Thinking Regionally to Act Locally in Immigration Policy

With migration a dynamic phenomenon in the Americas—with significant Central American flows to the U.S. border, and much smaller but growing numbers of South Americans and others traveling north—the U.S. government increasingly is realizing that migration management cannot occur only at the U.S.-Mexico border and must include cooperation with Mexico, Central America, and other countries in the hemisphere such as Canada, Costa Rica, and Panama. This recognition of migration as a regional system requires a new set of policies and ways of engagement with countries across the Americas, as Migration Policy Institute (MPI) President Andrew Selee discusses with colleague Andrea Tanco. The conversation also turns to the evolution of the immigration debate over the past two decades and the challenges and opportunities ahead.