Recruitment

The challenges surrounding the recruitment of foreign workers are complex. Recruitment agencies play an important role in facilitating and driving labor migration, but if left unregulated can abuse the workers they place via excessive placement fees or expensive predeparture loans, as well as increase the cost of doing business for employers. The research offered here examines recruitment practices and the regulatory systems that govern recruitment agencies, and provides an assessment of the gaps and possible solutions.

Recent Activity

Policy Briefs August 2019 Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy: New Realities Call for New Answers By Doris Meissner	Reports July 2019 Equipping Immigrant Selection Systems for a Changing World of Work (Transatlantic Council Statement) By Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Meghan Benton and Kate Hooper
Reports July 2019 Start-Up Visas: A Passport for Innovation and Growth? By Liam Patuzzi	Articles June 6, 2019 Migration and Integration in Czechia: Policy Advances and the Hand Brake of Populism By Dušan Drbohlav and Kristýna Janurová
Articles May 30, 2019 “Merit-Based” Immigration: Trump Proposal Would Dramatically Revamp Immigrant Selection Criteria, But with Modest Effects on Numbers By Muzaffar Chishti and Jessica Bolter	Reports May 2019 The Evolution of the Australian System for Selecting Economic Immigrants By Anna Boucher and Amy Davidson
Articles May 8, 2019 Can Return Migration Revitalize the Baltics? Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania Engage Their Diasporas, with Mixed Results By Ieva Birka	Explainers April 2019 Explainer: How the U.S. Legal Immigration System Works By Julia Gelatt

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Reports July 2014 Migration’s Local Dividends: How Cities and Regions Can Make the Most of Immigration (Transatlantic Council Statement) By Demetrios G. Papademetriou	Books May 2014 Migration of Health Workers: The WHO Code of Practice and the Global Economic Crisis
Policy Briefs October 2013 What We Know About Migration and Development By Kathleen Newland	Policy Briefs September 2013 What We Know: Regulating the Recruitment of Migrant Workers By Dovelyn Rannveig Mendoza
Fact Sheets August 2013 Side-by-Side Comparison of 2013 Senate Immigration Bill with Individual 2013 House Bills	Fact Sheets April 2013 Side-by-Side Comparison of 2013 Senate Immigration Bill with 2006 and 2007 Senate Legislation
Fact Sheets April 2013 Side-by-Side Comparison of the 2013 Senate Immigration Framework with 2006 and 2007 Senate Legislation	Policy Briefs October 2012 Thailand at a Crossroads: Challenges and Opportunities in Leveraging Migration for Development By Jerry Huguet, Aphichat Chamratrithirong and Claudia Natali

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Policy Beat

April 23, 2015

Recent Court Decisions Put a Sharp Spotlight on U.S. H-2B Temporary Worker Visa Program

The H-2B visa allows U.S. employers to bring in foreign workers to temporarily fill low-skill nonagricultural jobs across a wide range of states and industries. A series of recent legal challenges has exposed the presence of fraud and abuse, while stripping the program of its regulations and raising uncertainty about its future. This Policy Beat examines the implications in the debate surrounding temporary worker programs.

Feature

March 4, 2015

Destination China: The Country Adjusts to its New Migration Reality

Faced with rising numbers of foreign entries (long- and short-term), China in 2012 adopted new legislation to manage its migration flows—the first reform to the country's immigration law since 1985. With an underlying tension in the legal framework between restricting immigrants deemed unwanted and welcoming those viewed as desirable, this feature examines the exit-entry law's key points.

Feature

February 20, 2015

Following the Money: Chinese Labor Migration to Zambia

Migration has begun to follow the flow of capital after years of Chinese investment in major infrastructure projects in Zambia. This feature article, based on original research including the coding of 25,000 Zambian entry permits, examines the emerging migration pattern from China to Zambia, as Chinese migration to the country has increased 60 percent since 2009.

Top Ten

December 11, 2014

Exploitation of Migrant Workers in Asia

Mass cases of exploitation and abuse of migrant workers have drawn international scrutiny and criticism of the kafala system in Gulf Cooperation Council countries and private recruitment practices in Southeast Asia. With Qatar under scrutiny amid a frenzied construction boom in advance of the 2022 World Cup, international organizations and human-rights groups in 2014 stepped up their campaign for worker protection reforms.

Top Ten

December 10, 2014

The Points System Is Dead, Long Live the Points System

2014 marked the quiet demise worldwide of the traditional points system for selecting skilled immigrants. Canada, which in 1969 invented the points system, in 2015 will join other countries in adopting a hybrid system that places more emphasis on a demand-driven system. This article examines how following the economic crisis, governments have revamped, hybridized, or ended such programs.

Recent Activity

Policy Briefs

August 2019

Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy: New Realities Call for New Answers

The U.S. immigration system is in desperate need of an overhaul. What has been missing is an alternate vision for a path forward that treats immigration as a strategic resource while also accounting for heightened security and rule-of-law imperatives, which together can further U.S. interests, values, and democratic principles as a society. This concept note outlines a new MPI initiative, Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy, that seeks to fill this gap.

Reports

July 2019

Equipping Immigrant Selection Systems for a Changing World of Work (Transatlantic Council Statement)

As technological developments—from automation to artificial intelligence and machine learning—reshape the world of work, governments face the challenge of updating how they attract, select, and retain economic-stream immigrants. This report, concluding a series on building migration systems for a new age of economic competitiveness, lays out the key considerations for "future-proofing" immigrant selection systems.

Reports

July 2019

Start-Up Visas: A Passport for Innovation and Growth?

Over the last decade, a number of governments have launched start-up visa programs in the hopes of attracting talented immigrant entrepreneurs with innovative business ideas. With the track record for these programs a mixed one, this report explains how embedding start-up visas within a broader innovation strategy could lead to greater success.

Articles

June 6, 2019

Migration and Integration in Czechia: Policy Advances and the Hand Brake of Populism

Since regaining its independence in 1989, the Czech Republic has transformed from a country of emigration to one of rising immigration, amid growing labor market needs. Even as Czechia received few asylum seekers during the 2015-16 European migration crisis, the country has taken a harder line on immigration, and public opinion and political stances have grown more negative towards immigrants and refugees.

Articles

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.

Reports

May 2019

The Evolution of the Australian System for Selecting Economic Immigrants

Since the mid-1990s, Australia has moved away from a focus on family reunification to place greater emphasis on workers coming via temporary and permanent channels. The evolution of the country's points-based model for selecting economic migrants and move to a predominately employer-driven system offer lessons for other countries that seek to develop a tailored and targeted immigration selection system.

Articles

May 8, 2019

Can Return Migration Revitalize the Baltics? Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania Engage Their Diasporas, with Mixed Results

Faced with high emigration rates and shrinking, aging populations, the Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—are exploring different ways to lure back nationals who have emigrated and establish or solidify ties with members of the diaspora. Of the three countries, Estonia is proving the most successful, while Latvia appears to be ignoring the looming demographic crisis and lacks an immigration plan.

Explainers

April 2019

Explainer: How the U.S. Legal Immigration System Works

Through which visa categories can immigrants move temporarily or permanently to the United States? What are the main channels by which people come, and who can sponsor them for a green card? Are there limits on visa categories? And who is waiting in the green-card backlog? This explainer answers basic questions about temporary and permanent immigration via family, employment, humanitarian, and other channels.

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