Migration Policy Institute
The Role of National Governments in Promoting Immigrant Integration
Multimedia Tabs
The Honorable Rosario Farmhouse, High Commissioner for Immigration and Intercultural Dialogue in Portugal
The Honorable Alejandro Mayorkas, Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
The Honorable Jasenko Selimovic, State Secretary to the Minister for Integration in Sweden
The Honorable Peter Sylvester, Associate Deputy Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Demetrios G. Papademetriou, MPI President
On both sides of the Atlantic, the continued growth of immigrant populations and their dispersal to new destinations have raised expectations that national governments will articulate a coherent vision and design more effective processes for achieving immigrant integration.
While creating an effective immigrant integration system can be a complex, contentious, and potentially costly endeavor, failures in immigrant integration can set into motion a cycle of intergenerational poverty for immigrant-origin families and harden mainstream views about the benefits of remaining open to immigration.
Given the significant integration efforts being undertaken in a diverse range of countries, this public event provides a rich set of policy perspectives on efforts national governments can undertake to support the success of immigrants and their families in their new host societies.