ABSTRACT
The USA occupies a position of undisputed importance in the hemisphere’s migration system. Although international migration has shaped all of the world’s societies, the American hemisphere has an extraordinarily long and strong history of migration. Mexico’s size and proximity makes it the most important source of migrants to the USA and the vast majority of Mexico’s emigrants are in the USA. Despite opinion polls that generally show that majorities of Americans favour reducing immigration, controversy over legal immigration has generally remained confined to specific issues, such as access to public benefits for immigrants and the size of temporary work visa programmes. Some political solutions have attracted significant support in the national 2006 legislative session and promise to be features of the political landscape for some time to come. Canada admits immigrants in three streams of admissions roughly equivalent to those in the USA, for family reunification, humanitarian, and economic reasons.
