October 16–17, 2014
This conference is closed to the public.
Governments adopt a variety of approaches to regulating immigration and make adjustments to these policies frequently. But currently there exist no comprehensive, cross-nationally comparable data on immigration laws and policies and how they have changed over time. Existing data are limited and idiosyncratic measures of policies are based on subjective indexes and expert opinion.
This is a major problem for ongoing research on the determinants and impacts of immigration policies. The International Migration Policy and Law Analysis (IMPALA) project is aimed at addressing this problem by creating a comprehensive database that compiles and analyzes comparable data on immigration laws and policies in twenty-six major recipient countries from 1960 until the present, with annual updates to follow.
Convener
Michael Hiscox
Faculty Associate. Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, Department of Government, Harvard University.