Migration policy trends in OECD countries

This article investigates whether migration policies in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries have become more liberal or restrictive over the last decades and whether or not these policies have converged, especially among European Union (EU) countries. Owing to a lack of data, the few existing studies in this field have mostly focused on policy outcome data. Various and sometimes contradicting statements have therefore largely remained untested. This article analyses data from the Immigration Policies in Comparison (IMPIC) project that includes measures for different policy fields between 1980 and 2010 in all OECD states. We find that the conditions and criteria for entering and staying in a country have become more liberal. At the same time, however, we observe that more restrictive control mechanisms have been put in place. We also find that there is a general convergence trend in the migration policy field that varies in intensity, however, across policy fields. We only partially observe any Europeanization effects.