For almost two centuries North America has been a major destination for international migrants, but from the late nineteenth century onward, governments began to regulate borders, set immigration quotas, and define categories of citizenship. To develop a more dimensional approach to migration studies, the contributors to this volume focus on people born in the United States and Canada who migrated to the other country, as well as Japanese, Chinese, German, and Mexican migrants who came to the United States and Canada. These case studies explore how people and ideas transcend geopolitical boundaries. By including local, national, and transnational perspectives, the editors emphasize the value of tracking connections over large spaces and political boundaries. Entangling Migration History ultimately contends that crucial issues in the United States and Canada, such as labor and economic growth and ideas about the racial or religious makeup of the nation, are shaped by the two countries’ connections to each other and the surrounding world.

Since the 1960s, new and more diverse waves of immigrants have changed the demographic composition and the landscapes of North American cities and their suburbs. The Housing and Economic Experiences of Immigrants in U.S. and Canadian Cities is a collection of essays examining how recent immigrants have fared in getting access to jobs and housing in urban centres across the continent. Using a variety of methodologies, contributors from both countries present original research on a range of issues connected to housing and economic experiences. They offer both a broad overview and a series of detailed case studies that highlight the experiences of particular communities. This volume demonstrates that, while the United States and Canada have much in common when it comes to urban development, there are important structural and historical differences between the immigrant experiences in these two countries.

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.

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.

In the hundred years ending in 1930, an estimated 2.8 million Canadians moved south of the 49th Parallel and settled in the United States. The human and technical resources they brought made Canadian immigrants integral to the growth of New England, the Great Lakes region, and the west coast. Crossing the 49th Parallel is the first book to encompass that entire, continent-wide population shift. It brings Canadian migration to the center of both Canadian and U.S. history. Bruno Ramirez researches the contents of previously unused border records to bring to light the wide variety of local contexts and historical circumstances that led Canadian men, women, and children to cross the border and become key actors in the U.S. economy and society. Ramirez goes beyond these statistical data, consulting qualitative sources and case studies to reveal the motives and aspirations of individuals and family groups. The comparative perspective of Crossing the 49th Parallel allows Ramirez to explain the distinctive roles of French- and Anglo-Canadians in the immigrant movement. By shifting the viewpoint from a continental to a transatlantic one, Ramirez also unveils Canada's important role in international migration; it served as a temporary destination for many Europeans who subsequently remigrated to the United States.