Migration & Development

Governments, development specialists, and others have rediscovered the connections between migration and development. Yet while increasing volumes of research have focused on the actual and potential contributions of migrant communities to sustainable development or poverty reduction in their countries of origin, the findings have not been systematically translated into policy guidance. One result is that little coherence is to be found between the development and migration policies of governments in countries of destination and origin—a reality that the research offered here seeks to address.

Recent Activity

Reports February 2024 Leaving No One Behind: Inclusive Fintech for Remittances By Ravenna Sohst	Articles February 22, 2024 Reliant on Labor Migration, the Global South Forges a New Social Contract with Its Citizens By Kamal Sadiq and Gerasimos Tsourapas
Articles February 15, 2024 Afghan Immigrants in the United States By Julian Montalvo and Jeanne Batalova	Articles February 8, 2024 South Asia’s Tibetan Refugee Community Is Shrinking, Imperiling Its Long-Term Future By Tenzin Dorjee and Tsewang Rigzin
Articles January 30, 2024 China’s Demand for Brides Draws Women from Across Southeast Asia—Sometimes by Force By Visalaakshi Annamalai	Multimedia January 24, 2024 Are the Pacific’s Climate Migration Experiments a Preview for the World?
Articles January 26, 2024 Aging Societies Rely on Immigrant Health-Care Workers, Posing Challenges for Origin Countries By Heidi Bludau	Articles January 11, 2024 European Immigrants in the United States By Feyisayo Oyolola and Jeanne Batalova

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Policy Briefs June 2023 Linking Migrant Reintegration Assistance and Development Goals By Camille Le Coz and Ravenna Sohst	Reports June 2023 Migration Narratives in Northern Central America: How Competing Stories Shape Policy and Public Opinion in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador By Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, Aaron Clark-Ginsberg, Alejandra Lopez and Alejandro Vélez Salas
Reports March 2023 Migration, Integration, and Diaspora Engagement in the Caribbean: A Policy Review By Valerie Lacarte, Jordi Amaral, Diego Chaves-González, Ana María Sáiz and Jeremy Harris	Reports November 2022 Financing Responses to Climate Migration: The Unique Role of Multilateral Development Banks By Lawrence Huang, Ravenna Sohst and Camille Le Coz
Reports June 2022 Programas de trabajadores temporales en Canadá, México y Costa Rica: ¿Son vías prometedoras para gestionar la migración centroamericana? By Cristobal Ramón, Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, María Jesús Mora and Ana Martín Gil	Reports June 2022 Temporary Worker Programs in Canada, Mexico, and Costa Rica: Promising Pathways for Managing Central American Migration? By Cristobal Ramón, Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, María Jesús Mora and Ana Martín Gil
Reports April 2022 Destination-Country Policies to Foster Diaspora Engagement in Development By Kathleen Newland	Reports March 2022 Migración de Huehuetenango en el Altiplano Occidental de Guatemala: Respuestas de políticas públicas y desarrollo By Andrew Selee, Luis Argueta and Juan José Hurtado Paz y Paz

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A family of Afghan evacuees leaving Fort McCoy, Wisconsin.

Spotlight

February 15, 2024

Afghan Immigrants in the United States

The Afghan immigrant population in the United States has grown dramatically since 2010, and particularly since the 2021 withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. Most Afghans who obtained a green card in recent years have done so through the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, reserved for interpreters and other Afghans who worked with the U.S. government. This article offers data on the approximately 195,000 Afghan immigrants in the United States.

Feature

February 8, 2024

South Asia’s Tibetan Refugee Community Is Shrinking, Imperiling Its Long-Term Future

The number of Tibetan refugees in India, Nepal, and Bhutan has been on a steady decline since the mid-2000s, posing a threat to the future of an exile community that has developed a robust governance, cultural, educational, and religious structure. While the Tibetan government-in-exile has become a model for displaced communities, a series of factors have contributed to the shrinking population in South Asia, as this article describes.

Feature

January 30, 2024

China’s Demand for Brides Draws Women from Across Southeast Asia—Sometimes by Force

An unknown number of women and girls from Southeast Asia have gone to China to marry Chinese men. Many go voluntarily, hoping for a better quality of life for themselves and their families. But some are deceived into their situation and are victims of human trafficking. This article takes a look at the phenomenon of marriage migration spurred by China's gender imbalance.

Feature

January 26, 2024

Aging Societies Rely on Immigrant Health-Care Workers, Posing Challenges for Origin Countries

Countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany are increasingly relying on immigrant health-care workers to fill gaps in their workforce and care for aging populations. That has created opportunities for many foreign-born doctors and nurses, but could harm their origin countries. This article examines the dynamics of global health-care worker migration, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A celebration for the Feast of San Gennaro in New York's Little Italy

Spotlight

January 11, 2024

European Immigrants in the United States

One-tenth of all immigrants in the United States come from Europe, a vast decline from the mid-20th century, as migration within Europe has grown and more U.S. immigrants arrive from other destinations. This article provides an overview of contemporary European immigration to the United States, as a region and by top European countries of origin.

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Expert Q&A, Audio

October 27, 2023

Is Climate Migration a Homeland Security Threat?

Former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff talks about the security implications of climate change and migration in this episode of the podcast Changing Climate, Changing Migration.

Expert Q&A, Audio

October 19, 2023

Documenting the Migration Journey: African Kinship Dynamics in Europe

African migrants turn to the strength of kinship-based support systems in pursuit of stability as they settle in a European landscape that is sometimes made precarious by their legal status and shifting policies. This episode discusses use of the kinship networks, including to exchange or broker identity documents between migrants along the migration journey and at destination.

Video, Audio

September 26, 2023

Migration, Disasters, and Climate Change in Eastern Africa

During this MPI webinar, climate experts and regional authorities outline the challenges related to climate change and human mobility that local communities, national governments, and the IGAD region are confronting.

Expert Q&A, Audio

September 19, 2023

Trapped Populations: When Climate Migration Isn’t Possible

Why do people stay in places where their homes, livelihoods, and their very lives are threatened by the impacts of climate change? Caroline Zickgraf, deputy director of the Hugo Observatory at the University of Liège in Belgium, discusses these so-called "trapped populations" in this episode of the Changing Climate, Changing Migration podcast.

Expert Q&A, Audio

August 24, 2023

Managing Changing Migration Dynamics and Policies in West Africa for Regional Gain

MPI Europe Associate Director Camille Le Coz discusses migration dynamics in West Africa and and how African leaders are responding to these trends with Leander Kandilige, a senior lecturer at the Centre for Migration Studies at the University of Ghana.

Recent Activity

Video, Audio

March 6, 2019

A Conversation with António Vitorino, the Director General of the International Organization for Migration

In his first public address during his inaugural formal visit to Washington, DC, IOM Director General António Vitorino discussed his vision for the agency, reforms in the UN system designed to address migration matters better, and the operational steps IOM is taking to respond to forced migration and displacement in hotspots around the world.

Policy Briefs

February 2019

Global Governance of International Migration 2.0: What Lies Ahead?

The vast majority of UN Member States in December 2018 adopted the first-ever international agreement to cooperate on migration. This policy brief traces the trajectory of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration's negotiation and endorsement. It also explores the factors that will determine whether the compact lives up to its aim of improving how states cooperate on international migration.

Reports

February 2019

Exploring New Legal Migration Pathways: Lessons from Pilot Projects

As European countries launch ambitious new legal migration partnerships with several origin and transit countries in Africa, this report takes stock of the long and mixed history of such projects. To make the most of their potential to encourage skills development and fill pressing labor gaps, policymakers will need to think carefully about the partners and sectors they choose, among other key considerations.

Reports

January 2019

Sustainable Reintegration: Strategies to Support Migrants Returning to Mexico and Central America

Reception and reintegration programs for deported and other returning migrants represent a long-term investment for migrant-origin and destination countries, holding the potential to reduce re-migration and permit communities of origin to benefit from the skills migrants learn abroad. This report offers recommendations to make reintegration programs more effective in Mexico and Central America.

Commentaries

December 2018

An Overheated Narrative Unanswered: How the Global Compact for Migration Became Controversial

While the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration was formally adopted by 164 of the UN's 193 Member States, it's worth asking how it became a point of contention and ultimately was rejected by more than a dozen countries. The answer? A long lag time between negotiation and adoption, during which overheated claims against it went largely unanswered, as this commentary explores.

Articles

December 12, 2018

A Once-Smooth Path for the Global Compact on Migration Becomes Rocky

The world’s first international agreement on migration was approved by 164 countries in December 2018, but not without turbulence. U.S. withdrawal from the nonbinding Global Compact on Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration, on grounds it could impinge on sovereignty, triggered similar actions by others, particularly in Eastern Europe. Amid ongoing political ripple effects, attention now turns to implementation of the deal's goals.

Video, Audio, Webinars

November 15, 2018

Understanding the Policy Context for Migrant Return and Reintegration

In advance of the December 2018 adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration, which includes a commitment to facilitate the return and reintegration of migrants, this webinar examines the policies, practices, and contextual factors that make compulsory returns such a difficult issue for international cooperation. Speakers also discuss the programs that are being implemented to make reintegration of returnees sustainable.

Policy Briefs

October 2018

Balancing Acts: Policy Frameworks for Migrant Return and Reintegration

In recent years, questions of whether, when, and how to return failed asylum seekers and other migrants to their origin countries have dominated migration debates in many countries. These issues were also taken up in the negotiation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration, moving the discussion beyond the typical bilateral one. This policy brief outlines how states might more constructively work together on returns and reintegration programs.

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