Is there a way to import a .jpg into Inkscape and create a white border around it? I have artwork that I am printing out and would like to create the white space around it so that when I matte it the picture itself is not covered by the matte. Thank you!

The quick answer is yes, though it might depend on your Inkscape skills. (It's not hard though). Import your jpg (open an Inkscape doc and do file/import). I'd put the jpg on a lower layer and the border on a higher one, just for ease. Make your border, and done.
I'm really not sure if I'm missing something in your question though. Or if you need specific how to's. IF you've never used Inkscape then you might go to the manual to look up and read the how to's of Inkscape.
good luck. and ask more questions if you need specifics.

I would suggest you to use gimp for that purpose.
With inkscape you can produce printable pdf, which will add more noise to the raster images -not sure if there is an option of the compression rate.
The other thing that could be done with inkscape is exporting a png, which can mess up things with the embedded raster images if they are not maching the pixel coordinates right/ or if the exporting resolution is not selected well.
With gimp, it is way easier.
Open the image you want, resize the canvas size with the white space around it, create a new white layer, move it down, and export it to -preferably- png.