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 321–330 of 696 results
Creativity amid Crisis: Legal Pathways for Venezuelan Migrants in Latin America
With more than 3 million Venezuelans living abroad as of late 2018, Latin American countries have improvised creative legal pathways but must now plan for the long term.
Creatividad dentro de la crisis: opciones legales para migrantes venezolanos en América Latina
Con más de 3 millones de venezolanos en el extranjero a fines de 2018, los países de América Latina han improvisado vías legales creativas, pero deben planificar a largo plazo.
The Road Ahead: Coordination Challenges of Implementing the GCM
The Member States of the United Nations convened in December to adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM). Ahead of the adoption, this side event in Marrakech (open only to those with GFMD credentials) considered the coordination and mechanisms most needed to achieve the commitments laid out in the GCM.
How Latin America Is Responding to the Venezuelan Exodus
More than 3 million Venezuelans have fled in response to the deepening political and economic crisis in their country, and in this webinar experts from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru discuss the responses in these countries to the sudden arrival of hundreds of thousands of newcomers. They also discuss the prospects for future policy responses in the region.
An Overheated Narrative Unanswered: How the Global Compact for Migration Became Controversial
Adopted by 164 governments in December 2018, the Global Compact for Migration saw opposition grow from one to a dozen nations, driven by nationalism and misinformation.
Understanding the Policy Context for Migrant Return and Reintegration
In advance of the December 2018 adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration and its commitment to facilitate the return, readmission, and reintegration of migrants, this webinar examines the policies, practices, and contextual factors that make compulsory returns such a difficult issue for international cooperation, and the programs that are being implemented to make reintegration of returnees sustainable.
The End of the Retirement Dream? British pensioners in the European Union after Brexit
Brexit put roughly 229,000 British pensioners in EU Member States at risk of pension stagnation, higher taxes, and health-care loss, with lifestyle retirees most vulnerable.
After the Divorce: British families living in the EU-27 post-Brexit
Brexit put British families in EU Member States at risk of losing rights already difficult to secure, with mixed-status, same-sex, and hyper-mobile families most exposed.
In Search of a New Equilibrium: Immigration Policymaking in the Newest Era of Nativist Populism
Nativist populism's most lasting impact is not electoral but indirect—reshaping immigration agendas and pulling mainstream parties to the right across liberal democracies.
When Facts Don’t Matter: How to Communicate More Effectively about Immigration’s Costs and Benefits
Facts about immigration fail to persuade skeptical publics because human psychology and media fragmentation are more powerful forces than evidence alone.
