Immigration Worldwide: Policies, Practices, and Trends

Uma A. Segal · Doreen Elliott · Nazneen S. Mayadas

Jan 2010 · Oxford University Press

About this eBook

The ease of transportation, the opening of international immigration policies, the growing refugee movements, and the increasing size of unauthorized immigrant populations suggest that immigration worldwide is a phenomenon of utmost importance to professionals who develop policies and programs for, or provide services to, immigrants. Immigration occurs in both the wealthy nations of the global North and the poorer countries of the global South; it involves individuals who arrive with substantial human capital and those with little. It has far-reaching implications for a nation's economy, public policies, social and health services, and culture. The purpose of this volume, therefore, is to explore current patterns and policies of immigration in key countries and regions across the globe and analyze the implications for these countries and their immigrant populations. Each of its chapters, written by an international and interdisciplinary group of experts, explores how country conditions, policies, values, politics, and attitudes influence the process of immigration and subsequently affect immigrants, migration, and the nation itself. No other volume explores the landscape of worldwide immigration as broadly as this does, with sweeping coverage of countries and empirical research, together with an analytic framework that sets the context of human migration against a wide backdrop of experiential factors that take shape long before an immigrant enters a host country. At once a sourcebook and an applied model of immigration studies, Immigration Worldwide is a valuable reference for scholars and students seeking a wide-ranging yet nuanced survey of the key issues salient to debates about the programs and policies that best serve immigrant populations and their host countries.

About the author

Uma A. Segal, Ph.D., is Professor and Director of the Baccalaureate Social Work Program at University of Missouri - St. Louis. She is the editor of the Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies. Doreen Elliott, Ph.D., is Professor of Social Work and Distinguished Teaching Professor at The University of Texas at Arlington. She has served as Chair of the Council on Social Work Education's International Commission and the Global Social Work Education Commission. Nazneen S. Mayadas, D.S.W., is Professor Emerita of Social Work at The University of Texas at Arlington. She has served in the Office of the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees as Chief of Social Services in Geneva, Switzerland.