E.g., 04/24/2024
E.g., 04/24/2024
North America

North America

United States
Canada
Mexico

North America is a dynamic migration region, with the United States home to more immigrants than any other country in the world, the Mexico-U.S. corridor the globe's top migration corridor, and Canada a leading destination for migrants. Research collected here focuses on everything from visa policy and border management to immigrant integration, national identity, the demographics of immigrants in the region and their educational and workforce outcomes, and ways to more effectively use migration policy as a lever for national and regional competitiveness.

Graphic image of man's hand touching screen with word skills
Commentaries

Canada's New Tech Talent Strategy Takes Aim at High-Skilled Immigrants in the United States

Canada’s Tech Talent Strategy is highly unusual for its explicit targeting of visa holders in another country. Opening a dedicated stream specifically for high-skilled immigrants in the United States who hold an H-1B visa is the latest salvo in a growing global competition for talent—one in which some countries are racing ahead of the United States in terms of policy dynamism, as this commentary explores.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other leaders at the 2022 Summit of the Americas
Commentaries

The Los Angeles Declaration Could Represent a Big Step for Real Migration Cooperation across the Americas

The Los Angeles Agreement on Migration and Protection signed by leaders from 20 countries across the Western Hemisphere at the 2022 Summit of the Americas marks a significant step forward in creating a common language and a coherent set of ideas for more cooperatively managing migration movements across a region that has seen very significant mobility in recent years, as this commentary explains.

Recent Activity

EventPH 2014.02.27 A Treacherous Journey Child Migrants Navigating the U.S. Immigration System
Multimedia
February 27, 2014
A Treacherous Journey: Child Migrants Navigating the U.S. Immigration System
EventPH 2014.02.19 A Transatlantic Conversation Managing Migration in the Era of Mobility2
Multimedia
February 19, 2014
A Transatlantic Conversation: Managing Migration in the Era of Mobility
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Articles
February 13, 2014
Republican Congressional Leaders Shelve Immigration Reform for 2014
By Muzaffar Chishti and Faye Hipsman
EventPH 2014.2.14 Managing Borders in North America Charting the Future
Multimedia
February 7, 2014
Managing Borders in North America: Charting the Future
EVENT PH 2014.02.05 Thinking Regionally to Compete Globally A presentation in Guatemala on the Regional Migration Study Group
Multimedia
February 5, 2014
Thinking Regionally to Compete Globally- A presentation in Guatemala on the Regional Migration Study Group
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Articles
February 3, 2014
Refugees and Asylees in the United States
By Lara Burt and Jeanne Batalova
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Articles
January 9, 2014
U.S. Immigration Reform Didn't Happen in 2013; Will 2014 Be the Year?
By Muzaffar Chishti and Faye Hipsman
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Reports
January 2014
Securing Borders: The Intended, Unintended, and Perverse Consequences
By  Randall Hansen and Demetrios G. Papademetriou

Pages

senate chamber
Policy Beat
May 15, 2007
After Long Negotiations, Senate Takes Up Immigration Reform Again
MPI's Dawn Konet and Julia Gelatt report on the beginning of new Senate debates on immigration and the events leading up to this debate; a breakdown in negotiations over a U.S.-Canada program for land-border crossers; TPS extensions; and more.
Feature
May 3, 2007
After-School Institutions in Chinese and Korean Immigrant Communities: A Model for Others?

In the United States, the academic success of children of Chinese and Korean immigrants usually is attributed to either their culture or the U.S. immigration system, which favors skilled migrants. Min Zhou and Susan S. Kim of the University of California, Los Angeles compare the after-school institutions in these communities to explain the effect of ethnicity on educational outcomes.

Feature
April 26, 2007
Secondary Migration: Who Re-Migrates and Why These Migrants Matter

Relatively little is known about migration that involves more than one destination. Ayumi Takenaka of Bryn Mawr College examines the available data to assess who re-migrates to the United States.

Policy Beat
April 16, 2007
Congress and White House Release Competing Proposals for Immigration Reform

MPI's Dawn Konet and Julia Gelatt report on the Strive Act and a White House plan for immigration reform, the delay in implementing Real ID requirements, the Child Citizen Protection Act, and more.

Spotlight
March 22, 2007
Spotlight on Immigration Enforcement in the United States in 2005

In 2005, U.S. immigration officials detained nearly a quarter of a million individuals. MPI's Dawn Konet and Jeanne Batalova look at the most recent data on apprehensions, detentions, and removals.

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Recent Activity

Reports
November 2018

In Search of a New Equilibrium: Immigration Policymaking in the Newest Era of Nativist Populism

In many recent European and U.S. elections, candidates touting nativist populist and anti-immigrant platforms have enjoyed rising support. As populism moves from the fringes into the mainstream, this report takes stock of the economic and social forces driving its rise, the diverse ways populists are influencing immigration policymaking, and what it will take to build a new center around immigration and integration issues.

Articles
November 7, 2018

South American Immigrants in the United States

South Americans represent a small, but growing share of immigrants in the United States, composing 7 percent of country’s total foreign-born population. Recent growth has been marked by an uptick in arrivals from increasingly failing Venezuela, with an increase of 61,000 Venezuelan immigrants from 2016 to 2017. This article offers an interesting data snapshot of South American immigrants in the United States.

Commentaries
November 2018

Asylum Reform, Not Troops, Is the Solution to Current Border Reality

Asylum reform, not the "shock-and-awe" deployment of thousands of troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to deal with the migrant caravan, represents the real path to addressing the current realities of mixed economic and humanitarian migration flows, as the person who presided over the last reform of the U.S. asylum system in the mid-1990s explains in this commentary.

Video, Audio, Webinars
October 30, 2018

Surviving vs. Thriving: The Need for a Paradigm Shift in Adult Education for Immigrants and Refugees

Taking stock of weaknesses in the WIOA-driven design of most adult basic education programming, MPI analysts draw on research from the integration, adult education, and postsecondary success fields in arguing for the adoption of an “English Plus Integration” (EPI) adult education program model, and discuss strategies for implementation. 

Policy Briefs
October 2018

English Plus Integration: Shifting the Instructional Paradigm for Immigrant Adult Learners to Support Integration Success

To successfully integrate, immigrants and refugees need a variety of skills and knowledge—from English proficiency to understanding how school systems and local services work. Yet the adult education programs in place to support them have narrowed in scope. This policy brief proposes a new instructional model, English Plus Integration, to help states more comprehensively meet the diverse needs of their adult immigrant learners.

Video, Audio
October 1, 2018

15th Annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference

At the 15th annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference, held in October 2018, leading experts and government officials discussed the role that immigration is playing in the mid-term elections; how the courts are handling key immigration questions; and recent changes in the U.S. asylum system, border and interior enforcement, and regulations surrounding legal immigration.   

Articles
October 24, 2018

Census Citizenship Question Triggers Legal and Political Fallout

Legal and political controversy surrounds the Trump administration's decision to include a question on citizenship status in the 2020 decennial census, the first such inclusion since the 1950 census. This article examines the administration's conflicting statements about the genesis of the plan, concerns that the decision could affect the accuracy of the census, and legal challenges pending in a number of states.

Video, Audio, Webinars
October 16, 2018

The Next Frontier in Immigrant Integration Policy? Using Behavioral Insights to Foster Social Cohesion

Can people be 'nudged' into support for immigrant integration? On this webinar, speakers explored what untapped potential behavioral insights may hold for integration policy and how policymakers can start fitting this approach, which has been used in areas from tax compliance to organ donation, into their work. The webinar marked the release of the report, Applying Behavioral Insights to Support Immigrant Integration and Social Cohesion. 

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