International Program

Commentaries

March 2024

As Europe and the United States Face Similar Migration Challenges, Spain Can Act as a Bridge

Image of female worker at the Boqueria market in Barcelona making a crepe

Marcel Crozet/ILO

Spain and the United States both receive their greatest number of immigrants from Latin America, and have worked collaboratively together on displacement crises and other migration issues. As shared immigration challenges dominate debate on both sides of the Atlantic, Spain can serve as a vital bridge in the policy conversation, this commentary notes.

Policy Briefs

March 2024

Lessons from COVID-19: Managing Borders in the Next Global Public-Health Crisis

Volunteer hands out food to migrant workers returning to their hometowns in Vietnam

IOM/Red Cross Vietnam

The COVID-19 pandemic both shocked the global mobility system and reaffirmed the centrality and resiliency of human mobility. Four years on, public and political attention to COVID-19’s unprecedented consequences for cross-border movement has waned. Yet if countries are to manage mobility more effectively in future public-health crises, this is an important moment for reflection and learning, as this issue brief explores.

Reports

February 2024

Leaving No One Behind: Inclusive Fintech for Remittances

A woman in Nigeria smiles while using her mobile phone

iStock.com/Wirestock

Remittances are a vital lifeline for migrants’ families around the world and an important source of revenue for many low- and middle-income countries, especially in times of crisis. As more people turn to digital financial technologies for these money transfers, this shift holds the potential to shake up the rigid remittance industry and boost development benefits. But it also brings new challenges, as this report explores.

Policy Briefs

February 2024

The Mobility Key: Realizing the Potential of Refugee Travel Documents

Three refugee students at airport security check

Travel documents are critical facilitators of mobility. But for refugees, who cannot safely use a passport issued by their origin country, the lack of a usable travel document can shut them out of work, study, or other opportunities beyond their first country of asylum. This policy brief examines alternative documents that can facilitate refugees’ movement, key barriers to acquiring them, and strategies for overcoming these challenges.

Reports

January 2024

Expanding Protection Options? Flexible Approaches to Status for Displaced Syrians, Venezuelans, and Ukrainians

Ukrainian adults and children arrive at a train station in Hungary

IOM/Muse Mohammed

The massive and rapid displacement of Syrians, Venezuelans, and Ukrainians presented neighboring countries with an impossible task: providing legal status and assistance, even though their asylum systems lacked the capacity to handle such a large influx. This report examines the costs and benefits of the flexible approaches taken to providing status in these three cases, identifying lessons for future crises.

Policy Briefs

December 2023

Consolidating Gains: Lessons and Priorities for Promoting Fair and Ethical Recruitment

A migrant worker cuts through a metal rod at a construction site in Qatar

Apex Image/ILO

With more people moving abroad for work and events such as the 2022 World Cup in Qatar highlighting the risks migrant workers can face, questions about how international recruitment occurs have received increased scrutiny. This policy brief explores the notable progress that has been made in establishing fair and ethical recruitment standards, and identifies key areas for future attention by governments, employers, and recruiters.

A Haitian child looks over his mother's shoulder in Panama

Commentaries

Addressing the Next Displacement Crisis in the Making in the Americas

The next major displacement of people in the Americas is in the making, and it is going unnoticed. The response to the steady emigration from Haiti seen since a devastating 2010 earthquake has been largely haphazard and may not stand the test of new spikes as the country unravels further. This commentary suggests a way forward, based on a model used for the Venezuelan displacement crisis.

Image of passport page with variety of stamps

Articles

Top Statistics on Global Migration and Migrants

Looking for some of the most often-sought information on global migration? This statistics-rich article draws on the most current data sources to offer a primer on international migration, highlighting its types, the size of the migrant population and growth over time, and major sending and receiving countries and regions. Beyond looking at labor and humanitarian migrants and international students, the article examines remittances and more.

Recent Activity

Commentaries June 2022 The Los Angeles Declaration Could Represent a Big Step for Real Migration Cooperation across the Americas By Andrew Selee	Articles June 2, 2022 COVID-19 Pandemic Ushered in Unprecedented Slowdown of Asylum Claims By Hamsa Vijayaraghavan and Jhinuk Mukhopadhyay
Multimedia May 24, 2022 Seeking Safety: Regional Protection Options for Central Americans	Multimedia May 23, 2022 Delivering on the Promise of Predeparture Counseling for Sustainable Reintegration
Multimedia May 17, 2022 Making Social Cohesion Work for Everyone: What Can We Learn from Development Interventions on How to Promote Inclusion and Reduce Xenophobia?	Multimedia May 19, 2022 Preparedness for the Next Pandemic: Towards a Resilient Global Architecture on Borders and Health
Policy Briefs May 2022 Vías humanitarias para personas centroamericanas: Evaluando oportunidades para el futuro By Susan Fratzke and Andrea Tanco	Articles May 18, 2022 Chile’s Welcoming Approach to Immigrants Cools as Numbers Rise By Cristián Doña-Reveco

Pages

Reports April 2018 Next Steps: Implementing a Brexit Deal for UK Citizens Living in the EU-27 By Meghan Benton, Aliyyah Ahad, Michaela Benson, Katherine Collins, Helen McCarthy and Karen O’Reilly	Reports April 2018 Responding to the ECEC Needs of Children of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Europe and North America By Maki Park, Caitlin Katsiaficas and Margie McHugh
Policy Briefs April 2018 It’s Relative: A Crosscountry Comparison of Family-Migration Policies and Flows By Kate Hooper and Brian Salant	Reports March 2018 Scaling up Refugee Resettlement in Europe: The Role of Institutional Peer Support By Hanne Beirens and Aliyyah Ahad
Reports February 2018 Mainstreaming 2.0: How Europe’s Education Systems Can Boost Migrant Inclusion By Aliyyah Ahad and Meghan Benton	Reports February 2018 Designing Civic Education for Diverse Societies: Models, Tradeoffs, and Outcomes By Per Mouritsen and Astrid Jaeger
Policy Briefs January 2018 Welcome to Work? Legal Migration Pathways for Low-Skilled Workers By Kathleen Newland and Andrea Riester	Policy Briefs January 2018 Moving Beyond “Root Causes”: The Complicated Relationship between Development and Migration By Susan Fratzke and Brian Salant

Pages

Feature

April 22, 2021

Iran Loses Highly Educated and Skilled Citizens during Long-Running “Brain Drain”

Large numbers of well-educated Iranians have left their country of birth since its 1979 revolution, in a “brain drain” that has held back Iran’s economy and cultural institutions. Iran’s isolation from the world has worsened in recent years, and a stuttering economy, currency freefall, and widespread impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to the underlying factors encouraging emigration, as this article examines.

Migrants arrive in Greece on a crowded boat from Turkey.

Feature

April 8, 2021

The EU-Turkey Deal, Five Years On: A Frayed and Controversial but Enduring Blueprint

The European Union’s landmark 2016 migration deal with Turkey offered aid and other benefits in exchange for Turkey's assistance in helping reduce arrivals of asylum seekers and other migrants. At its fifth anniversary, the EU-Turkey deal remains one criticized by human-rights advocates and has met frustration from Turkey, but in many ways created a blueprint for other externalization arrangements, as this article outlines.

Feature

March 24, 2021

Movement after Migration: Immigrants’ Disproportionate Reliance on Public Transportation

Across North America and Europe, immigrants rely on public transit at higher rates than the native born. This article explores why migrants are disproportionately more likely to use public transportation, the role these systems play in immigrant integration, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on commuter trips, budgets, and services.

Ramshackle dwellings dot a hillside in the Kutupalong refugee camp, outside Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.

Feature

March 18, 2021

Stateless and Persecuted: What Next for the Rohingya?

The Rohingya people have been rendered stateless and subjected to repeated abuse that has made them the world’s most persecuted minority, with hundreds of thousands pushed into neighboring Bangladesh, as well as India, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and beyond. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the Rohingya, including who they are, where they come from, and how they have been systematically marginalized in their native Myanmar and internationally.

A child walks by a destroyed building in Syria.

Feature

March 4, 2021

Violent Encounters and Social Status Shape the Conditions for Migrants Fleeing Civil War

Millions of people flee civil wars for safety elsewhere, but predicting precisely when refugees and asylum seekers will be displaced is not as easy as it seems. There is not always a direct correlation between episodes of violence and patterns of migration. This article explores how civilians require both motivation and opportunity to leave conflict zones.

Pages

Video, Audio

April 19, 2021

Pushing Borders Outward: The State of Asylum Globally Five Years After the EU-Turkey Deal

Marking the launch of the Beyond Territorial Asylum: Making Protection Work in a Bordered World initiative, this event examines how the accessibility of asylum and protection globally has changed since the EU-Turkey deal, similar policies deployed by countries of asylum, the impacts of these policies, and what can be done t

changing climate changing migration podcast episode 11 tile

Expert Q&A, Audio

April 19, 2021

No “Climate Refugees,” But Still a Role for the UN Refugee Agency

Technically, people forced to move because of climate disasters are not considered “refugees.” But the UN High Commissioner for Refugees still takes climate issues into account, and since 2020 Andrew Harper has been its special advisor on climate action.

Video, Audio

April 15, 2021

Building Effective Migration Management Capacity in Mexico and Central America

This report release event examines migration management in Mexico and Central America, and the growing government attention to migration functions, enhanced immigration enforcement, increased investments in asylum systems and existing protection frameworks, as well as labor migration policies.

2021.4.8 IOM Muse Mohammed Syrian Refugees Leaving Lebanon Covid

Video, Audio

April 8, 2021

A Year of Pandemic: The State of Global Human Mobility & What Is on the Horizon

Marking the release of an IOM-MPI report, this two-panel discussion, features introductory remarks by IOM Director General António Vitorino and examines how the pandemic has reshaped border management and human mobility in 2020 and what the lasting impacts may be throughout 2021 and beyond.

Expert Q&A, Audio

April 2, 2021

The Benefits of Climate Migration

Popular discussions usually frame climate change-induced migration negatively, often as a strategy of last resort. But migrating abroad can also be an effective way to build resilience against the impacts of climate change.

Recent Activity

Commentaries

June 2022

The Los Angeles Declaration Could Represent a Big Step for Real Migration Cooperation across the Americas

The Los Angeles Agreement on Migration and Protection signed by leaders from 20 countries across the Western Hemisphere at the 2022 Summit of the Americas marks a significant step forward in creating a common language and a coherent set of ideas for more cooperatively managing migration movements across a region that has seen very significant mobility in recent years, as this commentary explains.

Articles

June 2, 2022

COVID-19 Pandemic Ushered in Unprecedented Slowdown of Asylum Claims

Beyond slowing global mobility dramatically, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a major drop in asylum claims around the world, with the 1.1 million people seeking asylum in 2020 representing a 45 percent decline from the year before. This article examines the challenges to asylum processing during the pandemic, particularly for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Video, Audio, Webinars

May 24, 2022

Seeking Safety: Regional Protection Options for Central Americans

Marking the release of a Migration Policy Institute report on possible protection pathways for Central Americans, this webcast offers analysis on regional resettlement and humanitarian channels and the opportunities and obstacles to expanding these programs, along with specific actions that the United States and Canada could take.

Video, Audio, Webinars

May 23, 2022

Delivering on the Promise of Predeparture Counseling for Sustainable Reintegration

Experts and practitioners in migrant-origin and destination countries examine how to leverage predeparture counseling for sustainable reintegration of returnees in this conversation marking the release of a related MPI Europe policy brief that explores promising approaches to strengthen the links between the predeparture and post-arrival phases in reintegration programs.

Video, Audio, Webinars

May 17, 2022

Making Social Cohesion Work for Everyone: What Can We Learn from Development Interventions on How to Promote Inclusion and Reduce Xenophobia?

Organized on the margins of the first International Migration Review Forum, this official side event looks at effective practices and programs to build socially cohesive and inclusive societies—including lessons from post-conflict settings on how to build intergroup trust. Discussants focus on successful development interventions and offer examples of why some promising ideas may have fallen short in practice.

Video

May 19, 2022

Preparedness for the Next Pandemic: Towards a Resilient Global Architecture on Borders and Health

This official side event of the International Migration Review Forum revists lessons from COVID-19, and explores the potential for greater international coordination over health and mobility and setting principles that are clear, equitable, streamlined, and future-focused.

Policy Briefs

May 2022

Vías humanitarias para personas centroamericanas: Evaluando oportunidades para el futuro

Para la mayoría de las personas centroamericanas que se ven forzadas a abandonar sus hogares, viajar a México o Estados Unidos para solicitar refugio o asilo es la única opción para buscar protección internacional. A la fecha, el reasentamiento de personas refugiadas ha sido utilizado de manera limitada en la región. Este informe explora el papel que el reasentamiento y otras vías de protección humanitarias desempeñan en atender estas necesidades.

Articles

May 18, 2022

Chile’s Welcoming Approach to Immigrants Cools as Numbers Rise

In the years since its return to democracy, Chile has emerged as a major immigration destination within South America. Yet recent large-scale migrant arrivals from Haiti and Venezuela have shaken the country’s politics and at times overwhelmed a decades-old immigration framework that critics contended was woefully out of date. New reforms could tighten immigration, but many questions remain. This country profile analyzes migration to Chile particularly since 1990.

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