• MIGRATIONHow Mass Migration Remade Postwar Europe

    By Peter Dizikes

    Volha Charnysh’s new book examines refugees and state-building in Germany and Poland after World War II, as new residents spurred economic and civic growth.

  • IMMIGRATIONImmigrants’ Resentment Over New Arrivals Helped Boost Trump’s Popularity with Latino Voters

    By Melissa Sanchez and Mica Rosenberg

    Across the U.S., Latino immigrants who’ve been in the country a long time felt that asylum-seekers got preferential treatment. “Those of us who have been here for years get nothing,” said one woman from Mexico who has lived in Wisconsin for decades.

  • IMMIGRATIONAn Immigration Debate Worth Having

    By Ebenezer Obadare

    The best immigration policy is one that helps developing countries hold on to their best.

  • IMMIGRATIONThe Best Political Argument for More Immigration Restrictions Just Failed

    By Alex Nowrasteh

    Many Republican politicians and their supporters are worried about immigrants and their descendants being permanent Democratic voters. This week’s election returns are dramatic evidence that immigrants and their children are assimilating to American political norms, that they are voting Republican in huge numbers, and that Donald Trump defeated the best politically self-interested argument for Republicans to oppose increased legal immigration.

  • BUSINESS & IMMIGRTIONThe U.S. Business Community Used to Be a Force for Immigration Reform. What Happened?

    By Eli Hager

    For decades, the business lobby helped shape immigration legislation and moderated the immigration debate, working alongside advocates for immigrants. In the Trump era, businesses now see more risk than reward in immigration politics. Many have prioritized what’s still doable: tax cuts and deregulation.

  • IMMIGRATION & THE ECONOMYProof That Immigrants Fuel the U.S. Economy Is Found in the Billions They Send Back Home

    By Ernesto Castañeda

    Studies indicate that remittances — or money immigrants send back home — constitute 17.5% of immigrants’ income. Given that, we estimate that the immigrants who remitted in 2022 had take-home wages of over $466 billion. Assuming their take-home wages are around 21% of the economic value of what they produce for the businesses they work for – like workers in similar entry-level jobs in restaurants and construction – then immigrants added a total of $2.2 trillion to the U.S. economy yearly. That is about 8% of the U.S. GDP.

  • IMMIGRATIONU. of California Faces Lawsuit for Not Hiring Illegal Aliens

    By Tate Miller, The Center Square

    UC’s Board of Regents decided by a vote in January to suspend for one year the implementation of its policy that allowed the hiring of illegal aliens. Now, the university faces a lawsuit for not offering jobs to illegal aliens.

  • IMMIGRATION & JOBSImmigration Isn’t Causing Unemployment

    By David J. Bier

    Immigrants are not taking jobs away from Americans or causing the unemployment rate to rise. A decline in immigration would be a bad sign for the labor market. Immigrants come when job opportunities exist. As the labor market has cooled, fewer immigrants have been crossing the border illegally since the start of the year.

  • IMMIGRATIONACT OF 1924A Century Ago, Anti-Immigrant Backlash Almost Closed America’s Doors

    By Matthew Smith

    Torn between “the American dream” and fears of an ungovernable “melting pot,” Americans have always viewed immigrants ambivalently. In 1924, as is true today, many citizens thought in terms of “good” immigration versus “bad” immigration. The Immigration Act of 1924 dramatically reduced immigration from eastern and southern Europe and practically barred it from Asia.

  • IMMIGRATION & BUSINESSUSCIS Springs Unseasonable Costs and Demands on American Employers

    By Angelo A. Paparelli and David J. Bier

    With spring approaching, U.S. businesses that sponsor noncitizen workers for employment‐based immigration benefits are accustomed to weathering seasonal changes. Most employers are likely ready for the initial FY 2025 H 1B lottery registration season. American businesses, however, now face particularly inclement headwinds stirred up by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) component tasked with deciding immigration‐benefits requests.

  • IMMIGRATIONTweaking U.S. Trade Policy Could Hold the Key to Reducing Migration from Central America

    By Raymond Robertson and Kaleb Girma Abreha

    Small changes to U.S. trade policy could significantly reduce the number of migrants arriving at the southern border. The Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA-DR. was aimed at encouraging trade and investment ties. But restrictive provisions, particularly its rules of origin, have hindered the region’s ability to benefit fully from the agreement. Loosening the rules to allow for new fabrics would not only attract investment and create more jobs for Central Americans, it could also reduce immigration from the region by as much as 67%, according to our estimates.

  • MIGRATIONWhat Headlines Don’t Tell You About Global Migration, and What Researchers Can

    By Anwyn Hurxthal

    More people than ever live outside the country of their birth—281,000,000 migrants. To put it in perspective, if migrants formed their own country, it would be the fourth most populous country in the world, after China, India, and the United States. But why did they leave their home? Where are they going? Do they plan to return? Can they? Where would they be most likely to thrive? Researchers are filling critical migration data gaps and studying how people are on the move in new and different ways.

  • IMMIGRATIONSocial Acceptance of Immigrants Working as Politicians or Judges Is Low

    Often, the dominant society develops negative attitudes towards immigrants and their descendants because their integration is too successful – and not because they are unwilling to integrate. A possible explanation for negative attitudes towards successful immigrants could be the dominant society’s fear of immigrants occupying influential and value-based occupations. This applies, for example, for immigrants working in local politics or law.

  • IMMIGRATIONChinese Migration to U.S. Is Nothing New – but the Reasons for Recent Surge at Southern Border Are

    By Meredith Oyen

    What is most remarkable is the speed with which the number of Chinese migrants is growing. Nearly 10 times as many Chinese migrants crossed the southern border in 2023 as in 2022. In December 2023 alone, U.S. Border Patrol officials reported encounters with about 6,000 Chinese migrants, in contrast to the 900 they reported a year earlier in December 2022. The dramatic uptick is the result of a confluence of factors.

  • MIGRATIONAs Baby Boomers Retire in Droves, Will Immigrants Save U.S. Economy?

    By Dora Mekouar

    Each day, about 10,000 people born between 1946 and 1964 leave the U.S. workforce, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic when older workers decided to retire early rather than risk getting sick. The problem is that for every one person leaving, there’s only one person coming into the labor force, and if the labor force is not growing, economic growth is slowed down, or worse.