E.g., 04/23/2024
E.g., 04/23/2024
North America

North America

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.

Recent Activity

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Policy Briefs
May 2018
By  Julie Sugarman
A woman walks alongside a train in Mexico.
Articles
A boy peers through fencing at the U.S.-Mexico border.
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Eloy Detention Center
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Reports
May 2018
By  Randy Capps, Muzaffar Chishti, Julia Gelatt, Jessica Bolter and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto
Troops at the border
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Fact Sheets
October 2005
By  Deborah W. Meyers
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Reports
September 2005
By  Philippa Strum and David Biette
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Policy Briefs
September 2005
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou
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Reports
September 2005
By  Randy Capps, Michael Fix, Julie Murray and Jeffrey S. Passel
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Reports
August 2005
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Betsy Cooper and Stephen Yale-Loehr
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Policy Briefs
August 2005
By  Betsy Cooper and Kevin O'Neil
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Reports
June 2005
By  Deborah W. Meyers

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Iowa has just become the third state to gain access to federal SAVE immigration data for the purpose of removing noncitizens from its voter lists. This practice, which signifies a major departure from the system's intended purposes, comes amid renewed focus over voting rights. This article explores the recent surge in state activism regarding the possibility of noncitizen voting and also examines the current leadership vacuum in the Department of Homeland Security, new guidance for immigration benefits for same-sex couples, and more.

This article examines common challenges and factors influencing the development of local labor-market integration initiatives targeting immigrant youth, based on four city case studies conducted in the United States and the European Union.

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In 2011, India was the third largest country of origin for immigrants in the United States, after Mexico and China. The close to 1.9 million Indian immigrants in the United States accounted for almost 5 percent of the country’s total foreign-born population of 40.4 million. This article examines the latest data on Indian immigrants in the United States, including population size, geographic distribution, admission categories, and demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.

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In 2011, there were 25.3 million Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals residing in the United States, or roughly 9 percent of the nation's population ages 5 and older. Although most LEP individuals were foreign born, nearly one-fifth of this population was native born, about three-quarters of whom were children ages 5 to 17. This article provides a demographic and socioeconomic profile of LEP individuals residing in the United States, including the population's size, geographic distribution, and demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.

On June 27, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to overhaul the U.S. immigration system on a scale not seen in decades. Despite this major breakthrough, it is clear that immigration reform faces an uphill battle in the House of Representatives, where the dynamics are much different than in the Senate. This article assesses the prospects for immigration reform in the House, explores provisions of the Senate bill, the implications for U.S. immigration policy of the Supreme Court's recent ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act, and more.

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Recent Activity

Articles

Interested in information on annual naturalization trends, illegal immigration, the geographical distribution of immigrants in the United States, current and historical shares, and a host of other topics? MPI's Jeanne Batalova and Aaron Terrazas have assembled the latest, most interesting data on immigrants and immigration into one easy-to-use resource.

Articles

Haiti and Pakistan were an unlikely pair until 2010, when horrific natural disasters made it impossible for the world to ignore their devastation.

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Anyone who expected 2010 would bring comprehensive immigration reform did not account for the Obama administration's priorities of passing health-care reform and improving the economy—essentially the same issues that guided the president in 2009.

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There's no getting around the fact that integrating immigrants costs money. That explains why recession-battered European countries, as well as a number of U.S. states, made cuts to programs affecting immigrants in 2009 and again in 2010.

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Arizona's simmering frustration with the federal immigration system—which has failed to stop illegal immigration through Arizona's border with Mexico — officially boiled over when the state legislature passed and Governor Jan Brewer signed SB 1070 in April 2010.

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The writing was on the wall by late 2009, but 2010 confirmed the migration trends glimpsed months earlier in major immigrant-receiving countries: the global recession that began in late 2007 caused migration flows to drop, halting rapid immigrant population growth, and it pushed unemployment levels for some immigrants far higher than those of the native born.

Fact Sheets
December 2010

This fact sheet, based on analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2009 American Community Survey, documents the top languages spoken by English Language Learners (ELLs) nationwide and on a state level.

Policy Briefs
December 2010

This policy brief shows that more unauthorized immigrants in the United States have been legalized through population-specific and registry programs than through the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act general legalization provisions.

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