International Program

Reports

June 2022

The Future of Remote Work: Digital Nomads and the Implications for Immigration Systems

A laptop and cocktail on a ledge overlooking the beach

iStock.com/Evgeniia Medvedeva

The number of people who work from home or another location other than a traditional office has been growing for decades, but the pandemic has accelerated this shift—with important implications for immigration policy. This report examines trends in remote work, challenges digital nomads and employers face when navigating immigration systems, and opportunities to adapt immigration policies to keep pace with changes in the world of work.

Commentaries

June 2022

The Los Angeles Declaration Could Represent a Big Step for Real Migration Cooperation across the Americas

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other leaders at the 2022 Summit of the Americas

Freddie Everett/State Department

The Los Angeles Agreement on Migration and Protection signed by leaders from 20 countries across the Western Hemisphere at the 2022 Summit of the Americas marks a significant step forward in creating a common language and a coherent set of ideas for more cooperatively managing migration movements across a region that has seen very significant mobility in recent years, as this commentary explains.

Policy Briefs

May 2022

Humanitarian Pathways for Central Americans: Assessing Opportunities for the Future

A family of migrants from El Salvador near the U.S.-Mexico border.

iStock.com/vichinterlang

For most Central Americans forced to flee their homes, traveling to Mexico or the United States to apply for asylum is their only option to seek international protection. To date, refugee resettlement has been used only sparingly in the region. This brief explores what role resettlement and other humanitarian pathways play in meeting these protection needs, and whether and how they could be scaled up.

Commentaries

May 2022

Managing Mobility in the Pandemic Era Requires World to Buy In on Shared Principles

Two adults and two children wearing face masks at a migration health centre in Nigeria

IOM/Natalie Oren

Many countries are reopening for international travel and migration after the shutdown forced by the pandemic. Yet there is still no consensus on whether and how to use travel measures to prevent the spread of future variants of COVID-19 or respond to the next public health crisis. This commentary lays out four guiding principles for building an inclusive and effective global mobility system.

Commentaries

May 2022

The Ukrainian Conflict Could Be a Tipping Point for Refugee Protection

A woman in a winter coat receives food from a woman in an orange safety vest at a train station in P

Subcarpathian Voivodeship/IOM

Recent displacement crises—ranging from Syria, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Myanmar, South Sudan, to most recently Ukraine—have imposed huge stresses on the humanitarian protection regime. Yet individual countries and regional organizations have been innovating to meet the challenge and expand the options available for protection, in some cases bypassing beleaguered asylum systems. This commentary traces the rise of more ad hoc approaches.

Reports

May 2022

COVID-19 and the State of Global Mobility in 2021

Woman wearing a white sweater and face mask and carrying luggage looks at airport information board

Maria Korneeva/iStock.com

Despite high hopes that international movement would be revived in 2021 after the deep chill in 2020 with designation of a global pandemic, cross-border mobility remained limited as migrants and travelers faced complex rules, high costs, and uncertainty as new COVID-19 variants emerged. This report assesses global mobility in 2021, including changing use of travel restrictions, their impacts on mobile populations, and efforts to safely restart migration and travel.

Featured

Moving Beyond Pandemic — A Podcast

Catch our new podcast, which examines the challenges facing the world as it seeks to restart travel and migration chilled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The repercussions of this dramatic halt to mobility will be profound, and will almost certainly lead to transformations that will reshape movement for the foreseeable future—maybe even permanently, as we explore.

Featured

Latin America & the Caribbean Portal

The Migration Portal is the first comprehensive website that tracks developments on immigration policy in Latin America and the Caribbean, presenting authoritative research, data, and analysis produced by MPI, governments, international organizations, researchers, and civil society.

Recent Activity

Reports March 2022 Migration from Huehuetenango in Guatemala’s Western Highlands: Policy and Development Responses By Andrew Selee, Luis Argueta and Juan José Hurtado Paz y Paz	Articles March 9, 2022 Origin of World’s Largest Migrant Population, India Seeks to Leverage Immigration By Ruchi Singh
Reports March 2022 The Challenge of Coordinating Border Management Assistance between Europe and the Maghreb By Matt Herbert	Articles March 2, 2022 The World Is Witnessing a Rapid Proliferation of Border Walls By Élisabeth Vallet
Commentaries February 2022 Is Europe Prepared for a Possible Large-Scale Ukrainian Displacement Crisis? By Hanne Beirens	Multimedia February 15, 2022 Working Towards a More Gender-Responsive Reintegration Process for Returned Migrants
Multimedia February 7, 2022 Changing Climate, Changing Migration: A Note of Caution about Exaggerating the Climate-Migration Link	Articles February 2, 2022 The Increasing Use of Artificial Intelligence in Border Zones Prompts Privacy Questions By Hannah Tyler

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Reports November 2020 Managing the Pandemic and Its Aftermath: Economies, Jobs, and International Migration in the Age of COVID-19 By Demetrios G. Papademetriou	Reports November 2020 Immigration Data Matters By Jeanne Batalova, Andriy Shymonyak and Michelle Mittelstadt
Policy Briefs October 2020 Will International Migration Governance Survive the COVID-19 Pandemic? By Kathleen Newland	Policy Briefs September 2020 Brexit on the Backburner: Citizens’ Rights and the Implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement in a Pandemic By Aliyyah Ahad and Monica Andriescu
Policy Briefs September 2020 Inmigrantes venezolanos, crimen y percepciones falsas: Un análisis de los datos en Colombia, Perú y Chile By Dany Bahar, Meagan Dooley and Andrew Selee	Policy Briefs September 2020 Venezuelan Migration, Crime, and Misperceptions: A Review of Data from Colombia, Peru, and Chile By Dany Bahar, Meagan Dooley and Andrew Selee
Fact Sheets August 2020 Un perfil regional de los migrantes y refugiados venezolanos en América Latina y el Caribe By Diego Chaves-González and Carlos Echeverría-Estrada	Fact Sheets August 2020 Venezuelan Migrants and Refugees in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Regional Profile By Diego Chaves-González and Carlos Echeverría-Estrada

Pages

Feature

April 22, 2021

Iran Loses Highly Educated and Skilled Citizens during Long-Running “Brain Drain”

Large numbers of well-educated Iranians have left their country of birth since its 1979 revolution, in a “brain drain” that has held back Iran’s economy and cultural institutions. Iran’s isolation from the world has worsened in recent years, and a stuttering economy, currency freefall, and widespread impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to the underlying factors encouraging emigration, as this article examines.

Migrants arrive in Greece on a crowded boat from Turkey.

Feature

April 8, 2021

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

The European Union’s landmark 2016 migration deal with Turkey offered aid and other benefits in exchange for Turkey's assistance in helping reduce arrivals of asylum seekers and other migrants. At its fifth anniversary, the EU-Turkey deal remains one criticized by human-rights advocates and has met frustration from Turkey, but in many ways created a blueprint for other externalization arrangements, as this article outlines.

Feature

March 24, 2021

Movement after Migration: Immigrants’ Disproportionate Reliance on Public Transportation

Across North America and Europe, immigrants rely on public transit at higher rates than the native born. This article explores why migrants are disproportionately more likely to use public transportation, the role these systems play in immigrant integration, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on commuter trips, budgets, and services.

Ramshackle dwellings dot a hillside in the Kutupalong refugee camp, outside Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.

Feature

March 18, 2021

Stateless and Persecuted: What Next for the Rohingya?

The Rohingya people have been rendered stateless and subjected to repeated abuse that has made them the world’s most persecuted minority, with hundreds of thousands pushed into neighboring Bangladesh, as well as India, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and beyond. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the Rohingya, including who they are, where they come from, and how they have been systematically marginalized in their native Myanmar and internationally.

A child walks by a destroyed building in Syria.

Feature

March 4, 2021

Violent Encounters and Social Status Shape the Conditions for Migrants Fleeing Civil War

Millions of people flee civil wars for safety elsewhere, but predicting precisely when refugees and asylum seekers will be displaced is not as easy as it seems. There is not always a direct correlation between episodes of violence and patterns of migration. This article explores how civilians require both motivation and opportunity to leave conflict zones.

Pages

Video

November 8, 2021

MPI Turns 20

As MPI celebrates two decades of providing essential research, policy analysis, and data on important immigration and immigrant integration issues, hear from members of the MPI community about what the institute has meant to them and how it has evolved.

changing climate, changing migration episode 14

Expert Q&A, Audio

October 27, 2021

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Climate Change and Environmental Migration: View from the IOM

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), in 2015 created a special division responsible for migration-related issues involving the environment and climate change. The division just got a new leader and is looking to embark on a new agenda.

Video

October 14, 2021

Welcoming Venezuelan Migrants, Innovations in Integration Policies in Colombia

In this webinar, speakers examine issues of integration and social cohesion in Colombia, and explore how the international community can support Colombia and other countries receiving significant numbers of Venezuelan migrants and refugees. They also discuss Colombian initiatives that seek to improve the situation for migrants as well as the host communities where they reside.

Video, Audio

October 14, 2021

Bienvenida a los Migrantes Venezolanos, Innovaciones en las Políticas de Integración en Colombia

En este webinario ponentes examinan cuestiones de integración y cohesión social en Colombia. También se explora cómo la comunidad internacional puede apoyar a los países que están recibiendo altas cantidades de personas venezolanas, como Colombia, mientras intentan estabilizar la situación de migrantes tanto como la de las comunidades de acogida, además de potenciar los beneficios de la migraci

Expert Q&A, Audio

October 13, 2021

World of Migration: Making Migration Policy in an Ever More Complex World

MPI co-founder Demetrios G. Papademetriou takes on many questions, including whether the role of think tanks has evolved over the last two decades, in this conversation with MPI’s Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan. They also look ahead to the challenges that will dominate immigration policymaking in the years ahead.

Recent Activity

Reports

March 2022

Migration from Huehuetenango in Guatemala’s Western Highlands: Policy and Development Responses

Since the early 2010s, unauthorized migration from Guatemala to the United States has risen dramatically. Huehuetenango, a department in Guatemala’s Western Highlands, is among the top sources of this emigration. This study examines the patterns and drivers of emigration from Huehuetenango, as well as potential strategies to address push factors and create alternatives to irregular migration.

Articles

March 9, 2022

Origin of World’s Largest Migrant Population, India Seeks to Leverage Immigration

With nearly 18 million nationals abroad, India is the origin of more international migrants than any other country and claims the world's largest diaspora. Indian emigration can be traced back to the colonial era, with the British empire dispatching Indian workers across the globe, and has evolved for more than a century in response to global labor demands and geopolitical events. This article offers a comprehensive profile of migration from and to India.

Reports

March 2022

The Challenge of Coordinating Border Management Assistance between Europe and the Maghreb

To address cross-border challenges, the European Union and its Member States have increasingly partnered with neighboring countries, with those in the Maghreb region of northern Africa playing a particularly important role. This report examines the border security situation in the Maghreb and European efforts to work with Maghrebi partners to strengthen border management. It finds a mismatch in priorities stymies cooperation.

Articles

March 2, 2022

The World Is Witnessing a Rapid Proliferation of Border Walls

The number of border walls globally has multiplied at a rapid clip, from fewer than five at the end of World War II to more than six dozen now, with more under construction. Most of the world's border fortifications have been built since the turn of the millennium, and are intended to accomplish a range of functions. This article charts the remarkable growth and normalization of border walls globally.

Commentaries

February 2022

Is Europe Prepared for a Possible Large-Scale Ukrainian Displacement Crisis?

Tested by the 2015-16 refugee crisis, are EU Member States better prepared for large-scale displacement of Ukrainians? This MPI Europe commentary examines preparedness for the possible inflow of Ukrainians, who already have visa-free access to the bloc.

Video, Audio, Webinars

February 15, 2022

Working Towards a More Gender-Responsive Reintegration Process for Returned Migrants

Held during Migration Week 2022, this webinar features policymakers and practitioners from Africa, Asia, and Europe in a conversation on the progress made in the past three years to better integrate gender into reintegration programs for returned migrants, the ongoing challenges, and how the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) in May offers a critical moment to promote good practices.

Expert Q&A, Audio

February 7, 2022

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: A Note of Caution about Exaggerating the Climate-Migration Link

This episode of Changing Climate, Changing Migration checks in with migration scholar Hein de Haas about the predictions that vast numbers of people will be displaced by climate change and head to wealthy countries in North America and Europe—views he deems often misplaced.

Articles

February 2, 2022

The Increasing Use of Artificial Intelligence in Border Zones Prompts Privacy Questions

Artificial intelligence systems that promise speedier travel and improved tools to halt smuggling and detect illegal entry have been embraced by border officials across the globe. But critics contend they also pose serious privacy concerns, which may become more pronounced as technologies evolve. This article examines the challenges and promises.

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