The United States is no longer the world’s friendliest country to migrants

As an immigrant to the United States who has traveled a great deal around the world, I have always been certain that America was the best place for people like me — people who looked different, with brown skin and a strange name. I remember coming to America as a college student and feeling the openness and generosity of a country born of and made by immigrants. When visiting Britain around the same time, I could sense that I was treated politely but as an outsider.

But in 2019, a tweet from Britain’s then chancellor of the exchequer, Sajid Javid, caught my eye: “Britain is the most successful multiracial democracy in the world.” He tweeted something similar last week after the appointment of Rishi Sunak as prime minister of Britain. So I spent some time looking at the data.

The Migrant Integration Policy Index measures policies to integrate migrants in dozens of countries around the world. As of 2019, the United States is in the top 10, but in the bottom half. In general between 2014 and 2019, the average country studied improved its score by two points. The United States on the other hand retreated by two points. Download now or view online.