ABSTRACT
In this chapter I evaluate immigration policy in the United States in comparative perspective. Although media on both sides of the Atlantic tend to report immigration in terms of crisis and failure, I argue that the differences in policy and policy impact have been stark. The European experience in confronting issues of immigration through public policy has been generally poor and badly managed, with unanticipated results that have been increasingly negative. Although the failures of American policy in dealing with illegal immigration and undocumented immigrants now residing in the United States have been politically front and center for most of the past decade, the considerable success of policies on legal entry and integration have generally gone unnoticed.
