The International Migration Policy and Law Analysis Database (IMPALA) is a joint project of the Universities of Harvard, LSE, Sydney, Amsterdam and Luxembourg to develop the world’s first large-n database of immigration policy. The IMPALA project works from the premise that existing measurements of policy do not adequately capture the complexity of immigration selection and naturalisation policies. There is strong need for cross-national, standardised measures of immigration policy, which will be of use not only to scholars by also governments and international organisations. The methodology to develop this database has been a key concern for the team. Throughout 2010-2011, the teams are coding immigration laws and regulations, according to indicator questions that they have developed collaboratively. This paper will present preliminary findings from the first year of coding and analysis of key aspects of the data. This paper will also highlight challenges that arise from the first year of coding for future work on this five-year research project.
