MPI Europe

Reports

September 2023

Attracting, Retaining, and Diversifying Sponsors for Refugees in Community Sponsorship Programs

Syrian family and an Irish volunteer in a community sponsorship program

By involving community members in welcoming refugee newcomers, community sponsorship programs hold the potential to open new protection pathways, better support refugee integration, and strengthen social cohesion. This MPI Europe report explores common challenges to the recruitment and retention of sponsors as well as strategies to address them, with a close look at experiences in Belgium, Germany, and Ireland.

Reports

June 2023

Improving Stakeholder Coordination in Refugee Resettlement: A Path to More Effective, Inclusive Programs

Afghan refugees board a plane to be resettled

IOM

Many actors have a hand in refugee resettlement, including national and local governments, international organizations, and civil society. Strong coordination between these stakeholders is needed if resettlement programs are to operate smoothly, provide appropriate support to refugees, and potentially grow. This report explores common challenges to developing this type of coordination as well as strategies to address them.

Reports

May 2023

Displaced Ukrainians in European Labor Markets: Leveraging Innovations for More Inclusive Integration

A foundation in Poland supports a Ukrainian woman with her small business

Alexey Shivrin/IOM

With millions of Ukrainians seeking safety in Europe, receiving countries are facing considerable pressure and also potential opportunities to benefit from this highly qualified population’s skills. This report explores displaced Ukrainians’ early employment outcomes, common challenges to finding jobs commensurate to their skills, and opportunities to more fully support their labor market integration.

Commentaries

February 2023

Prolonged Ukrainian Displacement: An Uneasy Marriage of Reception, Integration, and Return Policies

Photo of a teacher from Ukraine organizing activities for refugee children in Moldova

One year into the vast Ukrainian displacement crisis sparked by Russia's invasion, European policymakers are having to confront the likelihood of prolonged stay for millions of Ukrainians and the prospect of new displacement. How can they juggle longer-term integration, first-reception services for new arrivals, and prepare Ukrainians for eventual return to rebuild their country? They will have to focus on multipronged policies and services, this commentary suggests.

Reports

January 2023

Toolkit for Evidence-Informed Policymaking in Migrant Integration

Doodle drawings of elements of organisational design and strategy

Valentyna Ivashchenko/iStock.com

The smart use of research and data can strengthen all parts of the policymaking cycle and, in the integration field, lead to better outcomes for immigrants and the societies in which they live. This toolkit offers resources and strategies to improve how evidence is used in policy design and implementation, program evaluation, evidence dissemination, funding decisions, and stakeholder engagement.

Policy Briefs

October 2022

Promoting Evidence-Informed Immigrant Integration Policymaking

A flow chart showing the steps of the policy cycle

MPI Europe

While many policy areas have seen a revolution in how information is gathered, shared, and used to inform new policies and improve existing ones, immigrant integration has not kept pace. This policy brief explores why integration policy in Europe has not yet seen the development of a robust evidence culture and offers recommendations for creating an environment in which evidence-informed policymaking can flourish.

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.

Recent Activity

Commentaries January 2020 Brexit Day—Is This the Dawning of the Age of Immobility? By Meghan Benton	Policy Briefs December 2019 Refugee Sponsorship Programs: A Global State of Play and Opportunities for Investment By Susan Fratzke, Lena Kainz, Hanne Beirens, Emma Dorst and Jessica Bolter
Multimedia December 5, 2019 Turning the Tide: Addressing the Long-Term Challenges of EU Mobility for Sending Countries	Multimedia October 23, 2019 Legal Migration Pathways to Europe for Low- and Middle-Skilled Migrants
Reports October 2019 Legal Migration for Work and Training: Mobility Options to Europe for Those Not in Need of Protection By Hanne Beirens, Camille Le Coz, Kate Hooper, Karoline Popp, Jan Schneider and Jeanette Süss	Policy Briefs September 2019 On the Brink: Prospects for UK Nationals in the EU-27 after a No-Deal Brexit By Meghan Benton and Aliyyah Ahad
Multimedia July 15, 2019 On the Wrong Path? Protecting the European Union’s External Border in the Western Balkans	Articles June 20, 2019 Digital Litter: The Downside of Using Technology to Help Refugees By Meghan Benton

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Reports January 2015 Mentoring Practices in Europe and North America: Strategies for Improving Immigrants' Employment Outcomes By Milica Petrovic	Reports November 2014 Aiming Higher: Policies to Get Immigrants into Middle-Skilled Work in Europe By Meghan Benton, Madeleine Sumption, Kristine Alsvik, Susan Fratzke, Christiane Kuptsch and Demetrios G. Papademetriou
Policy Briefs November 2014 Language Support for Youth with a Migrant Background: Policies that Effectively Promote Inclusion By Hanna Siarova and Miquel Àngel Essomba	Policy Briefs November 2014 Developing School Capacity for Diversity By Sabine Severiens
Policy Briefs November 2014 Mentoring: What Can Support Projects Achieve That Schools Cannot? By Maurice Crul and Jens Schneider	Policy Briefs November 2014 Enhancing EU Education Policy: Building a Framework to Help Young People of Migrant Background Succeed By Miquel Àngel Essomba
Reports September 2014 Decentralising Immigrant Integration: Denmark’s Mainstreaming Initiatives in Employment, Education, and Social Affairs By Martin Bak Jørgensen	Reports August 2014 Mainstreaming Immigrant Integration Policy in France: Education, Employment, and Social Cohesion Initiatives By Angéline Escafré-Dublet

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Massive Influx of Syrian Kurdish Refugees into Turkey flickr European Commission DG

Video, Audio

March 31, 2016

Resettlement Plus: Clearing the Path to Safety and Opportunity for Refugees

MPI Europe expert analysis and discussion with UNHCR and Italian NGO representatives on what is being done and what can be done to connect Syrians and other refugees with opportunities to settle, work, and live outside the immediate region of the Syrian conflict.

A local volunteer in Spain watches the children in a sponsored refugee family as they play.

Audio

February 8, 2016

Scaling Up Resettlement: The Role of Private Sponsorship Programmes in Addressing the Refugee Crisis

Analysts discuss how private sponsorship programs for refugees, used by Canada and a handful of other countries, could alleviate some of the pressure from the European refugee crisis by allowing individuals, groups, businesses, and other entities to sponsor individual refugees for resettlement.

Video, Audio

October 20, 2015

What's Next for the European Asylum Crisis?

An MPI Europe video chat with the outgoing head of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) on the current EU refugee crisis, what strategies Europe ought to be pursuing in response, and the growing role of EASO as well as its track record over its first five years.

EventPH 2015.9.18 HundredsofrefugeesandmigrantsaboardafishingboatarepicturedmomentsbeforebeingrescuebytheItalianNavy UNHCR

Audio

September 18, 2015

Simply No Consensus: Can The EU Respond to Continued Refugee Flows?

A webinar/call with senior officials from two EU Member States, Austria and Slovenia, to discuss their differing perspectives on the current refugee crisis, and consider what is needed to ensure a unified, practically feasible response to the biggest crisis that has faced the Common European Asylum System since its inception.

Video, Expert Q&A

September 11, 2015

The Refugee Crisis in Europe: Q&A with Demetrios Papademetriou

Demetrios Papademetriou, President Emeritus of MPI and President of MPI Europe, explains the origins of the refugee crisis in Europe and discusses actions that Europe and other regions can take in the near and long term to address the flows.

Recent Activity

Commentaries

January 2020

Brexit Day—Is This the Dawning of the Age of Immobility?

Brexit Day, on January 31, 2020, marks a dramatic turn for the United Kingdom as it leaves the European Union, in significant measure because it wants to control its immigration destiny. But it remains unclear whether Brexit will allow the United Kingdom to cast a net wider for the global workers it seeks or will deepen the moat around the island. Either way, Brexit is likely to spark new forms of mobility—and immobility.

Policy Briefs

December 2019

Refugee Sponsorship Programs: A Global State of Play and Opportunities for Investment

From Argentina to New Zealand and points beyond, a growing number of countries have begun exploring refugee sponsorship as a way to expand protection capacity at a time of rising need, involving individuals and communities more directly in resettlement. This brief takes stock of what both new and well-established programs need to succeed, and outlines opportunities for private philanthropic actors to support them.

Audio, Webinars

December 5, 2019

Turning the Tide: Addressing the Long-Term Challenges of EU Mobility for Sending Countries

Amid debates about the costs and benefits of free movement, this webinar examines evidence from the REMINDER project on different types of East-West mobility. Speakers examine big-picture trends of East-West migration; consider possible policy responses at regional, national, and EU levels to alleviate challenges; and reflect on actions that could be taken under a new European Commission.

Audio

October 23, 2019

Legal Migration Pathways to Europe for Low- and Middle-Skilled Migrants

This event hosted by MPI Europe and the Research Unit of the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration featured a discussion on research into legal migration pathways for work and training for low- and middle-skilled migrants.

Reports

October 2019

Legal Migration for Work and Training: Mobility Options to Europe for Those Not in Need of Protection

As EU Member States struggle to deliver on the European Union's call to expand channels for foreign workers, they should focus more on attracting the middle- and low-skilled third-country nationals needed by the labor market yet for whom few opportunities for admission exist. They also would do well to consider their migration policies in light of labor market, foreign policy, and development objectives, rather than as a means to reduce irregular migration, this report cautions.

Policy Briefs

September 2019

On the Brink: Prospects for UK Nationals in the EU-27 after a No-Deal Brexit

Six months on from the original March 2019 Brexit date and staring a new deadline in the face, many EU countries still had only skeletal plans for how to adjust the status of their resident UK nationals should a no-deal Brexit come to pass. This policy brief highlights critical gaps in these plans, the groups most likely to be affected by them, and strategies Member States and the United Kingdom could adopt to soften the impact.

Video, Audio, Webinars

July 15, 2019

On the Wrong Path? Protecting the European Union’s External Border in the Western Balkans

With thousands migrants potentially traveling through the Western Balkans this year, this MPI Europe webinar explores the implications of the buttressed EU border on the bloc’s neighbors, the migrants transiting these routes, and the local communities. Experts also explored how the European Union can support efforts to address irregular migration in neighboring countries, and what are the tradeoffs and considerations that policymakers must weigh.

Articles

June 20, 2019

Digital Litter: The Downside of Using Technology to Help Refugees

Several years after a flurry of tech innovations arose to respond to the 2015-16 European migration crisis and assist asylum seekers, "digital litter"—now-dormant websites, broken links, and poor-quality information spread through apps and social media—is floating around. At best, digital litter is a nuisance. At worst, it can place refugees and migrants in harm's way and undermine their decision-making, as this article explores.

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