The immigration experience over the post-World War II period is reviewed for Canada, the United States and Australia. The immigration policies of each country are compared. The existing literature on the labour market performance of immigrant in each country is discussed and interpreted within the context of the immigration policies in place that determined the selection of immigrants of different arrival periods. In addition, studies that have compared the effectiveness of different immigrant selection systems are reviewed. Finally, a description of the history of the Quebec immigrant selection system is presented and a discussion of its possible impact on the inflow of immigrants to Quebec is discussed.