(Mis)managing Migration

Today managed migration is growing in North America. This mirrors the general growth of migration from poorer to richer countries, with more than 200 million people now living outside their natal countries. Faced with this phenomenon, managed migration enables nation-states to regulate those population movements; direct foreign nationals to specific, identified economic sectors that citizens are less likely to care about; match employers who claim labor shortages with highly motivated workers; and offer people from poorer countries higher earning potential abroad through temporary absence from their families and homelands. Characterized like this, managed migration sounds like the ideal alternative to unregulated, undocumented migration. Unfortunately, as the contributors to this volume describe, managed migration does not always work on the ground as well as it does on paper.