PERSPECTIVE| FES WASHINGTON Immigration and Integration in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Race – Transatlantic Perspectives SPENCER P. BOYER October 2012  Both President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney—and their respective parties—have staked out strong philosophical positions on immigration reform, but provide starkly different visions for immigrants’ future in the United States.  The Obama administration favors a comprehensive approach to immigration reform, which emphasizes both enforcement and a pathway to legalization for undoc­umented workers already in the country, and has aggressively moved to enforce federal preeminence in the immigration arena.  Governor Romney’s focus is primarily on the enforcement side, including building a fence along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, and he has implied that he would give much more latitude to the states on the enforcement of immigration laws.  The candidates’ different approaches to immigration track with the growing values divide between the Democratic and Republican parties over the past few decades, with the values gap now being larger than those relating to race, age, class, or gender.  While European immigration challenges are different than those in the United States in many ways, there are numerous similarities regarding how the policy debate on this issue divides European electorates, providing opportunities for greater trans­atlantic understanding and future collaboration.