| Description |
The author developed a set of indicators on immigration policies. Data covers 19 countries from the late 18th century through the early 21st century.
This is one of the few datasets on immigration policy and is the only one to cover the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
Immigration policy is an amalgam of several policies, including policies that regulate who gains entry to the state (border regulations), what rights immigrants receive (immigrant rights) and how the border is enforced
(enforcement). Within each of these three categories, states have used numerous policy substitutes, that can be sorted in 12 dimensions. Eight of the dimensions regulate entrance to the state, of which four, work prohibitions, family reunification, refugee and asylee policy, could also be considered
rights; two cover immigrant rights and two cover enforcement.
Each dimension was coded from 1 to 5, with greater restrictions taking lower values. To combine these different policies into a single measure, the author used principal components analysis. The analysis revealed that these dimensions created two different factors: immigration policy and rights of
immigrants.
The first factor, immigration policy, places more weight on nationality, skill, recruitment, quotas, enforcement and deportation policies than the second, rights of immigrants, which places more weight on family reunification, refugee, asylee, citizenship, rights and work prohibition policies.
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