Border Enforcement

Intersecting Crises: Pandemic and Hurricanes Add to Political Instability Driving Migration from Honduras

Corruption, back-to-back hurricanes, and pandemic-era economic collapse have converged to drive record migration from Honduras.

From Unilateral Response to Coordinated Action: How Can Mobility Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa Adapt to the Public-Health Challenges of COVID-19?

COVID-19 exposed weak cross-border governance across sub-Saharan Africa. Regional coordination and data reform can better balance public health and migration management.

Europe’s Tackling of ‘Root Causes’ of African Migration Has a Mixed Record

The European Union's Emergency Trust Fund for Africa has reduced irregular migration but fallen short on development goals and raised serious human-rights concerns.

Stakeholder Perspectives on Addressing Migration Push Factors

U.S. Government Makes Significant Strides in Receiving Unaccompanied Children but Major Challenges Remain

The federal government has made notable progress since March 2021 in getting unaccompanied children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border out of Border Patrol facilities and into Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) custody, and then releasing them to parents or other sponsors. Yet there are serious concerns about standards of care and conditions in a new type of ORR facility: emergency intake sites, as this commentary explores.

Border Challenges Dominate, But Biden’s First 100 Days Mark Notable Under-the-Radar Immigration Accomplishments

President Joe Biden's first 100 days brought sweeping immigration changes. But a record surge of border arrivals exposed significant gaps between promises and policy capacity.

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. The discussion explores strategies that regional and U.S. governments, as well as civil society, can employ to better manage migration, as governments in the region are being confronted with rapidly changing migration trends. 

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

The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed mobility and cross-border movement across the globe in 2020. This two-panel discussion, with introductory remarks from the IOM Director General, showcases findings from an IOM-MPI report examining how the pandemic reshaped border management and human mobility. The conversation also focuses on what the lasting impacts may be throughout 2021 and beyond.

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

Five years after the EU-Turkey deal reshaped European migration policy, the agreement has become a contested template for outsourcing border control.

Border Déjà Vu: Biden Confronts Similar Challenges as His Predecessors

A record surge of unaccompanied minors at the U.S. border in early 2021 exposed the Biden administration's lack of preparation and reliance on the same responses that stymied its predecessors.