The Bureaucratic Politics of Migration Policy

This project studies how bureaucratic politics shape migration policy outcomes, especially under large backlogs. Bureaucrats routinely make consequential prioritization choices that affect migrant lives, yet the internal dynamics of these decisions are underexamined. Using a comparative-historical approach, I analyze U.S. and Canadian migration bureaucracies from 1960 to present. The work begins with public documents from government and NGOs to map how backlogs emerged and were publicly managed, then uses agency and national archives to trace internal bureaucratic debates, priorities, and procedural responses. By documenting past responses and their effects, the study identifies organizational drivers of policy choices and their intended and unintended consequences, offering lessons for current backlog management and migration governance.