Immigrant legalization, while highly controversial on both sides of the Atlantic, is a critical and widely used tool for managing illegal immigration. Lawmakers seeking to design effective legalization regimes must balance competing goals: inclusiveness versus avoidance of rewarding illegal behavior, and assuring a high rate of participation without admitting ineligible migrants or encouraging future illegal migration.

Report File: 

legalization-policydesign.pdf

Requirements for earned legalization (such as English proficiency, employment, continuous presence and monetary fines) could have different effects on the ability of unauthorized men, women and children to gain legal status. This Policy Brief examines requirements proposed in the five major legalization bills proposed by Congress since 2006.

Report File: 

legalization-requirements.pdf

This report, the second in a joint project of MPI and the European University Institute examining US and European immigration systems, details the post-9/11 programs and agreements implemented by US and European governments to identify terrorists and serious transnational criminals through the collection and processing of increasing quantities of traveler data.

The report analyzes how governments, which once focused their screening primarily on a traveler's nationality ("sorting countries"), increasingly are examining personal characteristics ("sorting individuals").

Report File: 

dataprocessing-2011.pdf

Sociologist Tomás Jiménez examines the integration of immigrants in the USA across five indicators: language proficiency, socioeconomic attainment, political participation, residential locale and social interaction with host communities. Jiménez finds the recent inflow of immigrants is integrating reasonably well—and learning English faster than ever before—almost entirely without the help of policy intervention.

Report File: 

integration-Jimenez.pdf