As aging native-born workers leave the labor force, the growth of the U.S. workforce and economy has increasingly depended on immigrant workers. More than 50 percent of U.S. workforce growth over the past 20 years has come from immigrants and their children. This report from NFAP estimates that by 2021 Trump administration changes in long-standing […]
Archive | General Research
Have We Mismanaged the Southern Border? CMS Paper Argues that the Problem Goes Back to the Obama Administration
In this essay, author Rena Cutlip-Mason reviews the U.S. government’s response to the influx of immigrants from the Central American “Northern Triangle” countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala between 2011-2016. The paper critiques the Trump administration’s “extreme border policies,” while also faulting the Obama administration for failing to deal effectively with the root causes […]
The Relative Advantages and Disadvantages of Alternative Immigrant Selection Systems
The research for this paper was commissioned by the Transatlantic Council for its 2018 meeting in Brussels devoted to the theme of “Building Migration Systems for a New Age of Economic Competitiveness.” The paper explores the implication of the changing world of work for immigrant selection systems, highlighting key challenges such as predicting future […]
Should the U.S. Move in the Direction of a Point-Based Immigration System?
This timely paper examines the two models for the administration of employment-stream immigration: demand-driven and point system. In demand-driven systems, immigrants are admitted, subject to government regulation, based on an offer from employers. In a point-based immigration system, governments devise a preference system based on a number of factors, including labor-market needs, education and […]
What Are the Main Features and Limitations of the Current Family-Based Immigration System? AILA Paper Gives Some Answers.
The Trump administration seeks to make drastic cuts to America’s family-based immigration system and uses the pejorative term “chain migration” to refer to the immigration of close family members. This paper by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) describes the categories of relatives who are eligible to come to the U.S. through the family […]
Seeking to ‘Drain the Poison’ from the Immigration Debate, the New Center Releases a Bipartisan Proposal for Immigration Reform
Launched in 2017, the New Center is focused on creating the political space and intellectual basis for a viable political center in today’s America. The project is co-chaired by Bill Galston, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution and former Democratic Party operative, and Bill Kristol, the founder and former editor of the conservative Weekly Standard. This publication […]
Is Immigration Governance in the U.S. “Fragmented” and “Diffuse?” Legal Scholar Says Yes.
Arguing that “immigration is not a program to be administered” but rather “a phenomenon to be managed,” Ruth Ellen Wasem, former immigration specialist for the Congressional Research Service and now a Professor of Public Policy at the University of Texas, reviews the “checkered past” of immigration policy over the last century and, despite numerous […]