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero
Policy Briefs February 2019 Global Governance of International Migration 2.0: What Lies Ahead? By Kathleen Newland	Articles February 28, 2019 Executive Power Showdown: Congress and White House Quarrel over Immigration Spending By Muzaffar Chishti, Sarah Pierce, and Randy Capps
Reports February 2019 Exploring New Legal Migration Pathways: Lessons from Pilot Projects By Kate Hooper	Policy Briefs February 2019 Strengthening Refugee Protection in Low- and Middle-Income Countries By Susan Fratzke and Camille Le Coz
Multimedia January 31, 2019 Creatividad Dentro de la Crisis: Opciones Legales para Inmigrantes Venezolanos en América Latina	Multimedia January 30, 2019 Creative Policy Responses in Latin America to the Venezuelan Migration Crisis

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Reports September 2010 Still an Hourglass? Immigrant Workers in Middle-Skilled Jobs By Randy Capps and Michael Fix	Fact Sheets August 2010 Number and Growth of Students in U.S. Schools in Need of English Instruction, 2009 By Jeanne Batalova and Margie McHugh
Fact Sheets August 2010 States and Districts with the Highest Number and Share of English Language Learners, 2009 By Jeanne Batalova and Margie McHugh	Policy Briefs July 2010 DREAM vs. Reality: An Analysis of Potential DREAM Act Beneficiaries By Jeanne Batalova and Margie McHugh
Reports June 2010 The Impact of Immigrants in Recession and Economic Expansion By Giovanni Peri	Reports May 2010 Immigrant Integration: Priorities for the Next Decade (Transatlantic Council Statement) By Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Annette Heuser
Books April 2010 Securing Human Mobility in the Age of Risk: New Challenges for Travel, Migration, and Borders By Susan Ginsburg	Reports January 2010 Transatlantic Information Sharing: At a Crossroads By Rocco Bellanova, Susan Ginsburg, Paul De Hert and Hiroyuki Tanaka

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Top Ten

December 10, 2014

The Points System Is Dead, Long Live the Points System

2014 marked the quiet demise worldwide of the traditional points system for selecting skilled immigrants. Canada, which in 1969 invented the points system, in 2015 will join other countries in adopting a hybrid system that places more emphasis on a demand-driven system. This article examines how following the economic crisis, governments have revamped, hybridized, or ended such programs.

Top Ten

December 10, 2014

Changing Landscape Prompts Mexico's Emergence as a Migration Manager

In recent years emigration from Mexico has declined, the country's stable economy has drawn an increasing number of international migrants, and the pace of transmigration to the United States has quickened. Amid these changing realities, punctuated by a spike in migration of unaccompanied minors from Central America in 2014, Mexico is confronting a new role as migration manager: balancing increasing enforcement and protection of migrants' rights.

Policy Beat

November 12, 2014

Immigration Not Decisive in the Midterms, But Results Critical to the Congressional Debate

While immigration and the Latino vote may not have been decisive in the 2014 midterm elections, the Republican takeover of the Senate come January 2015 and increased majority in the House have significant implications for the outcome of the immigration debate. This article examines the changing dynamics and the president's intent to proceed with executive action to shield some of the unauthorized immigrant population from deportation.

Policy Beat

October 23, 2014

Ebola Outbreak Rekindles Debate on Restricting Admissions to the United States on Health Grounds

The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, with three cases diagnosed in the United States, has generated tremendous public fear and anxiety in the United States and other countries. The Obama administration has restricted air travel from West Africa to five airports with enhanced screening, amid calls for a complete travel ban. The Policy Beat examines the use of U.S. immigration controls to halt the spread of disease.

Feature

September 30, 2014

Belonging: The Resettlement Experiences of Hmong Refugees in Texas and Germany

Drawing on a case study of two Hmong refugee populations from Laos that were resettled in a major Texas city and a German village, this article explores the different approaches to immigrant integration found in the United States and Germany as well as the outcomes for the Hmong and their sense of belonging in their new communities.

Recent Activity

Video, Audio

February 28, 2019

Una nueva política migratoria para una nueva era: Una conversación con la Secretaria de Gobernación Olga Sánchez Cordero

Durante su primera visita oficial a Washington, DC, la Secretaria de Gobierno Olga Sánchez Cordero presento un discurso público sobre la nueva política migratoria de México en el Instituto de Políticas Migratorias.

Video, Audio

February 28, 2019

A New Migration Policy for A New Era: A Conversation with Mexico's Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero

On her first official trip to Washington, DC, Secretary of the Interior Olga Sánchez Cordero offered a public address on Mexico’s new approach to migration policy at MPI. Her remarks and the event discussion were mostly conducted in Spanish, and this recording is of the simultaneous English interpretation.

Policy Briefs

February 2019

Global Governance of International Migration 2.0: What Lies Ahead?

The vast majority of UN Member States in December 2018 adopted the first-ever international agreement to cooperate on migration. This policy brief traces the trajectory of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration's negotiation and endorsement. It also explores the factors that will determine whether the compact lives up to its aim of improving how states cooperate on international migration.

Articles

February 28, 2019

Executive Power Showdown: Congress and White House Quarrel over Immigration Spending

Though a faceoff between the U.S. executive and legislative branches is now in the courts, with President Trump's decision to declare a national emergency so he can allocate more money for construction of a border wall, a less-noted dispute has been taking place over the Department of Homeland Security's decision to add thousands more immigration detention beds than Congress provides annually, as this article explains.

Reports

February 2019

Exploring New Legal Migration Pathways: Lessons from Pilot Projects

As European countries launch ambitious new legal migration partnerships with several origin and transit countries in Africa, this report takes stock of the long and mixed history of such projects. To make the most of their potential to encourage skills development and fill pressing labor gaps, policymakers will need to think carefully about the partners and sectors they choose, among other key considerations.

Policy Briefs

February 2019

Strengthening Refugee Protection in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Development actors are well positioned to help close the gap in refugee protection system capacity that exists between high-income countries and those that have fewer resources. With 85 percent of the world's refugees in low- or middle-income countries that lack the means to support them fully, strengthening protection systems would benefit from new thinking and tapping the expertise of well-placed actors to assure a more comprehensive approach.

Audio, Webinars

January 31, 2019

Creatividad Dentro de la Crisis: Opciones Legales para Inmigrantes Venezolanos en América Latina

Convocamos un seminario en línea en la ocasión del lanzamiento del informe que describe donde se han radicado los migrantes venezolanos; las medidas que han utilizado los gobiernos latinoamericanos para regularizar el estatus legal de los migrantes venezolanos; y los esfuerzos por integrar a los recién llegados en sus nuevas comunidades de residencia.

Video, Audio

January 30, 2019

Creative Policy Responses in Latin America to the Venezuelan Migration Crisis

With more than 3 million Venezuelans having fled their country in crisis, this event features the release of an MPI-OAS report that examines the creative responses that host countries in Latin America are providing. These include the opening of legal pathways to residence, access to formal labor markets, and greater use of forms of ID for recognition.

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Immigration Policy & Law

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