Migration Information Source
Flore de Preneuf/World Bank
Credit cards, bank accounts, and other financial services are often critical in order to fully participate in the modern world. Yet many refugees and other forced migrants have trouble obtaining these seemingly simple tools, preventing them from full integration. This article outlines humanitarian migrants’ needs for financial services and the barriers that can arise.
The U.S. immigration system is notorious for persistent backlogs and antiquated processes. In recent months, under-the-radar changes have made a dent in the logjam and helped bring the system into the 21st century. But some pandemic-era changes are set to expire, potentially undoing the incremental reforms. This article details the quiet technological and efficiency improvements in U.S. immigration operations.
Is climate change a major driver of migration and displacement? From where are people leaving, and where are they going? This informative primer, a Climate Migration 101 of sorts, provides answers to basic questions about climate change and migration, starting with how and where climate change triggers human movement.
Mitchell Zachs/Knight Foundation
The United States is the world’s top destination for Haitian migrants, who in recent years have fled an array of disasters and crises. Compared to other immigrant groups in the United States, the nearly 731,000 Haitians are more likely to be naturalized citizens, arrive through family-based pathways, and work in the service industry, as this data-rich article details.
Turkey is home to the world’s largest refugee population, a fact that has been a source of pride, a geopolitical tool, and a logistical challenge. This article shows how the millions of Syrians who have arrived since 2011 comprise just one aspect of Turkey’s rich and complex migration history. The country has been a significant host, a transit point for individuals heading to Europe, and a source of migrant laborers.
Cutter Hamilton crew/U.S. Coast Guard
Amid the highest Caribbean maritime migration levels in a generation, the Biden administration is relying on a carrot-and-stick strategy it honed amid record unauthorized migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. The approach, combining limits on asylum, expanded legal pathways, and international enforcement partnerships, could be increasingly important if maritime migration rises, as this article explains.
Whether as migrant-sending or migrant-receiving locations—or both—many countries have rich, complex international and internal migration histories. MPI's online journal, the Migration Information Source, offers resources on more than 100 nations. Written by leading scholars, these articles delve into countries' migration histories, demographics, policymaking, and more.
Want to check a fact about U.S. immigration? Interested in putting recent trends into perspective? This article compiles authoritative, up-to-date information about the U.S. immigrant population and how it has changed over time. Data cover immigrants' demographic, educational, and linguistic characteristics; their top states of residence; enforcement activities; refugees and asylum seekers; naturalization trends; visa backlogs; and more.
Severe weather, rising seas, and other consequences of global climate change are affecting the way people live, work, and move around the planet. While there is no clear, direct line between the impacts of climate change and changing human movement, there are indications that the warming planet is indirectly creating or altering patterns of migration. Our podcast Changing Climate, Changing Migration dives deep into the intersection of climate change and migration to separate fact from fiction.
Recent Articles
In the United States, Republicans and Democrats are deeply divided on immigration. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden have offered sharply diverging policy positions, and the outcome of the election is sure to have profound consequences for the U.S. immigration system. Yet this partisan divide is relatively new. Just two decades ago, the parties were much more united on immigrants’ role in the U.S. economy and society.
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.
Nearly 13 million immigrants have a four-year college degree or better. But these highly educated immigrants are not spread evenly throughout the labor market. They make up disproportionate shares of certain jobs, especially in the science and technology fields, accounting for 45 percent of software developers, 42 percent of physical scientists, and 29 percent of physicians. Yet there are signs that the trends of this population might be changing, as this article explores.
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.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the effects of the so-called digital divide for U.S. immigrants and other groups with reduced online connectivity. Internet access and the skills to navigate digital environments have become even more critical for work, education, and health care during the public-health crisis, yet immigrants make up a disproportionately large share of U.S. residents unable to take advantage of these tools.
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News of the Zika virus outbreak in Latin America has raised alarm bells, resulting in scattered calls for tighter restrictions on international entries to the United States. Evidence shows, however, that closing borders and restrictions on international travel tend to have little impact on the spread of infectious diseases. This feature article explores the linkages between public health and migration in the Americas.
Movements of migrants and asylum seekers in the Mediterranean have shown to be highly fluid, adapting quickly to changing conditions at origin, transit, and destination. This article examines the shifts in flows across the three major Mediterranean routes since 2008 and the complex web of often interconnected factors underpinning these movements.
While Poland held a generally positive opinion of immigration throughout the early 2000s, public attitudes toward refugees have shifted decidedly rightward since the onset of Europe's migration and refugee crisis. This article explores the complex, intersecting anxieties at play in Poland and the role of political rhetoric in stoking these sentiments
Scholars have declared feminization to be a core dimension of the new age of international migration. This article sketches a more nuanced understanding, noting that an uptick in female migration occurred far earlier. The authors examine global historical patterns of female migration in order to understand the causes and consequences of the migration gender balance, which varies considerably across time, cultures, and nations.
Kenyan migration to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has been on the rise over the last few decades, spurred by rising unemployment and instability in Kenya combined with the GCC region's economic growth and proximity. While both sending and origin countries benefit economically from this new migration, it presents significant challenges for these governments, particularly in the area of labor rights, as this feature article explores.
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Over three-quarters of Taiwanese immigrants own their home, and almost as many hold a bachelor's degree or higher. MPI's Serena Yi-Ying Lin examines the population's size, geographic distribution, and socioeconomic characteristics.
The 1.6 million Indian immigrants in the United States are the country's third-largest immigrant group and one of its best educated and fastest growing during the 2000s. MPI's Aaron Terrazas and Cristina Batog use the latest federal data to explore the population's size, geographic distribution, and socioeconomic characteristics.
The 1.6 million Chinese immigrants in the United States made them the country's fourth-largest immigrant group in 2008. MPI's Aaron Terrazas and Jeanne Batalova use the latest federal data to explore the population's size, geographic distribution, and socioeconomic characteristics.
The 1.7 million Filipino immigrants in the United States made them the countrys second-largest immigrant group in 2008. MPIs Aaron Terrazas and Jeanne Batalova use the latest federal data to explore the population's size, geographic distribution, and socioeconomic characteristics.
Mexican immigrants have claimed the top spot among all immigrant groups in the United States since the 1980 census. In 2008, the country's 11.4 million Mexican immigrants accounted for 30.1 percent of all U.S. immigrants and 10 percent of all Mexicans. MPI's Aaron Terrazas examines their socioeconomic characteristics, where they live, and the size of the Mexican-born unauthorized population.
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MPI's Muzaffar Chishti and Claire Bergeron report on the 2008 presidential election, two Supreme Court cases on immigration, Arizona Proposition 202, and more.
MPI's Muzaffar Chishti and Claire Bergeron report on the decrease in unauthorized immigration, the latest ruling on Arizona's employer-sanctions law, Iraqi refugees, Alabama and Arkansas on the in-state tuition debate, and more.
MPI's Claire Bergeron and Muzaffar Chishti report on the Democratic and Republican platforms, the worksite raid in Mississippi, the new citizenship test, and more.
MPI's Muzaffar Chishti and Claire Bergeron report on the Scheduled Departure program, special visas for Iraqi nationals, hospital "deportations," and more.
MPI's Muzaffar Chishti and Claire Bergeron report on immigrant detainee medical care, a federal court's dismissal of Arar v. Ashcroft, the National Guard leaving the Southwest border, and more.
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