International Program

Policy Briefs

September 2023

Green Reintegration: Supporting Returning Migrants in Climate-Affected Communities

Motorbikes and cars travel down a road in a storm

Marcel Crozet/ILO

Reintegration after return is often a challenge, and doubly so for migrants returning to communities affected by climate change and environmental degradation. This brief explores the emergence of "green" approaches to providing reintegration assistance, including project types implemented to date, common challenges, and strategies for building a stronger case for climate-responsive reintegration programming.

Commentaries

September 2023

Achieving Meaningful International Cooperation on Displacement: Can the 2023 Global Refugee Forum Deliver?

Sign for the 2019 Global Refugee Forum in Geneva

The 2023 Global Refugee Forum will test whether global solidarity for refugees and their hosts can be revived as the political environment cools in many countries. With responses to major displacement crises since 2019 largely taking place outside forum and Global Compact on Refugees processes, preserving the relevance of the forum and the compact will require going beyond counting pledges in Geneva, as this commentary explains.

Commentaries

July 2023

Canada's New Tech Talent Strategy Takes Aim at High-Skilled Immigrants in the United States

Graphic image of man's hand touching screen with word skills

iStock.com/Natali_Mis

Canada’s Tech Talent Strategy is highly unusual for its explicit targeting of visa holders in another country. Opening a dedicated stream specifically for high-skilled immigrants in the United States who hold an H-1B visa is the latest salvo in a growing global competition for talent—one in which some countries are racing ahead of the United States in terms of policy dynamism, as this commentary explores.

Policy Briefs

June 2023

Linking Migrant Reintegration Assistance and Development Goals

IOM

When migrants return to their countries of origin, their reintegration is often most successful in communities that are welcoming, have functional public services, and where livelihood opportunities are available. In recognition of these facts, there has been a growing push to connect reintegration assistance programs with efforts to support local development. This issue brief explores common approaches to building such links.

Reports

June 2023

Building Meaningful Refugee Participation into Protection Policymaking

Refugee woman who leads a community organization in Cameroon

Jesuit Refugee Service

One promising—but often underutilized—element of addressing the world’s urgent humanitarian protection needs is meaningfully engaging refugees in policymaking processes. As this report highlights, consultations, advisory roles, and leadership and staff positions can help ensure refugees’ knowledge and expertise are reflected in policy responses to displacement. The study also examines common limitations and ways to make engagement more impactful.

Reports

June 2023

Migration Narratives in Northern Central America: How Competing Stories Shape Policy and Public Opinion in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador

iStock.com/incomible

El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have long histories of emigration, but are seeing increasing transit and return migration as well. This report explores the stories told within these three countries about migration in all its forms, how these narratives intersect with (and at times, contradict) each other, and how they influence policy decisions and public opinion.

Venezuelan migrants at the Colombian border.

Articles

In a Dramatic Shift, the Americas Have Become a Leading Migration Destination

Political and economic crises, new free-movement arrangements, and other trends are transforming countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, a region once known primarily for its emigration. The number of immigrants living in the region has nearly doubled since 2010, an incredible change in a short period of time. This article makes sense of a profound transition underway in the Western Hemisphere.

Image of passport page with variety of stamps

Articles

Top Statistics on Global Migration and Migrants

Looking for some of the most often-sought information on global migration? This statistics-rich article draws on the most current data sources to offer a primer on international migration, highlighting its types, the size of the migrant population and growth over time, and major sending and receiving countries and regions. Beyond looking at labor and humanitarian migrants and international students, the article examines remittances and more.

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

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 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	Reports January 2022 Coming Together or Coming Apart? A New Phase of International Cooperation on Migration By Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan and Kate Hooper

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Reports November 2017 Beyond Transactional Deals: Building Lasting Migration Partnerships in the Mediterranean By Luca Lixi	Reports November 2017 Safe or Sorry? Prospects for Britons in the European Union after Brexit By Meghan Benton
Policy Briefs September 2017 Engaging Communities in Refugee Protection: The Potential of Private Sponsorship in Europe By Susan Fratzke	Reports September 2017 Tracing the Channels Refugees Use to Seek Protection in Europe By Susan Fratzke and Brian Salant
Reports July 2017 Strengthening Mexico’s Protection of Central American Unaccompanied Minors in Transit By Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas	Reports June 2017 Weathering Crisis, Forging Ahead: Swedish Asylum and Integration Policy By Susan Fratzke
Reports June 2017 In Search of Common Values amid Large-Scale Immigrant Integration Pressures By Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan and Meghan Benton	Reports June 2017 How Are Refugees Faring? Integration at U.S. and State Levels By Michael Fix, Kate Hooper and Jie Zong

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Feature

September 25, 2020

Greece Struggles to Balance Competing Migration Demands

When he was elected prime minister in 2019, Kyriakos Mitsotakis promised what he called “strict but fair” reforms to secure Greece's borders and speed up transfers of asylum seekers crowding Aegean islands. Yet domestic and geopolitical tensions continued to roil the islands, later joined by a global pandemic, culminating in a fire that destroyed most of Lesvos's Moria refugee camp. This article examines Greece's efforts to strike a delicate balance on migration in a complex era.

An Indian internal migrant walks with her children in Delhi

Feature

September 10, 2020

Gaps in India’s Treatment of Refugees and Vulnerable Internal Migrants Are Exposed by the Pandemic

India has no refugee law and has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, leaving many of its estimated 250,000 recognized refugees in a legal gray area. Meanwhile, more than 450 million internal migrants form the foundation of the country's economy, yet often have trouble accessing government benefits, identity cards, and other services. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought these shared vulnerabilities into stark relief.

Feature

August 25, 2020

Southeastern Europe Looks to Engage its Diaspora to Offset the Impact of Depopulation

Southeastern Europe is experiencing one of the sharpest depopulations in the world, with countries such as Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia on pace to see their populations shrink by at least 15 percent in coming decades. To counter this trend, governments in the region, NGOs, and the private sector are increasingly, if unevenly, tapping into large diaspora communities to spur economic growth and strengthen cultural ties.

Migrants aboard a rubber vessel are rescued in the Mediterranean

Feature

August 6, 2020

Once a Destination for Migrants, Post-Gaddafi Libya Has Gone from Transit Route to Containment

Libya was once a prized destination for workers from around the world. But after Muammar Gaddafi’s overthrow in 2011, the country became the transit point for hundreds of thousands of Europe-bound asylum seekers and other migrants. Following Libya's 2017 deal with Italy to detain and return migrants caught at sea—which was renewed in February 2020—migrants became trapped in an unstable country, facing harrowing realities, as this article explores.

Feature

July 9, 2020

COVID-19 Pandemic Profoundly Affects Bangladeshi Workers Abroad with Consequences for Origin Communities

Bangladesh is one of the world’s largest migrant-origin countries, and money sent home by its workers abroad is crucial to an economy that has become one of the more vibrant ones in South Asia. Against this backdrop, the COVID-19 pandemic has injected turmoil into the economy as Bangladeshi migrants have lost their jobs, families are seeing reduced remittances, and would-be migrant workers have had to shelve their plans to work abroad.

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Expert Q&A, Audio

April 2, 2021

The Benefits of Climate Migration

Popular discussions usually frame climate change-induced migration negatively, often as a strategy of last resort. But migrating abroad can also be an effective way to build resilience against the impacts of climate change.

changing climate changing migration podcast episode 9 tile

Expert Q&A, Audio

March 26, 2021

Is Climate Change Driving Migration from Central America?

Hundreds of thousands of migrants have left Central America in recent years, and climate extremes have been identified as one of the factors that might be driving this movement, along with elements such as political instability and violence.

IOM Muse Mohammed Jasem a Syrian refugee resettled to France

Video, Audio

March 17, 2021

COVID-19 Recovery and the Next Stage of the Syrian Refugee Response After Ten Years

Ten years into the response to the Syrian refugee crisis, this webinar explores findings from a research project conducted by the Durable Solutions Platform (DSP) and MPI on lessons from international experiences to support pathways to solutions in the Syrian refugee context.

Expert Q&A, Audio

March 2, 2021

Who Manages Climate Migration? Evolving Global Governance

Climate change and international migration both are global issues with aspects that countries try to manage through treaties, pacts, and other types of agreements. But most of the global governance frameworks that exist for climate-induced migration require only voluntary commitments by states.

2021.2.22 UNHCR Resettlement From Somalia to US

Video, Audio

February 22, 2021

The Future of Refugee Resettlement and Complementary Pathways: Strengthening Sustainable and Strategic Humanitarian Solutions for Refugees

This event organized by MPI and CWS, one of nine U.S. refugee resettlement agencies, examined the refugee resettlement system and complementary pathways that represent untapped opportunities for refugees to improve their lives through migration.

Recent Activity

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

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.

Reports

January 2022

Coming Together or Coming Apart? A New Phase of International Cooperation on Migration

Faced with the pandemic and its economic fallout, many countries have looked inward. Yet the nature and scale of the crisis has vividly illustrated the necessity of working across borders to address transnational challenges. This Transatlantic Council on Migration statement examines how the context for international cooperation has shifted since the Global Compact for Migration was adopted, and reflects on a way forward for migration cooperation.

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