Spain and Latin America Take Diverging Paths on Regularization

Spain's offer of legal status to a record number of irregular migrants, most of them from the Western Hemisphere, stands in contrast to the policy approaches in Latin America, where many previous regularization initiatives have ended or were closed to new entrants. This article examines the 2026 regularization in Spain, and the ramifications for Latin America.

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España y América Latina siguen caminos divergentes en materia de regularización

La extraordinaria regularización que España llevará a cabo en 2026 podría otorgar estatus legal a un número récord de migrantes en situación irregular, la mayoría de ellos procedentes de América Latina. Este artículo examina la regularización en España, sus posibles repercusiones y las consecuencias para América Latina.

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Beyond Control Signalling: Designing Integration Policies for Better Outcomes and Public Trust

In many high-income countries, governments are scrambling to prove they are in control of immigration by tightening the rules on who can enter and stay. While some policies signal toughness, they do not necessarily improve outcomes for either local communities or migrants. This report examines ways to rebuild public trust through integration policy reforms that go beyond control signaling.

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The Future of Reintegration Is a Key Missing Piece in Europe’s Focus on Returns

EU policymakers are under mounting pressure to increase returns, yet the reintegration of returnees remains a politically overlooked dimension. This short read examines the fragmented landscape of assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR) programs, the limits of current approaches, and how a more coherent European framework—anchored in local institutions and development partnerships—could better serve both returnees as well as origin and destination countries.

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Countries Are Pushing Borders Outward to Expand Deterrence and Protection Alike

Previously niche strategies of recruiting partner countries to help manage irregular migration have become mainstream. Governments in multiple migrant-receiving countries have engaged other countries to screen, detain, remove, or otherwise transfer migrants elsewhere—in effect pushing the border outwards. While some externalization approaches have been criticized, the range of models is more nuanced than is commonly understood.

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Creating Inclusive Urban Economies for Migrants and Refugees

Migrants and refugees make up notable shares of the workforce in many cities. By creating an environment in which they can find work, apply their skills, and thrive, urban areas can set themselves up to weather current and future economic changes, including the green and digital transitions. Drawing on a scan of city practices on four continents, this report examines the experiences and policy approaches of cities around the world.

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Central Asian Migrants Look Beyond Russia, Yet New Destinations Carry Challenges Too

Patterns of migration from Central Asia are changing amid deteriorating conditions in Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine and a 2024 terrorist attack in Moscow blamed on Tajik nationals. Some labor migrants from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are looking to new destinations in Europe and beyond, bringing its own set of challenges.

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From Exile to Return: Rebuilding Lives and States after Conflict

The fall of Syria’s Assad regime has raised questions in high-income countries about when displaced Syrians will return home. Similar conversations are underway about the nearly 7 million displaced Ukrainians. This report examines the complexity of facilitating returns without imperiling reconstruction, fueling additional displacement, and uprooting well-integrated workers and members of host societies.

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Chasing Public Opinion, UK Immigration Policy Has Swung Cyclically

UK immigration policy has often followed public mood on the issue. While attitudes have remained generally steady, the issue’s salience—how important people feel it to be—has risen and fallen, often in response to major news coverage or periods of highly visible migration. This article describes how UK labor migration policies have followed public attitude since 2010.

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What Do Changes in Turkey and Syria Spell for Kurds Seeking Protection Abroad?

Significant shares of Syrians and Turks who have sought asylum in the European Union are of Kurdish background. How will migration be affected by the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and Turkey’s 2025 ceasefire with PKK militants? This article examines the history and context of migration dynamics involving the Kurds, and prospects for change.

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Meeting Labor Skill Needs While Expanding Refugee Protection

This webinar explored labor migration pathways as a potential avenue for qualified refugees to access protection in Europe while helping meet destination countries’ skill needs. Speakers examined ways to make work visas more accessible to qualified refugees and how to remove barriers that prevent refugees from entering via the labor pathway. 

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Building Refugee-Inclusive Labor Mobility Pathways: A Visa Evaluation Framework

When refugees can access mainstream work visas, this offers opportunities to find safety while also helping destination countries meet pressing labor needs. Yet the design of many work visas puts them out of reach for well-qualified refugees. This visa evaluation framework and scorecard highlight how different characteristics can make a visa more or less accessible, transparent, and predictable.

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Meeting Labor Skill Needs While Expanding Refugee Protection

This webinar will explore labor migration pathways as a potential avenue for qualified refugees to access protection in Europe while helping meet destination countries’ skill needs. Speakers will examine ways to make work visas more accessible to qualified refugees and how to remove barriers that prevent refugees from entering via the labor pathway. 

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Weaponized Mass Migration: A Security Risk to Europe and the United States

Testimony of Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, Deputy Director of MPI's International Program, before the U.S. House of Representatives, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Europe Subcommittee, on February 10, 2026.

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Diaspora as Diplomacy in Albania

Albania's diaspora has been an asset for the government's ambitions to join the European Union, grow its economy, and increase its international standing. As the government has sought to build closer ties with Albanians living abroad and others with ancestral ties to the homeland, it has seen the diaspora as a tool for public diplomacy, the advancement of cultural traditions, and more.

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What Drives Anti-Migrant Vigilantes

In recent years, vigilante groups opposed to immigration have formed to conduct patrols, stage parades, and even commit violence against asylum seekers and other migrants in Europe, North America, and other regions. Vigilantes often claim that the government has been soft on irregular migration and use performative, symbolically heavy imagery to sway public opinion. This article traces the trends in vigilante movements targeting migrants.

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The Role of Counselling & Reintegration Support in Shaping Migrants’ Return Decisions

Featuring a study on the role that counselling and reintegration programs can play in shaping migrants' return decisions, this webinar examines how timing of such interventions, counselling approaches, and collaboration with trusted origin-country partners can help make these programs more effective.

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To Leave or Stay? Examining the Role of Counseling and Reintegration Assistance in the Return Decision-Making of Migrants Ordered to Leave the Netherlands

Policymakers across the European Union are seeking ways to incentivize third-country nationals with return orders to comply and voluntarily depart. This study examines whether and how two such measures—return counselling and reintegration assistance—can play a role in migrant decision-making, taking the Netherlands as a case study.

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The Role of Counselling & Reintegration Support in Shaping Migrants’ Return Decisions

Featuring a new study on the decisions of Iraqi and Nigerian migrants who left the Netherlands after receiving a return order, speakers on this webinar will discuss how timing, counseling approaches, and partnerships shape migrant decisions to returns, along with what practical steps can strengthen investments in this area.

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Europe’s Talent Race Starts at the Visa Counter

The European Commission's forthcoming visa strategy must be complemented by national-level policy change given that EU-wide channels represent a small share of total legal migration pathways to Europe. To compete more fully for global talent, European governments will need faster, clearer, and more predictable visa procedures, as this short read explains.

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Achieving the "Quadruple Win": Labor Migration Strategies for Europe to Meet its Skill Needs

Featuring discussion of a study that examines best practices for designing and managing labor migration corridors between EU Member States and partner countries, this webinar offers insights on how to connect employers and workers, promote skills development, protect migrant workers, and maximize benefits for both countries of origin and destination.

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Best Practices for Designing and Managing Labor Migration Corridors to Europe

Labor and skills shortages threaten the European Union’s economic growth. Attracting workers with sought-after skills from abroad will be an important means of addressing these challenges. This report examines best practices for designing and managing labor migration corridors between EU and non-EU countries, with the aim of benefiting countries of destination and origin, employers, and migrant workers alike.

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Moldova Shoulders Disproportionately Large Ukrainian Population, in the Shadow of the European Union and Russia

One of Europe’s poorest countries, Moldova has hosted more displaced Ukrainians per capita than any other nation. More than one-quarter of the nearly 7 million Ukrainians who fled since Russia’s 2022 invasion have passed through the country, which notably sits outside the European Union and has far fewer financial and logistical resources than other hosts. This article provides an overview of the little country shouldering a disproportionate burden even as it is pulled between Russia and the European Union.

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Achieving the "Quadruple Win": Labor Migration Strategies for Europe to Meet its Skill Needs

Featuring discussion of a new study that examines best practices for designing and managing labor migration corridors between EU Member States and partner countries, this webinar will offer insights on how to connect employers and workers, promote skills development, protect migrant workers, and maximize benefits for both countries of origin and destination.

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Reframing Return and Reintegration: Origin-Country Priorities and Strategies for Cooperation

Many migrant-origin countries are developing policies and institutional structures to support their returning nationals, driven by safety concerns, emergencies, and in some cases pressure from destination countries. This policy brief examines these developments and identifies opportunities to better align local services, national policies, and donor support to strengthen international cooperation on migrant returns and reintegration.

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Immigration Data Matters: How to Find the Most Accurate Resources

At this release of an updated version of the popular Immigration Data Matters guide, presenters discuss how to navigate and access the increasing number of data sources on immigration and immigrants in the United States and internationally. 

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Immigration and Democracy: Rebuilding Trust in a Changing Europe

Featuring research on public attitudes toward immigration and institutional trust, this discussion examines the relationship between migration policy, integration approaches, public trust, and democratic resilience in Europe and beyond. 

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