 |
Credential Recognition in the United States for Foreign Professionals
Foreign-trained professionals in the United States often encounter significant obstacles on their path to professional practice, among them difficulties in demonstrating the value of their past work experience and qualifications. This report examines the decentralized US credential recognition process, particularly with regards to recertification in the medical and engineering sectors and offers recommendations for improvement.
Download Report | Press Release |
| |
|
 |
Thinking Regionally to Compete Globally: Leveraging Migration and Human Capital in the U.S., Mexico, and Central America
This final report by the Regional Migration Study Group outlines the powerful demographic, economic, and social forces reshaping Mexico and much of Central America and changing longstanding migration dynamics with the United States. The Study Group, co-chaired by former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, former US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, and former Guatemalan Vice President and Foreign Minister Eduardo Stein, offers a forward-looking, pragmatic agenda for the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras - focusing on new collaborative approaches on migration and human-capital development to strengthen regional competitiveness.
Download Report | Study Group Home | Press Release | Aviso de Prensa |
| |
|
 |
Migration and Environmental Change: Assessing the Developing European Approach
By Andrew Geddes and Will Somerville
Migration resulting from environmental change has been a topic of preoccupation since the 1990s, but in practice there has been very little policy development within the European Union on this topic. This brief finds that while such migration is likely to be largely concentrated in areas outside of Europe, there are far-reaching implications for policy. Download Brief |
| |
|
 |
Detailed Review of the 2013 Senate Legislation and Side-by-Side Comparison with 2006, 2007 Senate Bills
This issue brief offers a detailed review of major provisions included in S.744, the immigration legislation introduced in the Senate by a bipartisan group of senators, and compares those provisions with bills considered by the Senate in 2006 and 2007. Topics reviewed include border security and enforcement; creation of Registered Provisional Immigrant (RPI) status for unauthorized immigrants, the DREAM Act, agricultural workers program, and paths to lawful permanent residence; immigrant integration; creation of a new merit-based visa and adjustments to preference categories for family- and employment-based immigration; employment verification, detention and immigration court provisions, and more.
Download Brief |
| |
|
 |
Side-by-Side Comparison of 2013 Senate Immigration Framework with 2006 and 2007 Senate Legislation
The Migration Policy Institute has completed an analysis of the major provisions in the 2013 framework, comparing them to provisions of the legislation the Senate considered in 2006 and 2007.
Download Brief |
| |
|
 |
Legal Immigration Policies for Low-Skilled Foreign Workers
The current US legal immigration system includes few visas for low-skilled workers, and employers have relied heavily on an unauthorized workforce in many low-skilled occupations. This issue brief explains the questions that policymakers must grapple with when designing programs for admission of low-skill workers, for temporary as well as permanent entry. The brief focuses in part on the recent agreement by the US Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO regarding admission of future low-skilled workers.
Download Brief |
| |
|
 |
Mexican Migration to the United States: Underlying Economic Factors and Possible Scenarios for Future Flows
By Daniel Chiquiar and Alejandrina Salcedo
The recent history of Mexican migration to the United States is one marked by high flows during the 1990s that reached a peak in 2000 and then dropped, plummeting sharply with softening of the US construction sector in 2007 and onset of the recession the following year. What will migration from Mexico to the United States look like in the future? This report by two economists examines economic factors that have influenced contemporary flows and offers scenarios on how such flows could evolve over the next several years.
Download Report | Spanish-Language Brief |
| |
|
 |
The Netherlands: From National Identity to Plural Identifications
By Monique Kremer
National identity has become a highly politicized issue in the Netherlands in the past decade, with many public figures voicing different opinions on what it means to be “Dutch.” Both right-wing and mainstream parties have adopted political rhetoric that appeals to the public’s growing anxiety about immigrants and their effect on local communities, and many have proposed policies designed to mitigate these fears. This new dialogue has marked a turn away from multiculturalism and a turn toward “culturalized citizenship” — the idea that being Dutch means adhering to a certain set of cultural and social norms and practices.
Download Report |
| |
|
 |
Immigration and National Identity in Norway
By Thomas Hylland Eriksen
The number of immigrants and their descendants in Norway almost tripled between 1995 and 2011, resulting in increased debates about integration, immigration policy, multiculturalism, and national identity in recent years. The atrocities of July 2011 revealed an active, militantly anti-immigrant (particularly anti-Muslim) fringe that sees government’s acceptance of cultural pluralism as treacherous. This report assesses the connection between the recent rise of resentment against immigration and broader trends in Norwegian nationalism, and proposes a few policy recommendations with the aim of minimizing this rift in Norwegian society.
Download Report |
| |
|
 |
Unauthorized Immigrant Parents and Their Children’s Development
By Hirokazu Yoshikawa and Jenya Kholoptseva
According to recent estimates, 5.5 million children in the United States — all but 1 million of them US-born — reside with at least one unauthorized immigrant parent. Given that they constitute about 8 percent of all US children, their well-being holds important implications for US society. Emerging research suggests that having an unauthorized immigrant parent is associated with lower cognitive skills in early childhood, lower levels of general positive development in middle childhood, higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms during adolescence, and fewer years of schooling. This report, co-authored by the Academic Dean of Harvard Graduate School of Education, explores the research and suggests policies and programs to reduce or mitigate these developmental risks.
Download Report |
| |
|
 |
Immigrants in a Changing Labor Market: Responding to Economic Needs
Edited by Michael Fix, Demetrios G. Papademetriou, and Madeleine Sumption
This volume, which brings together research by leading economists and labor market specialists, examines the role immigrants play in the U.S. workforce, how they fare in good and bad economic times, and the effects they have on native-born workers and the labor sectors in which they are engaged. The book traces the powerful economic forces at play in today’s globalized world and includes policy prescriptions for making the American immigration system more responsive to labor market needs.
Purchase the book | Press Release |
| |
|
 |
Identity and (Muslim) Integration in Germany
By Naika Foroutan
Germany has become a country of immigration in recent decades, with one-fifth of its population comprised of immigrants and their children. Yet a dominant perception in public discourse and media is that of a homogenous German society in which those with a migration background cannot fully belong. This country case study explores how immigration influences national identity in Germany and the reciprocal influence that German national identity has on immigrants.
Download Report |
| |
|
 |
Exceptional in Europe? Spain’s Experience with Immigration and Integration
By Joaquín Arango
Spain’s immigrant population increased from less than 4 percent of the country’s overall population to almost 14 percent in the span of one short decade. Unlike other European countries, however, Spain has not experienced a significant backlash against immigration, even amid an economic crisis that has hit the country hard and led to high levels of unemployment. This country case study from MPI’s Transatlantic Council on Migration explains Spain’s enduring openness to immigration and immigrants.
Download Report |
| |
|
 |
Going to the Back of the Line: A Primer on Lines, Visa Categories, and Wait Times
By Claire Bergeron
Contrary to popular belief, there is not one “line” that leads to lawful permanent residence; current immigration law provides multiple paths to permanent residency. This brief, the first in a new series of issue briefs related to the ongoing comprehensive immigration reform debate, examines who is in the “line,” what are the various visa categories involved in family- and employment-based immigration, wait times, countries most affected by the backlogs, and more. The brief, and MPI’s extensive research and data offerings that are directly on point to the current debate, can be found at a new online resource: www.migrationpolicy.org/cir.
Download Brief | Press Release |
| |
|
 |
The Integration Needs of Mobile EU Citizens: Impediments and Opportunities
By Elizabeth Collett
The right to free movement granted to all European Union citizens represents a unique experiment in the contemporary history of global migration systems. To date, however, the integration of mobile EU citizens as a specific target group has not been widely discussed, either at EU or national levels, and EU-level integration policies focus on the integration of legally residing third-country nationals. This report investigates the broad range of integration needs that exist in Europe and the role different actors can play in meeting them.
Download Report | Press Release |
| |
|
|
From MPI Europe
How Free Is Free Movement? Dynamics and Drivers of Mobility within the European Union
By Meghan Benton and Milica Petrovic
While free movement is at the heart of the European project, the merits and impacts of intra-EU mobility have come under significant scrutiny recently amid public anxiety about competition for jobs and exploitation of welfare systems. This report provides a detailed assessment of free movement, motivations for migration, and challenges countries may need to address as intra-EU mobility enters its next phase.
Download Report | Press Release |
| |
|
|
From MPI Europe
Facing 2020: Developing a New European Agenda for Immigration and Asylum Policy
By Elizabeth Collett
As the European Commission looks ahead to the next strategic program for immigration in 2014, this policy brief sketches the challenges in developing a strategic, long-term agenda on migration at a time when Europe remains beset by fiscal uncertainty and a jobs crisis that is particularly acute for the young. Against such a backdrop, few governments are willing to have a serious conversation about anything but skilled immigration.
Download Brief | Press Release
|
| |
|
 |
Strengthening Health Systems in North and Central America: What Role for Migration?
By Allison Squires and Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez
International nurse migration is a multibillion-dollar global phenomenon. Historically, Mexicans and Central Americans have not played a significant part in the migration of nurses to the United States. This report examines the health care sector in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and the United States, reviewing their health care systems, demand for services, epidemiological profiles, and demographics. Using migration to meet health care demand is complex; it does, however, hold the potential for benefits to health care systems, economies, and patient outcomes.
Download Report | Spanish-Language Brief |
| |
|
 |
Ripe with Change: Evolving Farm Labor Markets in the United States, Mexico, and Central America
By Philip Martin and J. Edward Taylor
Mexico is in the transitional phase of being both farm labor exporter and importer: serving as the major supplier of hired labor to US farms but increasingly also relying on farm workers from Guatemala. This report examines the labor market dynamics of the region, focusing on changes in the volume and composition of production, the supermarket revolution in Latin America, training and education changes, and more. It assesses the implications of these changes on workers and migration.
Download Report | Press Release |
| |
|
 |
Immigration Enforcement in the United States: The Rise of a Formidable Machinery
By Doris Meissner, Donald M. Kerwin, Muzaffar Chishti, and Claire Bergeron
The US government spends more on federal immigration enforcement than on all other principal federal criminal law enforcement agencies combined, and has allocated nearly $187 billion for immigration enforcement since 1986. Deportations have reached record highs, border apprehensions 40-year lows, and more noncitizens than ever before are in immigration detention. The report traces the evolution of the immigration enforcement system, particularly in the post-9/11 era, in terms of budgets, personnel, enforcement actions, and technology – analyzing how individual programs and policies have resulted in a complex, interconnected, cross-agency system.
Download Report | Press Release | Report-in-Brief | Listen to Audio | NRO Column
|
| |
|
 |
Manufacturing in the United States, Mexico, and Central America: Implications for Competitiveness and Migration
By Peter A. Creticos and Eleanor Sohnen
The manufacturing sector is a significant source of employment for workers from Mexico and Central America's Northern Triangle — with an estimated 17 percent employed in manufacturing in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, and immigrants from these countries making up 8 percent of the US manufacturing workforce. This report examines how aggressive manufacturing-attraction strategies have benefited the economies of Mexico, and to a lesser extent, the Northern Triangle. Yet the achievements of the maquiladora development strategy have masked important flaws that threaten to stymie the promise of even greater economic growth. The report outlines the need for the regional workforce to gain the skills to compete with counterparts in advanced manufacturing regions such as northern Europe and Japan, as well as for credentialing standards, training systems, and outcome measures that are comparable to those in industrialized economies.
Download Report |
| |
|
 |
Crime and Violence in Mexico and Central America: An Evolving but Incomplete US Policy Response
By Andrew Selee, Cynthia J. Arnson, and Eric L. Olson
Amid dramatic increases in crime and violence in Mexico and Central America, the US government has significantly increased its attention to public security issues in the region since 2007, with the Merida Initiative and the Central American Regional Security Initiative. The US policy response has been hampered to an extent, however, by US and regional obstacles. The authors suggest the policy emphasis has begun to shift in important ways, with more attention paid to addressing the citizen security crisis — a move away from the earlier near-total focus on combating drug trafficking and transnational crime.
Download Report |
| |
|
 |
In the Lurch between Government and Chaos: Unconsolidated Democracy in Mexico
By Luis Rubio
Democratic transitions in Mexico and parts of Central America over the past two decades have tested the limits of their governing institutions, with old-regime institutions not being overhauled to keep pace with modern, complex challenges. The old mechanisms to control and contain crime and violence have proven too primitive; organized crime has taken over key activities and corruption has become more entrenched at various levels of government. The challenge is to build modern, competent democratic institutions capable of engaging in good governance.
Download Report |
| |
|
| Click here for earlier publications. |
|
MPI Bookstore
 MPI publications provide timely, nonpartisan analysis of the issues of migration management, national security and civil liberties, refugee protection and international humanitarian response, North American borders, and immigrant settlement and integration. They are cost-effective resources for academic use, staff trainings, strategic planning, program evaluation, board and donor education, advocacy efforts, and other migration-related work.
Visit the bookstore to learn more.
Reprints of MPI Publications
The Migration Policy Institute invites you to include reprints of MPI's reports, fact sheets, and data in your classroom, website, publications, or presentations.
Use of any Migration Policy Institute materials for commercial or nonpersonal purposes (whether to copy, reproduce, display, distribute, post online, or otherwise use) requires prior approval from MPI. To obtain permission, please visit our copyright policy page.
|
|
|
|
|
