E.g., 04/24/2024
E.g., 04/24/2024
Social Cohesion & Identity

Social Cohesion & Identity

Large-scale immigration has led to unprecedented levels of diversity and rapid demographic change, transforming communities across major immigrant-receiving countries in fundamental ways and challenging closely held notions of national identity, particularly in an era of economic uncertainty. The research here focuses on what policymakers can do to mitigate the destabilizing effects of rapid societal change — especially changes tied or perceived to be tied to immigration — in order to create stronger and more cohesive societies.

Recent Activity

Cover image for From Safe Homes to Sponsor policy brief
Policy Briefs
October 2023
By  Susan Fratzke, Viola Pulkkinen and Emma Ugolini
Cover image for Attracting, Retaining, and Diversifying Sponsors
Reports
September 2023
By  Maria Belen Zanzuchi, Nadja Dumann, Florian Tissot and Admir Skodo
Protests at a refugee compound in Nauru.
Boys on a fishing boat on the shores of Lake Tanganyika
Articles
Venezuelan migrants charge their phones and other devices at a power point in Boa Vista, Brazil.
A busy street in Old Montreal
Cover image for Migration Narratives in Northern Central America
Reports
June 2023
By  Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, Aaron Clark-Ginsberg, Alejandra Lopez and Alejandro Vélez Salas

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Cover image for Migration, Integration, and Diaspora Engagement in the Caribbean
Reports
March 2023
By  Valerie Lacarte, Jordi Amaral, Diego Chaves-González, Ana María Sáiz and Jeremy Harris
Cover image for Promoting the Inclusion of Europe’s Migrants and Minorities in Arts and Culture
Reports
March 2022
By  Lucía Salgado and Liam Patuzzi
Cover image for El estado de la política migratoria y de integración de Costa Rica
Reports
November 2021
By  Diego Chaves-González and María Jesús Mora
Cover image for The State of Costa Rican Migration and Immigrant Integration Policy
Reports
November 2021
By  Diego Chaves-González and María Jesús Mora
cover image for How We Talk about Migration: The Link between Migration Narratives, Policy, and Power
Reports
October 2021
By  Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, Haim Malka and Shelly Culbertson
Cover image for Integración socioeconómica de los migrantes y refugiados venezolanos
Reports
July 2021
By  Diego Chaves-González, Jordi Amaral and María Jesús Mora

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Venezuelan migrants charge their phones and other devices at a power point in Boa Vista, Brazil.

While smartphones and other technologies can assist decision-making, they do not always improve migrants’ journeys or lives. Forcibly displaced populations can face barriers in the form of limited internet access and low levels of digital literacy. Digital tools may also expose them to government surveillance and raise anxiety about social relations with loved ones. This article underscores refugees' complex relationships with technology.

A busy street in Old Montreal

Canada's ambitions to dramatically increase immigration have met resistance in Quebec, the country's only majority-French province, where many worry their identity is under threat. Provincial officials have sought to fortify the role of the French language in society through academic, immigration, and linguistic policies, but the language nonetheless faces demographic threats, as this article explains.

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

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.

Farmworkers in Murcia, Spain

Historically a country of emigration, Spain rapidly transitioned to become one of Europe’s major immigration destinations in just a few years. Remarkably, this evolution occurred with minimal political backlash, even as the country suffered through a crippling economic and labor crisis. This country profile examines the trends and policies that led to this astonishing development.

Venezuelan migrants at the Colombian border.

Political and economic crises, new free-movement arrangements, and other trends are transforming countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, a region once known primarily for its emigration. The number of immigrants living in the region has nearly doubled since 2010, an incredible change in a short period of time. This article makes sense of a profound transition underway in the Western Hemisphere.

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Video, Audio
April 22, 2021

This webinar examines what roles diasporas could play in the development cooperation programs of countries of destination, as well as the potential challenges and opportunities for policy design.

brexit 3575384_640
Video, Audio
October 22, 2020

This webinar explores how governments’ implementation plans for the Brexit withdrawal agreement have been affected by COVID-19, and the potential implications for citizens’ rights at the end of the transition period and beyond.

FLICKR  EU 2012   photo credits EC ECHO Anna CHUDOLINSKA 7459888184_2d3c02d651_c
Video, Audio
July 10, 2020

This discussion explores how development and humanitarian actors in low- and middle-income countries can engage with local institutions to promote the social and economic inclusion of refugees and how this inclusion can enhance engagement with other traditionally marginalized groups.

Pixabay Gerd Altmann
Video, Audio
March 24, 2020

This webinar, organized by MPI and the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility at The New School, discussed migration policy responses around the globe in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and examined where migration management and enforcement tools may be useful and where they may be ill-suited to advancing public health goals. 

Andrew Selee and Jason DeParle
Video, Audio
August 20, 2019

Marking the launch of New York Times reporter Jason DeParle's book tracing the arc of migration and its impacts through the life of an extended family of Filipino migrants over a three-decade period, from Manila and through Dubai to the Houston area, this conversation with MPI's Andrew Selee and the World Bank's Dilip Ratha explores migration at both a global and very personal level.

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Recent Activity

Articles

Migration has begun to follow the flow of capital after years of Chinese investment in major infrastructure projects in Zambia. This feature article, based on original research including the coding of 25,000 Zambian entry permits, examines the emerging migration pattern from China to Zambia, as Chinese migration to the country has increased 60 percent since 2009.

Policy Briefs
February 2015
Youth of a migrant background are over-represented among those who leave school early in the European Union. This policy brief discusses empirical findings, theoretical insights, and promising measures that may inform further policy action to address the disproportionately high level of early school leaving among students with a migrant background, which results from socioeconomic and other factors.
Policy Briefs
November 2014
It is crucial for children of migrant background in Europe to become proficient in their host country's main language of instruction. This MPI Europe policy brief provides key points and good practice examples on what comprehensive language support in Europe might look like.
Policy Briefs
November 2014
For children of migrant background, school quality is critical to ensuring academic success. This MPI Europe policy brief examines how European policymakers can support school quality in four key areas: language diversity, the learning environment, social psychology and acculturation, and community connections.
Policy Briefs
November 2014
Mentoring programs can target many core needs of children with an immigrant background that schools are not equipped to address, by providing specific and personalized support on the road to academic success. This policy brief prepared for the SIRIUS Network explores how European Union policymakers can make mentoring projects an integral part of the educational landscape at the EU level.
Policy Briefs
November 2014
Whilst many European countries have well-established education systems, children with a migrant background are disproportionately among the underperformers and face a number of critical education needs that mainstream education policy does not currently meet. This policy brief prepared for the SIRIUS Network provides an overview of how education policies can be improved for children of migrant background.
Reports
October 2014
Despite a robust mainstream workforce development system offering job-search and other employment assistance to newcomers, immigrants in France are more likely to be unemployed or in low-skilled work than their native-born peers. This report examines how well recent changes to integration policy, in combination with mainstream employment policies, are supporting migrants' integration and advancement in the labor market.
Articles

Drawing on a case study of two Hmong refugee populations from Laos that were resettled in a major Texas city and a German village, this article explores the different approaches to immigrant integration found in the United States and Germany as well as the outcomes for the Hmong and their sense of belonging in their new communities.

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