Refugee & Asylum Policy

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

Articles September 20, 2023 How the Treacherous Darien Gap Became a Migration Crossroads of the Americas By Caitlyn Yates and Juan Pappier	Reports September 2023 Attracting, Retaining, and Diversifying Sponsors for Refugees in Community Sponsorship Programs By Maria Belen Zanzuchi, Nadja Dumann, Florian Tissot and Admir Skodo
Articles September 14, 2023 Are Celebrity Spokespeople Always Helpful for Refugee Causes? By Michael Artime and Megan Hershey	Articles September 7, 2023 Cuban Immigrants in the United States By Jiaxin Wei and Jeanne Batalova
Articles August 29, 2023 As Nauru Shows, Asylum Outsourcing Has Unexpected Impacts on Host Communities By Julia Morris	Multimedia August 24, 2023 Managing Changing Migration Dynamics and Policies in West Africa for Regional Gain
Articles August 24, 2023 Tanzania’s Open Door to Refugees Narrows By Yvette Ruzibiza and Simon Turner	Articles August 2, 2023 In the Twilight Zone: Record Number of U.S. Immigrants Are in Limbo Statuses By Muzaffar Chishti and Kathleen Bush-Joseph

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Reports September 2021 Refugee Resettlement and Complementary Pathways: Opportunities for Growth By Susan Fratzke, Maria Belen Zanzuchi, Kate Hooper, Hanne Beirens, Lena Kainz, Nathan Benson, Eliza Bateman and Jessica Bolter	Reports August 2021 Taking the Long View: Options for Inclusive Post-Pandemic Labor Markets By Liam Patuzzi
Reports August 2021 From Jailers to Case Managers: Redesigning the U.S. Immigration Detention System to Be Effective and Fair By Randy Capps and Doris Meissner	Reports July 2021 Integración socioeconómica de los migrantes y refugiados venezolanos: Los casos de Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador y Perú By Diego Chaves-González, Jordi Amaral and María Jesús Mora
Reports July 2021 Socioeconomic Integration of Venezuelan Migrants and Refugees: The Cases of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru By Diego Chaves-González, Jordi Amaral and María Jesús Mora	Reports July 2021 Future Scenarios for Global Mobility in the Shadow of Pandemic By Meghan Benton
Reports June 2021 Strengthening Services for Unaccompanied Children in U.S. Communities By Mark Greenberg, Kylie Grow, Stephanie Heredia, Kira Monin and Essey Workie	Policy Briefs June 2021 From Unilateral Response to Coordinated Action: How Can Mobility Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa Adapt to the Public-Health Challenges of COVID-19? By Ling San Lau, Kate Hooper and Monette Zard

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An abandoned shoe lies in the mud along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Policy Beat

May 25, 2023

U.S. Border Asylum Policy Enters New Territory Post-Title 42

The United States entered a new era with the end of the pandemic-era Title 42 expulsions policy. The government’s hopes of maintaining order at the U.S.-Mexico border post-Title 42 may be complicated by factors including authorities’ limited capacity, ongoing litigation, and cooperation from other countries. This article reviews the Biden administration's changing border policies and possible challenges ahead.

Feature

May 18, 2023

Tense Neighbors, Algeria and Morocco Have Divergent Migration Histories

Algeria and Morocco sit along a crucial migration corridor between Africa and Europe and have often been defined by their rivalry. Although both have been reluctant to welcome large numbers of sub-Saharan African migrants, their motivations have been different. And historically, their approaches to emigration have been a study in contrasts. This article explores the factors driving migration policy in these two countries.

People hold flags of Central American nations at a march in San Diego.

Spotlight

May 10, 2023

Central American Immigrants in the United States

Central Americans comprise less than one-tenth of the overall U.S. foreign-born population, but their numbers have grown tenfold since 1980, amid economic challenges, political crises, and natural disasters in their region. This article provides a comprehensive look at this population.

A Palestinian woman in Bani Naeem, in the West Bank.

Feature

May 3, 2023

Generations of Palestinian Refugees Face Protracted Displacement and Dispossession

Palestinians constitute the world’s longest protracted refugee situation and largest stateless community. Yet their plight has often been eclipsed by more recent displacement crises and dismissed as unsolvable. Other factors have contributed to Palestinian refugees’ situation, including the near impossibility of obtaining citizenship in many host countries and precarious funding for support, as this article explains.

A border checkpoint between Canada and the United States.

Policy Beat

April 27, 2023

Roxham Road Meets a Dead End? U.S.-Canada Safe Third Country Agreement Is Revised

The revised U.S.-Canada Safe Third Country Agreement closes what critics call a loophole that incentivizes unauthorized border crossings of asylum seekers. While responding to Canadian concerns of increasing irregular arrivals from the United States, the change—taken in tandem with U.S. moves at the U.S.-Mexico border—suggests that the Biden administration increasingly wants to rely on neighboring countries to respond to rising asylum claims.

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A food and goods distribution to returned migrants in Burkina Faso

Video, Audio

June 27, 2022

Forging Partnerships to Make the Reintegration of Migrants More Effective and Sustainable

This MPI Europe webinar examines how referral mechanisms can be designed so that returnees receive the core services they need, while also ensuring support is embedded within the local community.

The border area of Haquillas is home to several Venezuelans waiting of their documentation to be formally processed in order to enter in Peru regularly.

Video

June 9, 2022

Towards Regional Governance on Migration and Forced Displacement: A Side Event of the Ninth Summit of the Americas

On the sidelines of the Ninth Summit of the Americas, this event co-sponsored by MPI examines tools and concrete actions taken on regional migration governance, best practices and lessons learned, and the role of regional mechanisms to respond to migration and forced displacement.

Picture of female Venezuelan migrant in Colombia, leaning over balcony railing

Video

June 7, 2022

A Path to Self-Sufficiency: Advancing Venezuelan Refugee Integration in the Americas

The presidents of Colombia and Ecuador speak at this high-level event held on the sidelines of the Ninth Summit of the Americas, focusing on the critical need for succcessful integration of Venezuelans in the Americas.

Seeking the US border, many Central American migrants begin their journey in Mexico on 'La Bestia'

Video, Audio

May 24, 2022

En Busqueda de Seguridad: Opciones de protección regional para personas de Centroamérica

Con motivo de la publicación de un informe del Instituto de Política Migratoria sobre posibles vías de protección para las personas centroamericanas, este webcast ofrece un análisis sobre las vías humanitarias y de reasentamiento que ya se utilizan en la región así como las oportunidades y los obstáculos para expandir estos programas.

Video, Audio

May 24, 2022

Seeking Safety: Regional Protection Options for Central Americans

Marking the release of a Migration Policy Institute report on possible protection pathways for Central Americans, this webcast offers analysis on regional resettlement and humanitarian channels and the opportunities and obstacles to expanding these programs, along with specific actions that the United States and Canada could take.

Recent Activity

Articles

December 17, 2018

Pushback to the Resistance: Criminalization of Humanitarian Actors Aiding Migrants Rises

As industrialized countries are adopting harder-edge immigration and asylum policies to deal with real and perceived crises, humanitarian actors have sought to blunt the effects of those policies by launching rescue missions at sea, rendering direct aid to migrants in need, and offering legal assistance. A concerted pushback to this resistance emerged in 2018, with governments using legislative, legal, and other tools to fight back.

Articles

December 14, 2018

Intensifying Focus on Migrant Returns Takes a More Global Stage

Questions of how, when, and under what conditions migrants and asylum seekers can be returned to their origin countries have featured prominently in international discussions of migration in 2018. Crucially, so too has an increased interest on the part of both destination and origin countries in making reintegration assistance more effective to help ensure that return is sustainable.

Video, Audio, Webinars

December 13, 2018

Exploring the Potential of Two-Generation Strategies in Refugee Integration

On this webinar, MPI researchers and Utah and Colorado refugee coordinators explore promising practices to better serve refugee families, including education services for refugee youth, innovative efforts to secure better jobs for adult refugees, and other services designed to aid integration over time. They also discuss the potential for implementing and supporting two-generation approaches to refugee integration at a time when the system’s funding and capacity are in peril.

Articles

December 13, 2018

Asylum Hangover? Governments Seek to Narrow Avenues for Humanitarian Protection

Faced with absorbing vast numbers of asylum seekers who headed to Europe during the 2015-16 migration crisis and the ongoing arrival of much smaller, but steady flows of Central Americans at the U.S.-Mexico border, EU Member States and the United States in 2018 took or explored significant steps to narrow asylum and harden policies.

Reports

December 2018

Promoting Refugee Integration in Challenging Times: The Potential of Two-Generation Strategies

At a time when the U.S. refugee resettlement system is facing unprecedented challenges, innovative and cost-effective tools for supporting refugee integration are in demand. This report explores how a two-generation approach to service provision could help all members of refugee families—from young children to working-age adults and the elderly—find their footing.

Articles

December 10, 2018

“Silent” Refugee Crises Get Limited International Attention

Despite the major focus by media and publics on a handful of refugee crises around the world, displacement situations worsened during 2018 in a number of countries that received much less attention, including the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Sudan—where unending conflict, new displacement, rising starvation, and an Ebola outbreak made already complex situations even more dire.

Articles

December 6, 2018

Sweden: By Turns Welcoming and Restrictive in its Immigration Policy

Swedish asylum policy has taken a restrictionist turn since the country received a record-breaking number of asylum seekers in 2015 and after electoral gains by the nationalist, anti-immigration Sweden Democrats pushed the governing coalition to a harder line. Still, other aspects of the country’s migration policy remain welcoming, as this country profile explores.

Video, Audio, Webinars

December 5, 2018

How Latin America Is Responding to the Venezuelan Exodus

Over 3 million Venezuelans have fled in response to the deepening political and economic crisis in their country, becoming one of the largest and fastest outflows anywhere in the world. Senior officials from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, which are home to more than half of these Venezuelan migrants and refugees, discussed their countries' responses to this migration and other experts talked on the broader trend across the region and the prospects for future policy responses.

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