Professor Irene Bloemraad, IES faculty affiliate and director of the Canadian Studies Program hosted a DAAD-funded conference on global migration at UC Berkeley from May 2-3, 2022, titled "Implementing Migration Policy: Excavating the Administrative and Bureaucratic Processes Behind Migrant Admissions and Deportation." While popular media and academic publications have highlighted the ways in which elected officials and lobby groups influence the politics that drives immigration policy. However, less attention has been paid to those tasked with carrying out immigration policy such as bureaucrats who may work in conjunction with non-governmental organizations. Often hidden from public view, these actors operate behind the scenes transforming formal policy into on-the-ground practices which impact migrant populations in a variety of ways.
This conference brought together 13 senior and emerging scholars from across the United States and Canada to evaluate different immigration policies in a global context. Participants included Antje Ellerman (University of British Columbia), Angie Bautista-Chaves (Arizona State University), Geoffrey Cameron (University of Toronto), Tomás Jiménez (Stanford University), Jennifer Jones (University of Illinois at Chicago) and Yasmeen Abu-Laban (University of Alberta), among others. Papers discussed how bureaucratic agencies and civil society organizations influence immigration policy and resettlement in developed countries in North America, Europe, and East Asia. Comparisons were drawn between countries with relatively liberal immigration policies, such as Canada, with those that maintain more restrictive regimes.