Migration Policy Institute Podcasts

Europe’s demand for workers is growing across a wide range of skill levels, with more than three-quarters of small- and medium-sized enterprises struggling to find workers with the right skills. Meeting these labor needs will be essential to sustaining economic growth and competitiveness yet will prove even more challenging as workforces shrink and the digital and green transitions reshape which skills are most valued. At the same ...

Backlogs in the nation’s immigration courts have reached record levels in recent years, with nearly 4 million removals cases pending—adding new pressures to longstanding challenges that have overwhelmed the courts. With it now taking an average of four years for an asylum applicant to get a hearing, the delays are undermining the goals of both the U.S. asylum and immigration enforcement systems.

This discussion draws on an MPI poli...

Children are especially vulnerable to displacement linked to climate change. Each year, millions of young people are displaced by weather-related disasters, as schools and other services break down and adults send children away to find safety. Forced from their homes, children often face new challenges, including being unable to access education or medical care, and even heightened risk of violence and other dangers. Despite the un...

Within the next few decades, rising sea levels could wipe some small Pacific Island nations off the face of the earth. The prospect that the physical territory of countries such as Kiribati and Tuvalu is no longer habitable raises the prospect that their nationals could lose their citizenship, becoming stateless. It also poses profound questions for international law and the obligations of other countries.

How likely is this possib...

The global humanitarian protection system is at a critical juncture. It is under major strain as record numbers of people have been forced out of their homes by a complex array of factors and protracted crises. Yet at the same time, a system created in the wake of World War II no longer meets today’s challenges and is increasingly coming under political pressures, with some countries chafing at protection obligations.

In this episo...

Public trust in migration systems—and in democracy more broadly—is eroding. As rapid demographic shifts fuel anxieties in many communities, governments are feeling the pressure and responding with increasingly restrictive policies—scaling back immigration, imposing stricter integration requirements, and narrowing pathways to long-term residency and citizenship. 

Will these sweeping, highly visible policies designed to signal contro...

No single world region has experienced a greater relative increase in international migration since 2010 than Latin America and the Caribbean. Buffeted by displacement crises, economic dislocation, and changing migrant demographics, Latin America and the Caribbean have seen migration become one of the most pressing issues of our time. And while movement from the region toward the United States has dominated much of the public disco...

It is no easy task to say with certainty that a particular storm, drought, or other extreme weather event causes human displacement, or that those individual events are due to human-caused climate change. Hurricanes, wildfires, mudslides, monsoons, and other sudden-onset events, as well as slow-onset ones such as drought, extreme heat, and sea-level rise have happened for millennia. To attribute specific impacts to human-made envir...

The fact there is a growing backlash to immigration in communities around the world is well established. What is less discussed are the solutions to address decline in social cohesion and rise in mistrust, misinformation, and prejudice. Meaningful contact between different groups can reduce tensions. Under the right conditions, this dynamic can strengthen social cohesion when newcomers and members of established communities come to...

As migrant return flows grow in complexity, the effectiveness of reintegration programming is coming under renewed scrutiny in Europe and Latin America. In Europe, the longstanding model of providing individual return packages—such as a small cash grant or temporary shelter—continues. But in an effort to make reintegration more sustainable, some policymakers are rethinking the future of this type of assistance and moving toward mor...

The small island nations that make up the Caribbean are incredibly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Many people and businesses are concentrated along the coastline, exposing them to intensifying hurricanes and rising sea levels. Are these hazards prompting greater displacement, either within the region or beyond? And could they reduce tourism, prompting economic shocks to countries dependent on vacationers? This episode...

The global race for international talent has arrived. As populations in advanced industrial economies age and work evolves, labor shortages in critical sectors are increasingly driving countries to look outside their borders for workers. But in this context, who gets to migrate? And how? Crucially, can labor mobility be managed in a way that benefits workers, employers, countries of origin, and countries of destination alike? In t...

Does AI have a role to play in mapping and predicting climate migration trends? In this episode of the podcast, we explore the issue with John Aoga, a postdoctoral researcher at UCLouvain in Belgium. He led a study using machine learning algorithms to trace how climate shocks affected migration intentions in several countries in West Africa. We discuss his findings and the broader promise and peril of using these types of technolog...

As the focus on returning failed asylum seekers and other migrants to their countries of origin remains high, there is a commensurate need to consider reintegration support that assists returnees in rebuilding their lives. Reintegration programs help returnees establish the social, economic, and psychosocial foundations needed to regain stability and, in the process, can aid host communities while seeking to address the drivers of ...

During his campaign, Donald Trump pledged swift and sweeping actions on immigration enforcement and policymaking more broadly. From his first day back in office, President Trump and his team began delivering on their promised “shock and awe,” with policies ranging from a halt to refugee resettlement and dramatically widened immigration enforcement in the U.S. interior to an effort to end birthright citizenship. Other high-profile a...

Under the right circumstances, climate-induced migration can aggravate the drivers of violent conflict. In places such as the Middle East and West Africa’s Sahel region, migration during times of environmental precarity can upset delicate social and demographic balances and place additional pressure on local authorities. Left to fester, the results can be deadly. This episode explores this connection between climate change and huma...

Floods, drought, extreme temperatures, and other climate events have devastated parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Repercussions of climate change come on top of years of conflict, which have left countless numbers of people unable to adapt to changing conditions. In response, many have fled, either in short-term displacement or permanent migration. Our podcast speaks with researchers Maryam Abbasi and Nasrat Sayed about how climat...

Connecting with and providing counselling to irregular migrants, especially those living on the streets or in transit, is crucial for addressing irregular migration. Yet it remains a challenging and underexplored area, due in part to the difficulty engaging with a population often living in precarity and avoiding contact with authorities due to fear of deportation or past negative experiences. A pervasive lack of trust coupled with...

Natural disasters and other impacts of climate change are already affecting migration, but often in complex ways. This episode, we speak with Julia Neusner, a lawyer and researcher with the International Refugee Assistance Project. She has conducted surveys and interviews with migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border about whether, where, and how they have experienced climate impacts, and offers some of their stories here. More than 40 p...