Reflections on Restoring Integrity to the United States Immigration System: A Personal Vision

In the debate on US immigration reform, a number of legislative proposals have been introduced.To be effective, reforms must take into account the lessons learned from implementing the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA).This policy brief summarizes these lessons learned as follows: * The robust and growing demand for work and family reunification visas must be incorporated into new policies;* Legalization should not be done halfway;* Reducing incentives for fraud should be a top policy goal; and* Migration is a complex phenomenon that cannot be managed unilaterally; it requires cooperation among neighboring countries.The policy brief argues that there are three "E"s required to achieve stable reform:* Enforcement that devises smarter border and interior controls that are consistent with America's values, temperament, and philosophy of government powers;* Expanded numbers of visas that address the continuing demand, especially from citizens of the countries on America's borders; and* Earned regularization that offers a realistic and fair opportunity to the unauthorized resident population in the United States to earn lawful permanent status

A Canada-U.S. Border for the 21st Century

Canada-U.S. border in the 21st centur

A Canada-U.S. Border for the 21st Century

Canada-U.S. border in the 21st centur

Immigrants and Homeownership in Urban America: An Examination of Nativity, Socio-economic Status and Place

A unique pilot project conducted in America's small and medium-sized cities shows that broad-based community coalitions can proactively integrate the newcomers who are increasingly transforming Main St., USA. In the first project of its kind, a consortium of leading organizations in three mid-sized metropolitan areas undertook inclusive community-building. The project's final report contains valuable findings for policymakers, funders and organizations collectively approaching the challenge of helping newcomers adapt to their new communities and local communities welcome newcomers

Achieving Skill Mobility in the ASEAN Economic Community: Challenges, Opportunity, and Policy Implications

Despite clear aspirations by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to create an effective and transparent framework to facilitate movements among skilled professionals within the ASEAN by December 2015, progress has been slow and uneven. This report examines the challenges ASEAN member states face in achieving the goal of greater mobility for the highly skilled, including hurdles in recognizing professional qualifications, opening up access to certain jobs, and a limited willingness by professionals to move due to perceived cultural, language, and socioeconomic differences. The cost of these barriers is staggering and could reduce the region’s competitiveness in the global market. This report launches a multiyear effort by the Asian Development Bank and the Migration Policy Institute to better understand the issues and develop strategies to gradually overcome the problems. It offers a range of policy recommendations that have been discussed among experts in a high-level expert meeting, taking into account best practices locally and across the region

Observations on Regularization and the Labor Market Performance of Unauthorized and Regularized Immigrants

Task Force Policy Brief No. 4. This author argues that legalization (or "regularization" in Europe) of unauthorized migrants can not only prevent the illegally resident population from building to unacceptable levels, but can also make the management of migration more effective when used in concert with other policy initiatives

The Impact of Acquiring Unrestricted Work Authorization on Romanian and Bulgarian Migrants in the United Kingdom

When Romania and Bulgaria (the so-called A2 countries) joined the European Union in 2007, the United Kingdom imposed temporary restrictions on the employment and welfare entitlements of A2 citizens that lasted until January 1, 2014. This article analyzes the impact of the removal of these restrictions on the labor market outcomes and use of welfare benefits of A2 migrants. Applying difference-in-difference analysis to data from the UK’s Labour Force Survey, the results suggest that acquiring unrestricted work authorization had a significant negative impact on the incidence of self-employment among A2 migrants but there are no discernible effects on other labor market outcomes or on their receipt of a range of welfare benefits. The article offers potential explanations for these results

Migration's Local Dividends: How Cities and Regions Can Make the Most of Immigration

Well-managed immigration can be a windfall for local economies by creating jobs and fueling growth, fostering innovation, and bringing in new revenue. But these benefits are neither automatic nor do they accrue evenly. Highly skilled and entrepreneurial migrants tend to flock to certain geographic "magnets" -- such as vibrant metropolises, financial hubs, or tech clusters -- while other regions may struggle to attract and retain native and foreign workers alike.Meanwhile increasing mobility has brought new challenges, which are also asymmetrically distributed. And many cities, even those experiencing new dynamism and growth, have to contend with community tensions arising over the allocation of often scarce public resources such as housing, social welfare, and health services, as well as difficult-to-address problems of poverty, residential segregation, and social exclusion.While cities and regions experience both the positive and negative effects of immigration firsthand, they are typically at arm's length, at best, from the policy reins that enable and shape these movements. Immigration policies are rarely calibrated to regional, let alone local, needs.This Council Statement from the 11th plenary meeting of the MPI-convened Transatlantic Council on Migration examines how policymakers at all levels can work together to get more out of immigration. The Statement launches a series of reports from the Council's meeting on the topic "Cities and Regions: Reaping Migration's Local Dividends." The series examines place-based immigration and entrepreneurship policies, city attractiveness, social cohesion, and means to build inclusive cities