Leading Scholars Michael Fix and David Martin Join the Migration Policy Institute

Washington, D.C. – The Migration Policy Institute announced today that noted migration scholars Michael Fix and David A. Martin will be joining the think tank to advance its agenda of nonpartisan research and policy analysis on global migration and immigrant integration.

Michael Fix will become Vice President and Director of Studies. In this capacity, he will provide intellectual guidance to the Institute’s entire research agenda while further developing MPI’s concentration on immigrant integration. David Martin will join MPI as a Non-resident Fellow, focusing on the legal aspects of migration management at the national and global levels. The appointments will take effect in January 2005. Both scholars will play central roles in MPI’s ambitious program of research, analysis and policy recommendations for comprehensive U.S. immigration reform.

“The Institute has gained substantial momentum over the last three years, building on the expertise, experience and quest for excellence of our analysts,” said MPI President Demetrios Papademetriou. 
“Having these two highly respected scholars and innovators in the field join us will deepen the Institute’s ability to provide independent analysis and policy insight on all aspects of global migration, one of the most compelling policy and political issues of our time.”

Michael Fix, an attorney, serves as a Principal Research Associate at the Urban Institute, where he has directed the Immigration Studies Program since 1998. He is one of the nation’s leading immigrant integration analysts and has worked on regulatory reform, federalism, race, and the measurement of discrimination. In the area of immigrant integration policy, Mr. Fix’s research has focused on citizenship policy, immigrant children and families, the education of immigrant students, the effect of welfare reform on immigrants, and the impact of immigrants on the U.S. labor force.

Mr. Fix is a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ panel on the redesign of the U.S. citizenship test. He served as a member of the Immigration Task Force of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, and on the Committee on the Health and Adjustment of Immigrant Children of the National Research Council. Mr. Fix also chaired the Working Group on Social Rights and Citizenship of the Migration Policy Institute’s Comparative Citizenship Project. Between 1986 and 1988, Mr. Fix was a consultant to the Rockefeller Foundation’s Equal Opportunity Program.

David A. Martin is the Warner-Booker Distinguished Professor of International Law at the University of Virginia, where he will continue to teach. He is the co-author with T. Alexander Aleinikoff and Hiroshi Motomura of a leading law school casebook, Immigration and Citizenship: Process and Policy, now in its fifth edition. 

Mr. Martin joined the law faculty in 1980, after serving two years as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, where he was involved in drafting the Refugee Act of 1980. From 1995 to 1998, he served as General Counsel of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He has lectured on subjects including citizenship, immigration, refugee law, international law, international human rights, constitutional law, and presidential powers.

Mr. Martin has twice served as a consultant to the Administrative Conference of the United States, preparing studies and recommendations on federal migrant worker assistance programs and on reforms to political asylum adjudication procedures. In 1993, he served as an advisor to the Department of Justice, leading to major reforms of the U.S. political asylum adjudication system. He recently completed a comprehensive study of the U.S. overseas refugee admissions program for the Department of State, containing recommendations for reform of that system.

“Both Michael Fix and David Martin have proven track records of excellence in their research and the practical solutions they propose for complex governance problems,” said MPI Senior Fellow Doris Meissner. “MPI is fortunate to have attracted such talent, especially at a time when U.S. immigration policy is in need of comprehensive reform.”