The Pathway to Citizenship and Immigrant Integration: What Can We Learn from France and the United States?

As the 113th Congress engages in a historic debate on immigration reform, past attempts to overhaul immigration laws provide cautious reminders of the struggles and opportunities ahead in closing a deal on immigration policy. While the United States’ own history is critical for understanding both the shortcomings and solutions of various policy arrangements, the experience of other receiving countries in dealing with immigration and immigrant integration also constitute an invaluable source of guiding lessons. By learning what effective policy solutions have been formulated in other countries to address issues such as the regularization of their undocumented population, the integration of newcomers, and the reception of asylees, to mention just a few – the United States can better and more strategically craft immigration policy and anticipate the impact of those policy changes.This idea inspired the study “Paving the Way for Integration: The Pathways to Citizenship in France and the United States”, released today. The study is part of the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX), a reference guide to assess, compare and improve integration policy in 31 countries in Europe and North America.  Using over 100 policy indicators, MIPEX offers a multi-dimensional picture of the opportunities available to migrants to participant in society based on an assessment of governments’ integration policies.The results presented in the comparative report provide some interesting input for policy inspiration. In fact, France and the United States both have a lot to learn from each other’s immigration and integration policies. Among its conclusions, the report underscores that any legalization program should include a path to citizenship.
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