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Despite public opinion favoring reduced immigration, U.S. immigration policy since the 1980s has led to increased inflows of both legal and unauthorized immigrant workers, and migrants accounted for 12% of the U.S. population and 16% of its workforce in 2010. Given this disjuncture, this article explores practical alternatives to high levels of immigration in managing the U.S. workforce. The U.S. economy could reduce foreign-born employment by increasing employment among native workers, by increasing investment in technology and other enhancements to productivity, or by reducing production in immigrant-intensive industries. The article explores the feasibility of these alternatives in relation to current demographic and labor market conditions, possible policy tools, and the likely economic costs and benefits. The analysis reveals that the greatest economic benefits may be gained from enhancements to productivity, which would allow for reduced immigration without loss of output, whereas the reduction of U.S.-based production would likely generate net economic costs.

AbstractDo Caribbean Basin states influence U.S. immigration policy? Although the terrorist attacks of September 2001 eventually derailed migration talks, before that time Mexico and the United States appeared poised to negotiate a major bilateral agreement, largely on Mexico's terms. Drawing on 88 detailed interviews conducted with Mexican and other Caribbean Basin elites, this article examines sending-state preferences for emigration and their capacity to influence policy outcomes. The informants considered migration to be the most problematic issue on the bilateral agenda, but also saw migration policy as relatively open to source-state influence. A case study of Mexican emigration policymaking details the national and transnational changes that make migration increasingly an inter-mestic policy issue.

This paper addresses the problem of undocumented immigration to the United States from Mexico, and current and proposed policies designed to control these undocumented flows. I summarize current U.S. policy toward undocumented Mexican immigration, which has been an expensive failure. I then take up three competing policy proposals: one pending in the U.S. Senate (S.1814 and S.1815) to expand the H-2A guest-worker program; one to construct a strict enforcement regime; and one based on linking U.S.–Mexican free trade to a free flow of labor. For each alternative, I predict likely outcomes and distributional consequences for seven types of actors (U.S. workers, U.S. consumers, U.S. employers, other U.S. citizens, undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants, and other Mexicans). I conclude that a binational approach to immigration control (a North American Common Market) is the most promising option, and I discuss its political feasibility.

What explains variation in U.S. asylum approval rates across countries of origin? Previous research has found that humanitarian factors and diplomatic relations play an important role in shaping asylum decisions. This article examines the impact of domestic politics. The authors find that media and congressional attention play an important role in influencing how the executive branch makes enforcement decisions. Popular attention to asylum increases the importance of humanitarian concerns relative to instrumental factors. The effect of congressional attention depends on whether asylum is seen as an enforcement or humanitarian issue. The importance of these factors has also changed over time.

With nearly one in ten residents of advanced industrialized states now an immigrant, international migration has become a fundamental driver of social, economic, & political change. We review alternative models of migratory behavior (which emphasize structural factors largely beyond states' control) as well as models of immigration policy making that seek to explain the gaps between stated policy & actual outcomes. Some scholars attempt to explain the limited efficacy of control policies by focusing on domestic interest groups, political institutions, & the interaction among them; others approach the issue from an international or "intermestic" perspective. Despite the modest effects of control measures on unauthorized flows of economic migrants & asylum seekers, governments continue to determine the proportion of migrants who enjoy legal status, the specific membership rights associated with different legal (& undocumented) migrant classes, & how policies are implemented. These choices have important implications for how the costs & benefits of migration are distributed among different groups of migrants, native-born workers, employers, consumers, & taxpayers. 142 References. Adapted from the source document.