Migration & Migrants

Other Initiatives on Migration and Migrants

• Regional Migration Study Group

  In 2014, the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute and Latin American program and the Migration Policy Institute partnered to facilitate a series of conversations about developing a collaborative, regional approach to these issues. The Regional Migration Study Group, consisting of two dozen former officials, civil-society leaders, policy intellectuals, and specialists in the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, met twice yearly over a three-year period. The Study Group was co-chaired by former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, former US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, and former Guatemalan Vice President Eduardo Stein.

• U.S.-Mexico Migration Dialogue

  From 2010-2011, the Mexico Institute launched a project that sought to generate a dialogue on the practical steps that the two governments can take to address bilateral migration issues. It brought together federal, state, and local policymakers from both countries, along with civil society stakeholders, to discuss how policy may be improved to better manage migration flows, protect migrants, and ensure their successful integration. As part of these discussions, a paper was published by the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity & Diversity at the University of California, Berkeley Law School in February 2011. The report, titled “Borders, Jails, and Jobsites: An Overview of Federal Immigration Enforcement Programs in the U.S.”, provided an overview of the current state of immigration enforcement in the U.S. in order to facilitate a productive discussion toward reform

• Latino Migrant Civic And Political Participation

  From 2006-2009, this project documented the ways in which Latin American immigrants are engaging civically and politically in diverse communities of settlement in the United States. The project included case studies of nine U.S. cities; some with longer histories of immigration, others more recent sites of long-term settlement. The Mexico Institute also published several research paper series looking at civic engagement and political participation of Latino immigrants in the United States:

  Context Matters
  The project sought to document the ways in which Latino and Latin American immigrants are expressing themselves politically and civically in new communities of settlement in the United States and as transnational actors. The significant influence of Latino voters in the 2008 elections reinforced a need to better analyze the evolving phenomenon of immigrant integration, particularly in regions of the country that are historically unaccustomed to assimilating recent Latino populations. This project consisted of a national report along with nine city reports: Charlotte, NC; Washington, DC; San Jose, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Omaha, NE; Tucson, AZ; Los Angeles, CA; Fresno, CA; and Chicago, IL. All publications are available in English and Spanish.To view discussions from the conference on "Latino Immigrant Civic Engagement Trends,'' click here.

  Invisible No More
  This report explored the various ways that Mexican migrants to the United States are becoming civically and politically active in both countries. This collection of brief essays looked at how recent migrants interact with traditional Latino organizations, the labor movement, religious communities, the media, and both the U.S. and Mexican political systems, transforming each through their engagement. This publication was the result of a conference held on November 4–5, 2005 at the Woodrow Wilson Center, co-sponsored by the Department of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The conference brought together migrant leaders, scholars, and representatives of civic, labor, and religious organizations. Jonathan Fox, Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, and Xóchitl Bada organized this conference, with support from Andrew Selee and Kate Brick at the Wilson Center.

  Additional Research Papers
  These papers complement the investigations in the "Context Matters" and "Invisible No More" series