North and Central American Task Force on Migration

With countries across North and Central America affected by the large movements of people fleeing violence, corruption, poverty, criminality, and the effects of climate change, regional action on shared challenges is necessary to build lasting solutions. Launched in June 2021, the North and Central America Task Force on Migration is heeding the call to build a regional and comprehensive approach to humanitarian protection and migration management from Canada to Panama.

Created through an initiative of the World Refugee & Migration Council in partnership with the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, El Colegio de México, and the Inter-American Dialogue, the task force will advance evidence-based recommendations on humanitarian protection, international responsibility sharing, legal pathways for migration, and other key areas of migration management.

The task force is composed of civil society, business leaders, academic researchers, and former policymakers who are examining solutions both to immediate humanitarian demands and underlying economic, security, and governance pressures that impel migrants and refugees to leave their countries of origin. The task force is co-chaired by Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State; Lloyd Axworthy, Chair, World Refugee & Migration Council and former Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs; Mayu Brizuela de Avila, former Salvadoran Minister of Foreign Affairs; Laura Chinchilla, former President of Costa Rica; Silvia Giorguli Saucedo, President of El Colegio de México; and Cardinal Álvaro Ramazzini, Bishop of Huehuetenango, Guatemala. MPI President Andrew Selee and Senior Fellow Doris Meissner, who heads MPI's U.S. Immigration Policy Program, are among the task force's members.

Members and Activities

For a full list of the Task Force co-chairs and members, click here.

The inaugural statement of the Task Force, outlining its vision of creative and collective regional migration management, can be found here.

The press release announcing the launch of the initiative, can be found here.

Publications

The Task Force's publications are collected here.

Report: Task Force Summary Report: Key Recommendations

Report: Institutional and Political Drivers of Migration in Central America

Report: Economic and Environmental Drivers of Central American Migration

Report: Reducing Irregular Migration from Central America Through Alternative Regular Migration Pathways

Report: Regional Cooperation and Co-Responsibility

Report: Humanitarian Protection in the Region: A State of Emergency

Research Paper: Strengthening Regional Cooperation on Migration from Central America: Possible Ways Forward

Research Paper: Criminal Governance in Northern Central America

Research Paper: Migrant Remittances to Central America and Options for Development

Research Paper: Alternative Protection Pathways in the Americas

Research Paper: Narratives of Migration and Integration of Central American Migrants in the US and Canada

Research Paper: Environmental Drivers of Migration from Northern Central America

Research Paper: Pathways for Labor Migration from Northern Central America: Five Difficult but Necessary Proposals

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