E.g., 04/18/2024
E.g., 04/18/2024
Immigration Policy & Law

Immigration Policy & Law

Civil Liberties
Comprehensive Immigration Reform
DREAM Act/Deferred Action
Employment-Based Immigration
Family Reunification
Integration Policy
International Students
Legalization/Regularization
Selection Systems
Visa Policy
_ImmigrationPolicy+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

Chinese lanterns
Articles
February 15, 2018
Australia: A Welcoming Destination for Some
By Christine Inglis
DiversityVisa
Commentaries
February 2018
The Diversity Visa Program Holds Lessons for Future Legal Immigration Reform
By  Julia Gelatt
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Articles
February 8, 2018
Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States
By Jie Zong, Jeanne Batalova, and Jeffrey Hallock
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Policy Briefs
January 2018
Welcome to Work? Legal Migration Pathways for Low-Skilled Workers
By  Kathleen Newland and Andrea Riester
WhiteHouse
Commentaries
January 2018
The Trump Immigration Plan: A Lopsided Proposal
By  Julia Gelatt and Sarah Pierce
7-Eleven in Los Angeles
Articles
January 24, 2018
Shifting Gears, Trump Administration Launches High-Profile Worksite Enforcement Operations
By Muzaffar Chishti, Sarah Pierce, and Jessica Bolter
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Reports
January 2018
Trump’s First Year on Immigration Policy: Rhetoric vs. Reality
By  Sarah Pierce, Jessica Bolter and Andrew Selee
Coverthumb TCM StateLocalResponsses
Reports
January 2018
In the Age of Trump: Populist Backlash and Progressive Resistance Create Divergent State Immigrant Integration Contexts
By  Margie McHugh

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Reports
March 2003
America's Challenge: Domestic Security, Civil Liberties, and National Unity After September 11
By  Muzaffar Chishti, Doris Meissner, Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Michael Wishnie, Stephen Yale-Loehr and Jay Peterzell
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Policy Briefs
June 2002
Reconcilable Differences? An Evaluation of Current INS Restructuring Proposals
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Deborah W. Meyers
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Books
May 2002
Citizenship Policies for an Age of Migration
By  T. Alexander Aleinikoff and Douglas Klusmeyer
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Fact Sheets
April 2002
A Grand Bargain: Balancing the National Security, Economic, and Immigration Interests of the U.S. and Mexico
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou
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Policy Briefs
September 2001
Background Paper on Immigration and National Security

Pages

Recent Activity

Articles
February 15, 2018

Australia: A Welcoming Destination for Some

Immigration has driven economic and social development in Australia for more than two centuries. Even as more than one-fourth of the country’s population is foreign born and Australia ranks third among top refugee resettlement countries worldwide, controversy surrounding its hardline treatment of asylum seekers arriving by boat has cast a shadow on its reputation as a welcoming country, as this article explores.

Commentaries
February 2018

The Diversity Visa Program Holds Lessons for Future Legal Immigration Reform

On paper, the Diversity Visa Program is not set up to bring in the highly skilled; applicants need only a high school diploma (or equivalent) or two years of mid-level work experience. Yet as this commentary explains, the green-card lottery has become a channel for entry of the highly skilled—with half of recipients coming to the United States in recent years having a college degree.

Articles
February 8, 2018

Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States

The United States is by far the world's top migration destination, home to roughly one-fifth of all global migrants. In 2016, nearly 44 million immigrants lived in the United States, comprising 13.5 percent of the country's population. Get the most sought-after data available on immigrants and immigration trends, including top countries of origin, legal immigration pathways, enforcement actions, health-care coverage, and much more.

Policy Briefs
January 2018

Welcome to Work? Legal Migration Pathways for Low-Skilled Workers

Although in many countries immigrants fill labor gaps in fields such as agriculture and construction, few legal migration pathways exist for low-skilled workers. As states meet to negotiate a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration, this policy brief takes stock of the channels available for such workers to move legally and take up work abroad, highlighting promising practices and policy gaps.

Commentaries
January 2018

The Trump Immigration Plan: A Lopsided Proposal

The White House immigration plan offered as a solution to resolve the fate of DREAMers seeks legal immigration cuts unlike any seen since 1924. In addition to a decrease of up to 40 percent in family-sponsored immigration, the proposal demands vast increases in enforcement and a retrenchment in protections for those seeking humanitarian relief. In exchange, one-sixth of the unauthorized population could gain legal status.

Articles
January 24, 2018

Shifting Gears, Trump Administration Launches High-Profile Worksite Enforcement Operations

An unannounced sweep of 98 convenience stores by U.S. immigration authorities—resulting in the arrest of 21 unauthorized workers—may signal a new approach to worksite enforcement under the Trump administration, moving away from a strategy of paper-based audits that resulted in higher employer fines and fewer worker arrests. This article explores worksite enforcement over recent decades.

Reports
January 2018

Trump’s First Year on Immigration Policy: Rhetoric vs. Reality

Looking back after one year in office, it is striking how just closely the Trump administration’s actions on immigration have hewed to priorities Donald Trump outlined in an uncommonly detailed policy speech in August 2016. This report revisits those pledges to assess where the administration has made the most and least headway, and what its policy agenda ahead might look like.

Reports
January 2018

In the Age of Trump: Populist Backlash and Progressive Resistance Create Divergent State Immigrant Integration Contexts

As long-simmering passions related to federal immigration policies have come to a full boil, less noted but no less important debates are taking place at state and local levels with regards to policies affecting immigrants and their children. As states are increasingly diverging in their responses, this report examines how some of the key policies and programs that support long-term integration success are faring in this volatile era.

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