Growing economic disparities between the industrialized West and underdeveloped countries and decreased costs of transportation have caused a spurt in immigration over the past few decades. Countries such as Canada, the U.S., Sweden, and Switzerland with more liberal immigration regimes have seen foreign-born populations expand into the double digits as a percentage of their total populations (OECD 2001 and author‘s calculations for Sweden). With this growth, however, have come calls from some quarters that countries re-examine their abilities to absorb large streams of immigrants (Briggs 1996).
Immigration affects host countries in a variety of ways–socioeconomically, demographically, spatially and culturally (Briggs 1996; Greenwood 1994; Simon 1989). These effects have been studied exhaustively through the past few decades using a variety of qualitative and quantitative approaches. However, most of these studies address historical conditions and patterns, while many of the questions being raised are of a —what if“ nature. Simulation, which can be used to examine the consequences of alternative immigration policies, is potentially one of the most useful tools for answering such questions but unfortunately is rarely used. The absence of large-scale economic-demographic models with detailed economic-population linkages has meant that few immigration policy handles are available for the social scientist to reliably simulate immigration.