Competitiveness

Immigration represents an indispensible component of any strategy to boost economic growth and prosperity. Immigration policy can contribute directly to innovation, technological progress, and rising human-capital levels alongside investments in education and workforce-training systems, research and development, public infrastructure, and regulatory policies that effectively reduce barriers to employment. When done right, immigration policymaking offers employers access to the workers they require to build their firms' competitiveness and can increase availability of vital services.

Recent Activity

Articles April 3, 2024 Brain Drain and Brain Gain in Hong Kong’s Population Shuffle By Yiran Yu	Commentaries March 2024 As Europe and the United States Face Similar Migration Challenges, Spain Can Act as a Bridge By Anna Terrón Cusí and Andrew Selee
Policy Briefs February 2024 A New Way Forward for Employment-Based Immigration: The Bridge Visa By Julia Gelatt and Muzaffar Chishti	Articles January 26, 2024 Aging Societies Rely on Immigrant Health-Care Workers, Posing Challenges for Origin Countries By Heidi Bludau
Policy Briefs October 2023 Shared Gains: Immigrant-Origin Students in U.S. Colleges By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix	Commentaries August 2023 Investing in the Future: Higher Ed Should Give Greater Focus to Growing Immigrant-Origin Student Population By Jeanne Batalova and Miriam Feldblum
Commentaries July 2023 Canada's New Tech Talent Strategy Takes Aim at High-Skilled Immigrants in the United States By Kate Hooper, Jeanne Batalova and Julia Gelatt	Articles June 6, 2023 In Canada’s French-Speaking Quebec, Immigration Sparks Anxieties about Language and Identity By François Rocher

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Policy Briefs February 2024 A New Way Forward for Employment-Based Immigration: The Bridge Visa By Julia Gelatt and Muzaffar Chishti	Policy Briefs October 2023 Shared Gains: Immigrant-Origin Students in U.S. Colleges By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
Policy Briefs April 2023 What Role Can Immigration Play in Addressing Current and Future Labor Shortages? By Kate Hooper	Policy Briefs February 2023 Unblocking the U.S. Immigration System: Executive Actions to Facilitate the Migration of Needed Workers By Julia Gelatt
Fact Sheets December 2022 The Skills and Economic Outcomes of Immigrant and U.S.-Born College Graduates By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix	Policy Briefs October 2022 Diverging Pathways: Immigrants’ Legal Status and Access to Postsecondary Credentials By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
Reports June 2022 The Future of Remote Work: Digital Nomads and the Implications for Immigration Systems By Kate Hooper and Meghan Benton	Policy Briefs May 2021 Rethinking the U.S. Legal Immigration System: A Policy Road Map By Muzaffar Chishti, Julia Gelatt and Doris Meissner

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People walk through the streets of Hong Kong

Feature

April 3, 2024

Brain Drain and Brain Gain in Hong Kong’s Population Shuffle

Hong Kong finds itself in the middle of opposing trends. Amid political unrest, Beijing's increasing security pressure, and pandemic disruptions, many Hong Kongers have left and been replaced by a new group of immigrants, largely from mainland China. The dynamic has raised questions whether Hong Kong will remain a global cosmopolitan hub or instead turn inward to Asia, as this article discusses.

Feature

January 26, 2024

Aging Societies Rely on Immigrant Health-Care Workers, Posing Challenges for Origin Countries

Countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany are increasingly relying on immigrant health-care workers to fill gaps in their workforce and care for aging populations. That has created opportunities for many foreign-born doctors and nurses, but could harm their origin countries. This article examines the dynamics of global health-care worker migration, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Feature

June 6, 2023

In Canada’s French-Speaking Quebec, Immigration Sparks Anxieties about Language and Identity

Canada's ambitions to dramatically increase immigration have met resistance in Quebec, the country's only majority-French province, where many worry their identity is under threat. Provincial officials have sought to fortify the role of the French language in society through academic, immigration, and linguistic policies, but the language nonetheless faces demographic threats, as this article explains.

Feature

April 22, 2021

Iran Loses Highly Educated and Skilled Citizens during Long-Running “Brain Drain”

Large numbers of well-educated Iranians have left their country of birth since its 1979 revolution, in a “brain drain” that has held back Iran’s economy and cultural institutions. Iran’s isolation from the world has worsened in recent years, and a stuttering economy, currency freefall, and widespread impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to the underlying factors encouraging emigration, as this article examines.

President Trump's May 2019 Rose Garden speech

Policy Beat

May 30, 2019

“Merit-Based” Immigration: Trump Proposal Would Dramatically Revamp Immigrant Selection Criteria, But with Modest Effects on Numbers

The Trump administration’s plan to create a "merit-based" U.S. immigration system, lessening the longstanding focus on family reunification in favor of more economic migrants, has met with a lackluster response from Democrats and Republicans alike. This Policy Beat article explores how the Trump proposal would reshape immigration to the United States, and how it compares to selection systems in other countries and past debates about changing the U.S. system.

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Video, Audio

April 11, 2023

Meeting Global Skills and Talent Needs in Changing Labor Markets

Marking the launch of MPI’s Global Skills and Talent Initiative, this webcast features senior policymakers and other experts discussing the extent to which labor market needs should shape future immigration policy decisions, and how countries are adjusting—and could adjust—their immigration systems to meet human capital and competitiveness needs.

Expert Q&A, Audio

March 30, 2023

New Avenues to Help Refugees Get to Safety and Restart Their Lives

How could humanitarian migrants with skills and experience use existing work or study visa pathways to fill labor market needs in destination countries? MPI’s Susan Fratzke speaks with Betsy Fisher, U.S. Director of the nonprofit Talent Beyond Boundaries, about complementary pathways as an innovative addition to refugee resettlement and asylum.

Expert Q&A, Audio

December 9, 2021

The Corporate World’s Response to COVID-19 Pandemic, its Omicron Variant, Digital Nomad Visas & More

How has the business world responded to disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic? In this episode of Moving Beyond Pandemic, we speak with two former government officials who are now in the private sector—Ian Robinson of the immigration law firm Fragomen and Brendan Ryan, CEO of Nomadic, about the trends and policy environment shaping business mobility decisions.

Expert Q&A, Audio

November 12, 2021

Leveraging the Benefits That Immigration Can Bring

In this World of Migration podcast episode, MPI Senior Fellow Michael Fix speaks with Senior Policy Analyst Julia Gelatt about the fiscal impacts of immigration, the importance of immigrant integration, how a greater focus on credential recognition could allow immigrants to more fully utilize the academic and professional skills they bring with them, and much more.

World of Migration podcast episode 3 tile

Expert Q&A, Audio

October 20, 2021

Building a Modern U.S. Immigration and Asylum System in the National Interest

People on all sides of the policy debate largely agree that the U.S. immigration system is broken. What should a 21st century system that works in the national interest look like? And is this vision achievable amid current political realities?

Recent Activity

Articles

April 3, 2024

Brain Drain and Brain Gain in Hong Kong’s Population Shuffle

Commentaries

March 2024

As Europe and the United States Face Similar Migration Challenges, Spain Can Act as a Bridge

Spain and the United States both receive their greatest number of immigrants from Latin America, and have worked collaboratively together on displacement crises and other migration issues. As shared immigration challenges dominate debate on both sides of the Atlantic, Spain can serve as a vital bridge in the policy conversation, this commentary notes.

Policy Briefs

February 2024

A New Way Forward for Employment-Based Immigration: The Bridge Visa

U.S. employment-based visa policies, last updated in 1990, are not aligned with the country’s current and future labor market needs. This policy brief outlines MPI’s proposal for a new visa pathway that could help the United States better leverage immigration to meet its labor market needs, boost protections for both U.S.- and foreign-born workers, and flexibly adapt to future economic and demographic changes.

Articles

January 26, 2024

Aging Societies Rely on Immigrant Health-Care Workers, Posing Challenges for Origin Countries

Policy Briefs

October 2023

Shared Gains: Immigrant-Origin Students in U.S. Colleges

U.S. colleges and universities have seen enrollment fluctuate over the last 20 years, shaped by demographic and economic changes in the United States and shifting views of the value of higher education. This issue brief explores how enrollment trends have played out for immigrants, the children of immigrants, and U.S.-born individuals with U.S.-born parents.

Commentaries

August 2023

Investing in the Future: Higher Ed Should Give Greater Focus to Growing Immigrant-Origin Student Population

Eighty percent of the increase in U.S. college enrollment between 2000 and 2021 came from U.S.-born students with immigrant parents or first-generation immigrant students. This population, often overlooked, should receive significantly more focus as leaders in higher education and workforce development seek to deliver a skilled workforce for a rapidly changing U.S. labor market, this commentary argues.

Commentaries

July 2023

Canada's New Tech Talent Strategy Takes Aim at High-Skilled Immigrants in the United States

Canada’s Tech Talent Strategy is highly unusual for its explicit targeting of visa holders in another country. Opening a dedicated stream specifically for high-skilled immigrants in the United States who hold an H-1B visa is the latest salvo in a growing global competition for talent—one in which some countries are racing ahead of the United States in terms of policy dynamism, as this commentary explores.

Articles

June 6, 2023

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