Migration Policy Institute Podcasts

Beyond “Shock and Awe”: Immigration Actions in the First Year under Trump 2.0

During the first year of his second term, President Donald Trump and his administration moved to enact sweeping changes to all corners of the U.S. immigration system. A mass deportations campaign that touched cities across the United States with an unprecedented show of force. Pause to refugee resettlement and asylum case processing. Bans and restrictions on legal immigration from 39 countries. Creation of a Trump “gold card” for wealthy individuals. And a repointing that forced immigration to the top of the foreign policy agenda with many countries.
Collectively, the administration’s actions and the resulting impacts on individuals, U.S. communities, job sectors, and the perception of the United States globally will be felt for years, if not decades, to come.
On this webinar, MPI analysts and a veteran journalist assess the actions taken during the administration’s first year back in office, sifting through what is signal and what is noise. They detail the legal picture and analyze the actual effects of the most consequential policy agenda that has been advanced in decades, including its effects on the labor market, U.S. communities, and future immigration to the United States. The conversation accompanied the release of a new analysis of the immigration actions taken during the first year of the second Trump term: Unleashing Power in New Ways: Immigration in the First Year of Trump 2.0
Speakers include: 
Kathleen Bush-Joseph, Policy Analyst, MPI
Muzaffar Chishti, Senior Fellow, MPI
Doris Meissner, Senior Fellow and Director, U.S. Immigration Policy Program, MPI
Nick Miroff, Staff Writer covering immigration, The Atlantic
Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, Associate Policy Analyst, MPI

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

Counselling and reintegration assistance have become central tools for European governments aiming to incentivize and support the uptake of assisted return among migrants facing a return order. In recent years, the European Union has allocated more resources to strengthening these mechanisms, and Dutch policymakers have similarly undertaken efforts to encourage assisted return. Yet the actual influence of actions on migrants’ return decisions remains widely debated. New evidence from the Netherlands offers a clearer picture of how these forms of support function in practice, what shapes migrants’ decision-making, and what kinds of interventions make a meaningful difference.
This Migration Policy Institute Europe webinar explores the findings of its study for the Research and Data Centre (WODC) of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security. The study analyses nearly 118,000 case files from the Dutch Government’s Repatriation and Departure Service (DTenV), combined with interviews with dozens of experts as well as Iraqi and Nigerian migrants who left the Netherlands after receiving a return order. 
Speakers discuss how timing, counselling approaches, and partnerships shape the potential for counselling to create space for meaningful conversation and results in the returns space. They also focus on practical steps to strengthen investments in this area. 
 
Speakers include: 
Elena Cavagni, Project Leader, Dutch Council for Refugees
Osita Osemene, Project Director, Patriotic Citizen Initiatives (PCI) Nigeria
Ravenna Sohst, Policy Analyst, MPI Europe
Claudia van der Horst, Senior Advisor, Knowledge and Strategy, Repatriation and Departure Service, Ministry of Asylum and Migration, The Netherlands
Moderator: Camille Le Coz, Director, MPI Europe
More information: www.migrationpolicy.org
Related Report: To Leave or Stay? Examining the Role of Counseling and Reintegration Assistance in the Return Decision-Making of Migrants Ordered to Leave the Netherlands
 

World of Migration: Humanitarian Assistance in a Time of Deep Foreign Aid Cuts

Foreign aid budgets have been slashed significantly by governments in the United States, Europe, and beyond, raising questions about what humanitarian assistance will look like in practice. Recent and abrupt funding cuts by major donors are already affecting refugee-hosting countries, where resources were strained even before these changes.
In this episode of World of Migration, host Lawrence Huang speaks with Micheal Gumisiriza, a program lead based in southwest Uganda for COHERE, an international NGO that works with refugee-led organizations, about how funding cuts by international donors are being felt on the ground—from food assistance and access to essential medicines to education. They discuss what the immediate impacts reveal about the humanitarian system’s capacity under pressure, and what “localization” could realistically mean as humanitarian response efforts adjust to a period of shrinking resources.
 

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Trapped by Climate Change: The Economics of Staying or Leaving

It is not guaranteed that someone harmed by a natural disaster or other environmental change will leave their home. A complicated web of factors affects whether climate-vulnerable individuals want to—or even can—move. One of these factors is financial: How much money or other resources someone has at their disposal.
In this episode, we speak with Kelsea Best of The Ohio State University about climate (im)mobility and the economic and other factors that help shape futures amid changing climates. We also discuss the notion of “climate gentrification,” which occurs when wealthier people move into traditionally lower-income neighborhoods that are better shielded from natural disasters and other environmental harms.

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

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 time, countries worldwide are competing to attract talent in critical sectors such as health care and construction, making it more important than ever that strategies to attract workers are designed to benefit both migrant-receiving and sending countries. 
To ensure that labor migration works for everyone involved, the European Union has promoted a "quadruple win" approach, aiming to benefit employers, workers, and sending and receiving countries. In addition to targeted mobility partnerships with sending countries, European governments are expressing a broader interest in the lessons from existing labor migration corridors to expand opportunities for partnerships that combine support for the movement of talent with investments in local skills development. 
This webinar features discussion of a study by the Migration Policy Institute and MPI Europe, commissioned by the European Commission, which examines best practices for designing and managing labor migration corridors between EU Member States and partner countries. Experts discuss findings from the research, which examines the Bangladesh-Portugal, India-Germany, Peru-Italy, Senegal-Spain, and Vietnam-Hungary corridors and offers insights on how to connect employers and workers, promote skills development, protect migrant workers, and maximize benefits for countries of origin and destination alike.Speakers: 
Sonam Denzongpa, Consultant, Emigration Policy & Welfare Division, Ministry of External Affairs, India
Shakirul Islam, Chairperson, Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program, Bangladesh
Francesco Luciani, Head of the Migration and Forced Displacement Unit, Directorate-General for International Partnerships, European Commission
Ravenna Sohst, Policy Analyst, MPI Europe
Moderator: Kate Hooper, Senior Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Report is available at:  https://bit.ly/migrationcorridorsEU
More information is available at: www.migrationpolicy.org

U.S. Immigration Courts at a Crisis Point

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 policy brief that examines how the immigration courts have reached a point of crisis, with panelists focusing on how the courts have been shaped by the policies of the current administration and its predecessor.
The conversation also touched upon the administrative and legislative reforms that are urgently needed to transform the system, key among them increased funding for the courts, commensurate with the historic spending on immigration enforcement included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 
 
Speakers: 
Kathleen Bush-Joseph, Policy Analyst, MPI
Muzaffar Chishti, Senior Fellow, MPI
Chiqui Sanchez Kennedy, Executive Director, Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project
Kyra S. Lilien, Former Immigration Judge, Concord Immigration Court, Executive Office for Immigration Review, U.S. Department of Justice
Moderator: Doris Meissner, Senior Fellow and Director, U.S. Immigration Policy Program, MPI
 
Report available at https://bit.ly/immig-courts
More information at www.migrationpolicy.org 

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: The Young Lives Uprooted by Climate Change

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 unique challenges that children face in displacement, there are relatively few international laws or systems particularly designed to assist those forced to move because of environmental factors. We speak with UNICEF’s Laura Healy about this reality and the opportunities to better protect children in a warming world.

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Will Climate Change Push Some People into Statelessness?

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 possible outcome, and what can countries do to protect their sovereignty and their citizens? Join our discussion with Mark Nevitt, an international law scholar at the Emory University School of Law.

World of Migration: Humanitarian Protection at a Crossroads: What Future for the Strained Refugee System?

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 episode of the World of Migration podcast, one of the leading voices in the humanitarian protection world, Vincent Cochetel, discusses the future of refugee protection and the evolution of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) with Meghan Benton, MPI’s director of global programs.

Immigration and Democracy: Rebuilding Trust in a Changing Europe

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 control meaningfully address the real pressures communities face and restore trust in the democratic institutions charged with governing migration?
This discussion, held in Berlin in collaboration with the Robert Bosch Stiftung, examines the relationship between migration policy, integration approaches, public trust, and democratic resilience in Europe and beyond. Looking at new research on public attitudes toward immigration and institutional trust, speakers explore how migration policy decisions—not just political narratives—shape public opinion and societal well-being.
 
Speakers:
Meghan Benton, Director of Global Programs, Migration Policy Institute (MPI) 
Ben Mason-Sucher, Program Lead,Migration, More in Common Germany
Frank Sharry, Consultant, British Future; an advisor to the Kamala Harris campaign; former head of U.S. immigrant-rights organizations 
Ulrich Weinbrenner, Former Director General for Migration, Refugees, and Return Policy, German Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community 

On the Move: Rapidly Evolving Migration Trends and Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean

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 discourse, in fact, most migrants from the region remain within Latin America and the Caribbean.
How are these countries responding to this new reality?
In a newly published Stanford University Press book, On the Move: Migration Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean, Migration Policy Institute (MPI) President Andrew Selee and coauthors Valerie Lacarte, Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, and Diego Chaves-González offer the first comprehensive look at policy responses by governments in the region and shed light on the lesser-known dynamics of migration in, to, and through the region.
Through compelling storytelling and rigorous analysis, the authors uncover how governments and societies in Latin America and the Caribbean are adapting—unevenly, yet innovatively—to an era of unprecedented human mobility.
This webinar features discussion of the authors’ key findings, surprising patterns, and the urgent policy questions facing Latin America and the Caribbean today.
Speakers: 
Andrew Selee, President, MPI
Valerie Lacarte, Senior Policy Analyst, MPI
Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, Senior Policy Analyst, MPI
Diego Chaves-González, Senior Manager, Latin America and Caribbean Initiative, MPI
Opening Comments by:Roberta S. Jacobson, Founding Partner, Dinámica Americas; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs; former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico 

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Connecting the Dots: How Climate Detectives Link Human-Caused Environmental Change to Migration

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 environmental change requires scientists to parse through years of data and pattern detection. In this episode, we speak with climate scientist Lisa Thalheimer, of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, to explain how experts untangle the connections between climate change and migration.

World of Migration: Amid Backlash to Immigration, Can Contact Smooth Relations between Groups of Diverse Backgrounds?

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 together and build meaningful relationships. Linda R. Tropp, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has spent decades studying how members of diverse groups experience contact with each other. In this episode, she and Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, Deputy Director of MPI’s International Program, discuss contact theory and the triggers that can make such relationships succeed or fail.

Making Migrant Return and Reintegration Sustainable: Lessons from Two Continents

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 more coherent, development-based programming in countries of origin that can include longer-term reintegration support, psychosocial support, or help finding employment upon return.  
Meanwhile, Latin American countries, some of which are facing the prospect of large-scale forced and voluntary returns from the United States, are navigating how to deliver meaningful reception and reintegration support despite financial and institutional constraints.
This conversation explores emerging models, policy shifts, and lessons learned from the European and Latin American approaches, as a means of shaping the future of reintegration support by international donors and others to strengthen service delivery systems, involve local actors, and address returnees’ evolving needs in ways that are grounded in real experiences.
The webinar is part of MPI Europe’s Community of Practice on Voluntary Return and Sustainable Reintegration, an EU-funded initiative supported by the Migration Partnership Facility.

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Small Islands, Big Challenges: Climate Change and Migration in the Caribbean

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 discusses these issues and others with Natalie Dietrich Jones, a migration expert at the University of the West Indies.

World of Migration: The Future of Labor: Lessons from India in the Global Race for Talent

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 this episode, migration and development expert Seeta Sharma shares insights from India, which is the world’s largest origin of migrants and leads in the export of physicians, for example. She unpacks the role of bilateral and multilateral agreements with countries eager to attract Indian talent and the implications of large-scale emigration for India’s economic advancement.

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Can AI Predict Climate Migration?

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 technologies to map and predict migration flows.

Supporting Migrants Returning to Fragile Contexts: Lessons from Iraq and Somalia

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 irregular migration. Putting this support into practice is, however, very challenging—particularly in fragile settings, where infrastructure and services are limited, livelihood opportunities are scarce, and communities often contend with insecurity.
Beyond difficulties accessing housing and property, many returnees experience significant psychosocial needs, including trauma and social stigma. Organizations supporting returning migrants also navigate specific challenges, including difficulties operating in some areas and engaging with local and national authorities.
On this Migration Policy Institute Europe webinar, speakers outline under what conditions return to these fragile settings happen, and representatives from organizations that support returning migrants in Iraq, Somalia, and other fragile environments explore the specific challenges those environments pose for designing and delivering reintegration support. They also discuss the role that reintegration programming can play in helping returnees rebuild their lives and strengthening social cohesion.
www.migrationpolicy.org

Immigration Actions in First 100 Days of Trump Second Term

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 actions, including the declaration of an “invasion;” dispatch of deportees to third countries such as Panama, Costa Rica, and El Salvador; and first-ever peacetime triggering of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, have followed. 
Amid the “flood the zone” tempo and blizzard of headlines and legal filings during the administration’s first 100 days, it is sometimes difficult to anticipate which actions will have the greatest impact and be most long-lasting. 
On this webinar, MPI analysts assess the most consequential actions taken during the first 100 days, detail the litigation picture, and analyze some of the early effects of policies on communities across the United States.
Read the related policy beat.

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: In a Climate Tinderbox, Migration Can Spark Violence

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 human mobility in conversation with journalist Peter Schwartzstein, author of the book The Heat and the Fury: On the Frontlines of Climate Violence.