International Program

Reports

May 2023

Betting on Legality: Latin American and Caribbean Responses to the Venezuelan Displacement Crisis

A Venezuelan woman receives a visa in the Dominican Republic

Gema Cortés/IOM

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have pragmatically tapped a variety of policy tools to provide legal status to at least half and as many as two-thirds of the more than 6 million displaced Venezuelans in the region. This report explores the extent to which Venezuelans have been able to obtain legal status in the top 15 host countries, their access to labor markets and public services, and where gaps remain.

Policy Briefs

April 2023

What Role Can Immigration Play in Addressing Current and Future Labor Shortages?

iStock.com/Gwengoat

The labor shortages many countries are grappling with have reignited debates over the role immigration can and should play in meeting workforce needs—and how to balance this approach with investments in education and training, labor, and social policy. This brief explores these questions, plus opportunities for governments to refine how they factor shortages into economic immigration policies.

Reports

February 2023

External Processing: A Tool to Expand Protection or Further Restrict Territorial Asylum?

Refugees & asylum seekers arrive in Rwanda as part of the Emergency Transit Mechanism.

As asylum systems in many countries have come under considerable strain in recent years, there has been renewed interest in external processing—that is, conducting part or all of an asylum procedure outside a destination country’s territory. Some countries have pursued this to deter spontaneous arrivals, but as this report explores, others are using various external processing models to expand access to protection.

Reports

January 2023

Using Risk Analysis to Shape Border Management: A Review of Approaches during the COVID-19 Pandemic

World map with small planes and major city names

iStock.com/Funtap

Although nearly all countries adopted travel measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, national approaches have varied considerably and often been controversial. In many cases, decisionmakers failed to clearly communicate the rationale for using certain measures. This report looks at how governments and international organizations approached travel-related risk analysis, and what it would take to do this more strategically in future public-health emergencies.

Policy Briefs

November 2022

Reassessing Recruitment Costs in a Changing World of Labor Migration

Migrant workers at a textile factory in Jordan

Migrant workers can pay a range of costs when they are recruited and relocate for jobs abroad, accruing significant debt. While many countries, international organizations, and other stakeholders have sought to reduce or eliminate recruitment costs, the pandemic has exacerbated and added to these expenses. This policy brief explores how the costs migrant workers face have changed, and what these developments mean for efforts to promote fair and ethical recruitment.

Reports

November 2022

Financing Responses to Climate Migration: The Unique Role of Multilateral Development Banks

Aerial view of a flooded residential area in Pakistan

Multilateral development banks (MDBs) have emerged as major players in responding to climate change, investing in sustainable infrastructure and climate resilience. But while many MDBs have shown interest in projects with positive impacts for climate migrants and host communities, they sometimes struggle to maximize these effects. This report examines MDBs’ role in responding to climate-related migration and displacement to date and opportunities to scale up their work.

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

Multimedia April 28, 2022 How Can Europe Address Its Labor Market Needs at a Time of Upheaval?	Reports April 2022 Destination-Country Policies to Foster Diaspora Engagement in Development By Kathleen Newland
Commentaries April 2022 The UK-Rwanda Agreement Represents Another Blow to Territorial Asylum By Hanne Beirens and Samuel Davidoff-Gore	Reports April 2022 Digital Health Credentials and COVID-19: Can Vaccine and Testing Requirements Restart Global Mobility? By Lawrence Huang
Articles April 19, 2022 Persistent COVID-19 Vaccine Inequity Has Significant Implications for Refugees and Other Vulnerable Migrants By Jhinuk Mukhopadhyay and Gauri Thampi	Commentaries April 2022 Beyond the Border: Opportunities for Managing Regional Migration between Central and North America By Ariel G. Ruiz Soto and Andrew Selee
Articles April 6, 2022 Vaccine Requirements Predate the COVID-19 Pandemic by More than a Century By Chi Chi Huang and Alison Bashford	Multimedia March 29, 2022 Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Are Climate Migrants Treated Differently than Other Migrants?

Pages

Reports July 2019 Start-Up Visas: A Passport for Innovation and Growth? By Liam Patuzzi	Policy Briefs June 2019 Migration, Development, and Global Governance: From Crisis toward Consolidation By Kathleen Newland
Reports May 2019 The Evolution of the Australian System for Selecting Economic Immigrants By Anna Boucher and Amy Davidson	Reports May 2019 Preparing for the Unknown: Designing Effective Predeparture Orientation for Resettling Refugees By Susan Fratzke and Lena Kainz
Reports April 2019 The Canadian Express Entry System for Selecting Economic Immigrants: Progress and Persistent Challenges By Daniel Hiebert	Reports April 2019 Competing Approaches to Selecting Economic Immigrants: Points-Based vs. Demand-Driven Systems By Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Kate Hooper
Policy Briefs February 2019 Global Governance of International Migration 2.0: What Lies Ahead? By Kathleen Newland	Reports February 2019 Exploring New Legal Migration Pathways: Lessons from Pilot Projects By Kate Hooper

Pages

Flags of the European Union fly outside of the European Parliament in Brussels.

Feature

June 3, 2021

Borderless Europe: Seven Decades of Free Movement

Between Brexit and COVID-19, Europe’s 31-country zone of free movement has been profoundly tested. Still, the area has constantly evolved over the last 70 years, to include new groups of individuals who can freely move for work, study, or leisure, as well as cover larger geographic areas. This article examines the history and challenges to free movement, a crowning success of the European project.

A caravan of migrants from Central America passes by Chiapas, Mexico.

Feature

May 20, 2021

Mexico’s Search for Disappeared Migrants Has Evolved, but Challenges Remain

Tens of thousands of migrants have gone missing in Mexico in recent years, with the country having one of world's highest rates of disappeared persons. In 2015, the Mexican government created institutions to investigate these cases and work with the missing migrants' families, who are often their most vocal advocates. This article explores the reasons why migrants disappear, as well the institutions established to investigate cases and their impact.

Feature

May 6, 2021

Europe’s Tackling of ‘Root Causes’ of African Migration Has a Mixed Record

The European Union has tried to leverage development assistance to address root causes of migration from Africa, including poverty, instability, and conflict. The EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, unveiled in 2015, has supported more than 250 programs totaling nearly 5 billion euros across 26 countries, but has had only partial success addressing the underlying drivers of migration, as this article explains.

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.

Pages

Video, Audio

September 20, 2021

s, M, l, xl ¿Cómo es la bienvenida de los migrantes en las ciudades de tamaño mediano en la región?

En esta conversación, líderes de ciudades medianas examinan las respuestas sociales de la region que han resultado en la integración de nuevos migrantes en comunidades locales.

Video, Audio

September 14, 2021

How Will the Pandemic Reshape Public Health for Migrants?

With COVID-19 likely to significantly reshape health-care systems in Europe and worldwide, there is a window of opportunity to test new strategies to tackle longstanding migrant health disparities, and ensure that structural changes accommodate the complex needs of diverse populations.

Video, Audio

September 13, 2021

Opening More Avenues for Protection for Refugees

This MPI Europe webinar marks the launch of a report that maps refugee resettlement and complementary pathway programs around the world and offers recommendations for how UNHCR, national governments, civil society, and others can most effectively support the growth of resettlement and complementary pathways.

Video, Audio

August 26, 2021

Labor Migration Governance in West Africa in the Wake of the Pandemic

On this webinar speakers discuss a recent policy brief Deepening Labor Migration Governance at a Time of Immobility: Lessons from Ghana and Senegal.

Video, Audio

August 24, 2021

Humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan: How Could Europe Respond to Growing Displacement?

In light of the dangers facing millions of Afghans, this discussion focused on what European countries should prioritize to address the immediate needs of displaced populations; how to start planning for longer-term assistance to countries in the region who are hosting Afghan refugees; implications for partnerships with governments in the region; and what safe pathways other countries have open

Recent Activity

Video

April 28, 2022

How Can Europe Address Its Labor Market Needs at a Time of Upheaval?

Held immediately after the European Union unveiled its skills and talent package, this MPI Europe webinar explores how Europe can address its labor market needs at a time of great upheaval, and the role that immigration and immigrant integration policy can play in helping propel Europe’s economic recovery.

Reports

April 2022

Destination-Country Policies to Foster Diaspora Engagement in Development

Emigrants and their descendants can play a critical role in the development of their countries of origin or ancestry. In fact, many such countries have policies that seek to leverage their diaspora’s contributions. Much less attention has been paid to how destination countries with large international development programs are engaging their resident diasporas—or could be engaging them—in the development of countries of origin.

Commentaries

April 2022

The UK-Rwanda Agreement Represents Another Blow to Territorial Asylum

The United Kingdom’s controversial deal with Rwanda to relocate certain asylum seekers there—not for offshore processing for possible settlement in the United Kingdom but as a permanent destination—will have far-reaching implications, possibly destabilizing the norms and architecture of the post-World War II protection system, this commentary argues.

Reports

April 2022

Digital Health Credentials and COVID-19: Can Vaccine and Testing Requirements Restart Global Mobility?

Digital health credentials that verify a person’s COVID-19 vaccination, testing, or recovery status are a central part of efforts to restart international travel and migration. This report explores these credentials’ use to date and persistent challenges, including those related to international coordination and technical compatibility between systems. It also recommends strategies to more fully leverage their potential and make them more inclusive.

Articles

April 19, 2022

Persistent COVID-19 Vaccine Inequity Has Significant Implications for Refugees and Other Vulnerable Migrants

Most of the world's refugees live in low-income countries where rates of COVID-19 vaccination remain low. Although refugees have been formally included in many governments’ vaccination plans, a combination of factors has made access to jabs difficult, as this article explains.

Commentaries

April 2022

Beyond the Border: Opportunities for Managing Regional Migration between Central and North America

With migration from Central America increasing, the region from Canada to Panama faces an opportunity to build an effective regional approach to migration by focusing on several areas that are ripe for significant policy innovation. This commentary sketches a vision, offering a road map to more detailed research that outlines strategies for cooperation on legal pathways, humanitarian protection, migration management, and sustainable development.

Articles

April 6, 2022

Vaccine Requirements Predate the COVID-19 Pandemic by More than a Century

Requirements that international travelers and migrants prove vaccination against certain diseases are about as old as vaccines themselves. In some cases, vaccine certificates predated the existence of government-issued passports. This article explores the history of these requirements, which began with smallpox and have since been applied for diseases including cholera, polio, yellow fever, and, recently, COVID-19.

Expert Q&A, Audio

March 29, 2022

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Are Climate Migrants Treated Differently than Other Migrants?

Do host communities respond differently to people migrating because of environmental impacts compared to refugees fleeing war or migrants seeking work? Research discussed on this episode of Changing Climate, Changing Migration suggests the answer is yes.

Programs

Topics see all >

Regions see all >

Data

Featured Publication

Programs

You are here

International Program

Recent Activity

Pages

Pages

Pages

Pages

Recent Activity

Pages

MPI Europe

Migration Information Source