This volume examines Canada’s migration policy as part of its foreign policy. It is well known that Canada is a nation of immigrants. However, immigration policy has largely been regarded as domestic, rather than, foreign policy, with most scholarly and policy work focused on what happens after immigrants have arrived in this country. As a result, the effects of immigration to Canada on foreign affairs have been largely neglected despite the international character of immigration. The contributors to this volume underline the extent to which Canada’s relationships with individual countries and with the international community is closely affected by its immigration policies and practices and draw attention to some of these areas in the hope that it will encourage more scholarly and policy activity directed to the impact of immigration on foreign affairs. Written by both academics and policy-makers, the book analyzes some of the latest thinking and initiatives related to linkages between migration and foreign policy.

Millions of people arrive in North America each year, including highly skilled immigrants and temporary workers, refugees, and international students. Migration, border control, and asylum are ongoing flashpoints in Canadian, American, and Mexican relations, and deeply affect the domestic politics and economies of each country. While migration has emerged as an only increasingly charged topic in public discourse, research has largely focused on North America’s lack of regional integration around mobility, often neglecting aspects of regional cooperation, hierarchy, and global engagement. Migration Governance in North America advances that conversation by examining the complex dynamics of mobilities across the continent through contemporary analysis and historical context. Situating North America within the global migration landscape, contributors from Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Europe unpack such issues as temporary labour mobility, border security, asylum governance, refugee resettlement, and the role of local actors and activists in coping with changing policies and politics. In the wake of a series of significant and likely enduring changes across the continent this flagship volume puts policy developments and migrant organizing in conversation across borders, investigates often contentious domestic, regional, and global migration politics, and reveals how intersecting policy frameworks affect the movement of people.

Immigration and Canada provides readers with a vital introduction to the field of international migration studies. This original book presents an integrated critical perspective on Canadian immigration policies, main trends, and social, economic, and cultural impacts. It offers up-to-date information on migration patterns and examines Canada in an evolving, global-transnational system that gives rise to imagined futures and contrasting real outcomes. Key issues and debates include: nation building and the historical roots of Canadian immigration contemporary global migration the changing national and ethnic origins of immigrants immigrants, jobs, wages, and the economy "designer" immigrants and the brain gain the business of migration demographic impacts of immigration racism and prejudice facing excluded and marginalized populations transnational citizens, diasporas, emerging identities, and struggles to belong refugees, temporary workers, and foreign visa workers undocumented migration and migrant trafficking the baby bust and the future of international migration

Ellermann examines the development of immigration policies in four democracies from the postwar era to the present.

The market for high-skilled workers is becoming increasingly global, as are the markets for knowledge and ideas. While high-skilled immigrants in the United States represent a much smaller proportion of the workforce than they do in countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, these immigrants have an important role in spurring innovation and economic growth in all countries and filling shortages in the domestic labor supply. This report summarizes the proceedings of a Fall 2014 workshop that focused on how immigration policy can be used to attract and retain foreign talent. Participants compared policies on encouraging migration and retention of skilled workers, attracting qualified foreign students and retaining them post-graduation, and input by states or provinces in immigration policies to add flexibility in countries with regional employment differences, among other topics. They also discussed how immigration policies have changed over time in response to undesired labor market outcomes and whether there was sufficient data to measure those outcomes.

Few issues on the American political agenda are more complex or divisive than immigration. There is no shortage of problems with current policies and practices, from the difficulties and delays that confront many legal immigrants to the large number of illegal immigrants living in the country. Moreover, few issues touch as many areas of U.S. domestic life and foreign policy. Immigration is a matter of homeland security and international competitiveness, as well as a deeply human issue central to the lives of millions of individuals and families. It cuts to the heart of questions of citizenship and American identity and plays a large role in shaping both America's reality and its image in the world. Immigration's emergence as a foreign policy issue coincides with the increasing reach of globalization. Not only must countries today compete to attract and retain talented people from around the world, but the view of the United States as a place of unparalleled openness and opportunity is also crucial to the maintenance of American leadership. There is a consensus that current policy is not serving the United States well on any of these fronts. Yet agreement on reform has proved elusive. The goal of the Independent Task Force on U.S. Immigration Policy was to examine this complex issue and craft a nuanced strategy for reforming immigration policies and practices.