In the 1990s, immigration emerged as a central issue of public policy and a driving factor in democratic elections throughout the world. Modern democracies now all face the same questions: how many immigrants to accept, what rights and special services to provide them, and how to control illegal immigration.

This book provides a systematic, comparative study of immigration policy and policy outcomes in industrialized democracies. In-depth examinations of the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Japan have been updated for the second edition, and new chapters on Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, and South Korea have been added. Each profile addresses why certain immigration control measures were selected and why these measures usually failed to achieve their stated objectives. The discussion has been expanded to address the growing trend of migration of highly skilled professional workers, a particularly salient issue in the United States.