Research Library

President Trump's plan to designate Mexican drugs cartels as foreign terrorist organizations is a mistake, says nonresident fellow Gary Hale. Read why in the Baker Institute Blog.

Based on their combined research on migration in Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia, the authors argue that states and international organizations are actively transforming the international refugee regime from within through policy “conversion,” blurring the legal distinction between the categories of refugees and migrants. European Journal of International Relations: http://bit.ly/34uwBny

Many migration-governance policies have been described by policymakers and politicians as deterrence. This linkage neutralizes the language around what are actually highly militarized, defense-based policies. This paper is intended as a first step toward improving conceptual clarity around the meaning of deterrence in the migration-governance context.  International Studies Review: http://bit.ly/2spZS4T

This author examines the main characteristics of Mexican immigrant-owned small and medium-sized businesses established in the United States, and the opportunities and challenges they face.

By Luis Alfredo Arriola Vega The election of Mexico's Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the increase in Central American migrant caravans require reevaluating immigration policy, writes the author.

When illegal workers use false documents to get a job in the U.S., their employers may complete the paperwork by deducting Social Security, federal, state and Medicare taxes from each paycheck. As of 2010, illegal workers have contributed $12 billion to the Social Security system alone. Such workers face poverty in old age, as they are barred from collecting retirement benefits because of their immigration status, and they have not accrued a pension in their home country.

The author reviews the evolution of labor and environmental rights in U.S. free trade agreements and evaluates such provisions in the USMCA.

King Mohammed VI of Morocco has cultivated the country’s image as a bastion of moderate Islam and of himself as a strategic partner, but to what extent does his international reputation correspond to public opinion in Morocco? In this paper, the author evaluates the king’s domestic standing as part of a larger Baker Institute study on religious authority in the Middle East.

On Sept. 13, 2018, Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and George Washington University’s Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) co-hosted the conference “Building Inclusive and Pluralistic States Post-Arab Spring.” The conference was the culmination of a two-year project funded by the Carnegie Corporation and showcased research by leading scholars of the Middle East on political, economic and socio-religious inclusion in Arab states since 2011. This report addresses some of the conference’s key conclusions and policy recommendations for U.S. policymakers concerned with the future stability of the Middle East.