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

Articles December 11, 2018 Threat of Hard Brexit Looms as Exit Date Nears By Alessandro Regio and Lauren Shaw	Articles December 6, 2018 Sweden: By Turns Welcoming and Restrictive in its Immigration Policy By Admir Skodo
Multimedia December 5, 2018 How Latin America Is Responding to the Venezuelan Exodus	Articles November 29, 2018 Trump Administration’s Unprecedented Actions on Asylum at the Southern Border Hit Legal Roadblock By Muzaffar Chishti, Sarah Pierce, and Hannah Jacks
Multimedia November 20, 2018 Building Bridges Not Walls: Key Lessons from the 2019 Global Education Monitoring Report on Migration and Displacement	Policy Briefs November 2018 After the Divorce: British Families Living in the EU-27 Post-Brexit By Aliyyah Ahad
Policy Briefs November 2018 The End of the Retirement Dream? British Pensioners in the European Union after Brexit By Helen McCarthy	Policy Briefs November 2018 Gauging the Impact of DHS’ Proposed Public-Charge Rule on U.S. Immigration By Randy Capps, Mark Greenberg, Michael Fix and Jie Zong

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Policy Briefs February 2011 E-Verify: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Proposals for Reform By Marc R. Rosenblum	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

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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.

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Articles

December 11, 2018

Threat of Hard Brexit Looms as Exit Date Nears

With the United Kingdom’s scheduled March 2019 departure from the European Union around the corner and approval of an exit deal by the UK Parliament in deep disarray, the future for approximately 5 million EU nationals living in the United Kingdom and Britons resident in the EU-27 remained unresolved. This article examines the citizens' rights issues that have arisen and what Brexit, hard or otherwise, might bring.

Articles

December 6, 2018

Sweden: By Turns Welcoming and Restrictive in its Immigration Policy

Swedish asylum policy has taken a restrictionist turn since the country received a record-breaking number of asylum seekers in 2015 and after electoral gains by the nationalist, anti-immigration Sweden Democrats pushed the governing coalition to a harder line. Still, other aspects of the country’s migration policy remain welcoming, as this country profile explores.

Video, Audio, Webinars

December 5, 2018

How Latin America Is Responding to the Venezuelan Exodus

Over 3 million Venezuelans have fled in response to the deepening political and economic crisis in their country, becoming one of the largest and fastest outflows anywhere in the world. Senior officials from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, which are home to more than half of these Venezuelan migrants and refugees, discussed their countries' responses to this migration and other experts talked on the broader trend across the region and the prospects for future policy responses.

Articles

November 29, 2018

Trump Administration’s Unprecedented Actions on Asylum at the Southern Border Hit Legal Roadblock

The Trump administration’s latest effort to narrow the ability to apply for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border hit a legal roadblock within days of implementation, as has been the pattern for much of its immigration agenda. This article examines the actions on asylum, which alongside deployment of active-duty military to the border, are among measures taken to seek to reduce the flow of Central Americans to the United States.

Video, Audio

November 20, 2018

Building Bridges Not Walls: Key Lessons from the 2019 Global Education Monitoring Report on Migration and Displacement

Marking the U.S. release of the 2019 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, this discussion looks at different ways education policymakers, teachers, and civil society have responded to the educational needs of migrants and how to address the challenges that sometimes inhibit children from participating meaningfully and equally in education programs.

Policy Briefs

November 2018

After the Divorce: British Families Living in the EU-27 Post-Brexit

This brief looks at the potential impact of Brexit on British families in the EU-27, a group that is much less studied than their counterparts in the United Kingdom. As it explores, legal systems are not always designed to cater to the needs of families rather than individuals, and the patchwork of differing rights and benefits for EU citizens and non-EU nationals could mean some family members—third-country nationals, adult dependants, and same-sex or unregistered partners—will fall through the gaps.

Policy Briefs

November 2018

The End of the Retirement Dream? British Pensioners in the European Union after Brexit

As Brexit approaches, British pensioners in the EU-27 face a series of issues beyond those of the wider British population of the EU-27. This issue brief explores the diversity of the pensioner population and unique challenges ranging from whether UK state pensions will rise with the cost of living, to tax, health care, and access to social assistance issues, before considering key policy questions and recommendations for both EU and UK policymakers.

Policy Briefs

November 2018

Gauging the Impact of DHS’ Proposed Public-Charge Rule on U.S. Immigration

Most recent U.S. legal permanent residents could have found themselves at risk of green-card denial had they been assessed under a proposed Trump administration public-charge rule that would apply a significantly expanded test to determine likelihood of future public-benefits use. This analysis finds the effects would fall most heavily on women, children, and the elderly, while potentially shifting legal immigration away from Latin America.

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