Global Program
The Global Program acts as a policy laboratory for innovative, evidence-based, and politically feasible solutions to migration policy challenges. From direct policy advice to deep comparative research, its work interrogates policy design and effectiveness, helps countries newer to immigration learn from innovation and evidence in other regions, and anticipates how demographic, economic, and technological shifts will reshape migration in the years ahead. It supports governments in responding to crises with greater coordination and foresight, and provides a trusted off-the-record space for engaging with sensitive topics. Its main geographical focus is Europe, the Americas, and Australia, but it increasingly works with governments and other partners worldwide, including in East Africa and Asia. For more on the Global Program, click here.
Featured
Population Aging Is Here. Immigration Can Offer Half an Answer.
Immigration on its own cannot solve population aging, but five policy principles can help it play a more effective role in a broader demographic…
Creating Inclusive Urban Economies for Migrants and Refugees
Cities hold powerful levers to turn migrants' and refugees' underused talent into economic growth—but doing so requires moving beyond first…
More Featured Work
Key Statistics
International migrants comprise 3.7 percent of the global population. Learn more about them
304.0 million
The number of migrants globally in 2024
50.6 million
The number who as of 2025 were refugees or asylum seekers
94.0 million
The number of international migrants in Europe—the top destination globally
Showing 261–270 of 696 results
When Emergency Measures Become the Norm: Post-coronavirus prospects for the Schengen zone
Most EU Member States closed their borders to travel from neighboring countries in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. While internal borders in the Schengen zone largely reopened in time for summer holidays, there is a lingering sense they could snap shut anew. Though the reflexive introduction of border controls speaks to an inherent lack of trust between states, the 2015-16 migration crisis offers lessons on how to begin to rebuild trust, as this commentary explores.
Venezuelan Migrants and Refugees in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Regional Profile
Venezuela's collapse sparked one of the hemisphere's largest displacement crises, leaving millions across Latin America facing legal status gaps and integration barriers.
Un perfil regional de los migrantes y refugiados venezolanos en América Latina y el Caribe
Con datos de la DTM de la OIM de 2019 en 11 países, este perfil revela variaciones amplias en demografía, estatus migratorio y necesidades de integración de venezolanos.
Climate Change and Migration: Converging issues, diverging funding
On this MPI Europe webinar, experts explored different migration policy options related to climate adaptation, the evolving landscape of climate finance tools, what funding gaps and opportunities exist for collaboration with partner countries, and the implications of COVID-19 for migration and climate adaptation funding approaches.
Migrants in Africa & COVID-19: From emergency measures to inclusive social protection systems
This MPI Europe discussion explores what emergency measures have been deployed by African governments and aid actors in response to COVID-19 to assist migrants in need, along with what the health crisis says about social protection systems, the incentives for inclusionary systems for all, and how to make some of these measures sustainable.
Beyond the Border: U.S.-Mexican Migration Accord Has Ushered in Sweeping Change in Mexico in Its First Year
As the U.S.-Mexico migration cooperation agreement marks its first year, this discussion examines how the accord has reshaped Mexico’s immigration enforcement policies, exposed weaknesses in its humanitarian protection system, and exacerbated precarious conditions for migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border. Speakers also explore how pandemic-induced changes to mobility may affect the future of U.S.-Mexico relations.
One Year after the U.S.-Mexico Agreement: Reshaping Mexico’s Migration Policies
The June 2019 U.S.-Mexico migration agreement pushed Mexico toward enforcement-first policies, cutting border crossings while straining humanitarian protections.
Un año después del Acuerdo Estados Unidos-México: La transformación de las políticas migratorias mexicanas
El acuerdo de junio de 2019 entre Estados Unidos y México redujo los cruces irregulares pero desbordó la capacidad humanitaria e institucional mexicana.
The Rocky Road to a Mobile World after COVID-19
COVID-19 has chilled many forms of human movement, from travel to temporary and permanent migration, refugee resettlement, and returns, among them. While a safe restart of travel is a precondition for a return to economic and societal normalcy, restarting mobility will not be like flicking a switch, particularly amid disagreements over the costs societies can and should absorb in the name of protecting public health, as this commentary explains.
Humanitarian Protection in an Era of Pandemic
MPI and MPI Europe experts discuss the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on asylum systems in Europe and North America, as well as in developing regions, where 85 percent of refugees live. During this freeform conversation, our analysts also assess the implications for the principle of asylum and the future for a post-World War II humanitarian protection system that is under threat.
