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
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COVID-19 in Latin America: Tackling Health Care & Other Impacts for Vulnerable Migrant Populations
This MPI webinar brought together public health and migration experts to analyze the impact that COVID-19 preventative measures will have on vulnerable immigrants and refugees in Latin America, with a particular look at Colombia as a case study. Speakers also discussed how policymakers and international organizations can include migrant populations in their emergency response plans.
As COVID-19 Slows Human Mobility, Can the Global Compact for Migration Meet the Test for a Changed Era?
The coronavirus pandemic dramatically reshaped how human mobility is managed just as the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration was beginning to move from paper to implementation. As governments face pressing public-health, economic, and other concerns in responding to COVID-19, this MPI Europe commentary explores whether the first comprehensive global agreement on migration can adjust to a changed reality.
The COVID-19 Pandemic Suggests the Lessons Learned by European Asylum Policymakers After the 2015 Migration Crisis Are Fading
As European asylum systems are tested again by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has injected the need for social distancing during processing and in reception centers, it appears lessons learned during the 2015-16 migration and refugee crisis may be fading. Chief among them: A number of Member States have phased out their buffer capacity. This MPI Europe commentary explores the diametrically different approaches taken to asylum during the pandemic.
Expert Podcast: Meeting Seasonal Labor Needs in the Age of COVID-19
What happens to agriculture and food security when pandemic travel restrictions block seasonal migrant workers?
Migration & Coronavirus: A Complicated Nexus Between Migration Management and Public Health
This webinar, organized by MPI and the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility at The New School, discussed the state of play around the globe surrounding COVID-19 and examined where migration management and enforcement tools may be useful and where they may be ill-suited to advancing public health goals.
Coronavirus Is Spreading across Borders, But It Is Not a Migration Problem
Travel bans, border closures, and other migration management tools did not prove effective at blocking COVID-19 from spreading across international borders. Yet as governments have shifted from containment to mitigation with the coronavirus now in community transmission in many countries, these restrictions are a logical part of the policy toolkit in the context of social distancing and restricting all forms of human movement, as this commentary explores.
A Race Against the Clock: Meeting Seasonal Labor Needs in the Age of COVID-19
As governments have reacted to the coronavirus pandemic by closing borders, seasonal workers have been kept out, raising a pressing question: who is going to produce the food amid agricultural labor shortages? Policymakers in the Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America have responded by seeking to recruit residents, lengthen stays for already present seasonal workers, and find ways to continue admitting foreign seasonal labor, as this commentary explores.
Is the Door Closing? Latin American and Caribbean Responses to Venezuelan Migration
This webinar marks the release of MPI's Latin American and Caribbean Migration Portal that offers up-to-date, authoritative research and data on migration trends and policies, and a report examining the policy responses of 11 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to increased Venezuelan and Nicaraguan migration.
¿Se Están Cerrando las Puertas? Respuestas a la Migración Venezolana en América Latina y el Caribe
MPI llevó a cabo un seminario en línea para marcar el lanzamiento de: Un portal sobre Migración en América Latina y el Caribe; y un informe que examina los efectos de las políticas migratorias y de integración en 11 países en América Latina y el Caribe ante el aumento de la migración venezolana y nicaragüense.
An Uneven Welcome: Latin American and Caribbean Responses to Venezuelan and Nicaraguan Migration
Latin American and Caribbean countries opened borders to Venezuelan and Nicaraguan forced migrants but are tightening entry rules, risking a shift to irregular migration.
