The immigration attorneys

This particular chapter examines the role of business immigration lawyers, primarily within the more northern portion of the Cascadia region, and is the final chapter that reviews the empirical data for this study. A total of 23 semi-structured interviews took place with Canadian and US immigration attorneys who helped to facilitate the movement of high-technology professionals moving across the border under NAFTA and associated regulations. In regards to this study, immigration attorneys interviewed served since the early 1990s in a capacity as professional advocates and facilitators for NAFTA applicants, and in the contemporary period also had a wide breadth of knowledge about the labor mobility process and immigration law, especially when it involved crossing the US–Canada–Mexico borders. Consequently, this chapter seeks to understand the role of lawyers regarding how the Canada–US border operates in the Cascadia region and beyond. This component of the study was also significant as there is very little literature, if at all, on the role of business immigration attorneys in the movements of professional foreign workers across international boundaries. Thus, this chapter helps to provide more academic insights into the role and capacities that business immigration attorneys fill in the movement of professionals across North American borders.