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Refugee & Asylum Policy

Refugee & Asylum Policy

Asylum Seekers
Refugees & Resettlement
_RefugeeAsylumPolicy credit

Tens of millions of people around the globe have been forcibly displaced by conflict, natural disaster, or persecution, seeking refuge either within or beyond the borders of their country. Humanitarian protection, whether for refugees, asylum seekers, or internally displaced persons (IDPs), represents a key policy area for many major immigrant-receiving countries as well as nations bordering locations where war, political upheaval, or natural disaster have disrupted daily life. The research offered here relates to the law and practice of protecting refugees and IDPs in areas of conflict as well as in industrialized nations, with a focus on secure solutions and effective institutional arrangements for comprehensive protection.

Recent Activity

Mandy Manning and Margie McHugh
Multimedia
November 20, 2018
Building Bridges Not Walls: Key Lessons from the 2019 Global Education Monitoring Report on Migration and Displacement
flickr UNICEF Ethiopia IOM partnership on assisted voluntary returning children from Ethiopia 25894557974_0c47c71c46_z
Multimedia
November 15, 2018
Understanding the Policy Context for Migrant Return and Reintegration
Famine Memorial in Dublin
Articles
November 15, 2018
The Emerging Crisis: Is Famine Returning as a Major Driver of Migration?
By Batul Sadliwala and Alex de Waal
JeffSessions2018
Articles
November 8, 2018
Sessions: The Trump Administration’s Once-Indispensable Man on Immigration
By Sarah Pierce
Coverthumbnail TCM NativistPopulism.pdf_
Reports
November 2018
In Search of a New Equilibrium: Immigration Policymaking in the Newest Era of Nativist Populism
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Kate Hooper and Meghan Benton
NationalGuardSouthernBorder
Commentaries
November 2018
Asylum Reform, Not Troops, Is the Solution to Current Border Reality
By  Doris Meissner
Coggio_Uganda SSudandeseRefugees Palorinya
Articles
October 31, 2018
Can Uganda’s Breakthrough Refugee-Hosting Model Be Sustained?
By Tessa Coggio
AsylumSeekersSalzberg
Commentaries
October 2018
Three Things the European Union Can Do to Support Private Sponsorship for Refugees
By  Susan Fratzke and Hanne Beirens

Pages

Feature
April 5, 2007
Germany to Regularize "Tolerated" Asylum Seekers

Approximately 50,000 of Germany's 170,000 tolerated asylum seekers are expected to will qualify for a residency permit under a law passed in March 2007. MPI's Eric Leise reports.

singer_mar07
Feature
March 1, 2007
Refugee Resettlement in Metropolitan America
Since 1983, the United States has resettled more than 1.6 million refugees. Audrey Singer and Jill H. Wilson of The Brookings Institution present the first report on U.S. metropolitan destinations, where the vast majority of refugees were placed between 1983 and 2004.
le map
Feature
September 1, 2006
The Lebanese Crisis and Its Impact on Immigrants and Refugees
This summer's conflict between Israel and Hezbollah displaced Lebanese but also affected Lebanon's hundreds of thousands migrant workers and refugees. MPI's Kara Murphy reports on these groups and highlights the Lebanese diaspora's efforts to help.
Feature
April 1, 2006
Central Americans and Asylum Policy in the Reagan Era

Not long after the United States passed the 1980 Refugee Act, thousands of people began fleeing civil war in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Their treatment in the United States, linked to U.S. foreign policy, spurred the Sanctuary Movement and efforts to grant them refugee status, as Susan Gzesh of the University of Chicago explains.

Guterres headshot
Feature
August 1, 2005
Interview with Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Former Prime Minister of Portugal Antonio Guterres became the 10th UN High Commissioner for Refugees in 2005. Guterres talks with the Migration Information Source about refugee protection, challenges to the asylum system, internally displaced persons, and the media’s reporting on asylum and refugee issues.

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Recent Activity

Video, Audio
November 20, 2018

Building Bridges Not Walls: Key Lessons from the 2019 Global Education Monitoring Report on Migration and Displacement

Marking the U.S. release of the 2019 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, this discussion looks at different ways education policymakers, teachers, and civil society have responded to the educational needs of migrants and how to address the challenges that sometimes inhibit children from participating meaningfully and equally in education programs. 

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.

Articles
November 15, 2018

The Emerging Crisis: Is Famine Returning as a Major Driver of Migration?

Despite long study of famine, there is a remarkable lack of research about the linkages between mass starvation and migration. Among the unanswered questions: Does migration mitigate starvation or worsen it? With famines returning, most notably in war-torn Yemen, after a period of decline, the need for knowledge is essential. This article examines the causes and migration patterns of great famines from the 19th century onward.

Articles
November 8, 2018

Sessions: The Trump Administration’s Once-Indispensable Man on Immigration

In less than two years as Attorney General, Jeff Sessions oversaw wide-reaching changes to the U.S. immigration system. Even as the zero-tolerance policy, fights with "sanctuary" cities, and DACA termination might be more visible, Sessions' enduring legacy may be his muscular use of a little-noted authority, which he wielded to significantly reshape immigration and asylum policy by referring immigration cases to himself.

Reports
November 2018

In Search of a New Equilibrium: Immigration Policymaking in the Newest Era of Nativist Populism

In many recent European and U.S. elections, candidates touting nativist populist and anti-immigrant platforms have enjoyed rising support. As populism moves from the fringes into the mainstream, this report takes stock of the economic and social forces driving its rise, the diverse ways populists are influencing immigration policymaking, and what it will take to build a new center around immigration and integration issues.

Commentaries
November 2018

Asylum Reform, Not Troops, Is the Solution to Current Border Reality

Asylum reform, not the "shock-and-awe" deployment of thousands of troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to deal with the migrant caravan, represents the real path to addressing the current realities of mixed economic and humanitarian migration flows, as the person who presided over the last reform of the U.S. asylum system in the mid-1990s explains in this commentary.

Articles
October 31, 2018

Can Uganda’s Breakthrough Refugee-Hosting Model Be Sustained?

Uganda is the third largest refugee-hosting nation in the world, with more than 1 million refugees arriving in the last two years. Amid strong public solidarity for displaced neighbors, the government has emphasized the right to employment, enterprise, and free movement for refugees despite the country's poverty and limited resources. Can this generous "Uganda model" be sustained? This article explores the challenges and opportunities.

Commentaries
October 2018

Three Things the European Union Can Do to Support Private Sponsorship for Refugees

Amid disagreement over the appropriate way to manage European borders and grant access to asylum, there is one policy priority that has support across (most) Member States and the institutions of the European Union: the need to provide safe, legal channels for migration, particularly for refugees. Private sponsorship of refugees may have a valuable role to play in meeting this need, as this MPI Europe commentary explains.

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