The massive humanitarian exodus from Ukraine has upended global expectations of how quickly—and at what scale—host communities can welcome people fleeing their homes. The number of Ukrainians who fled to Poland within the first two weeks of the invasion surpassed the number of Venezuelans received by Colombia over a five-year period. Despite the potentially destabilizing pace and volume of arrivals from Ukraine, the policy response has been overwhelmingly supportive. So has the public response, with public opinion polling pointing to high support for Ukrainians across Europe.
 
But as the crisis continues, there are fears that these initial feelings of goodwill will fade and generosity fatigue will set in, much as occurred during the 2015-16 European migration and refugee crisis and in parts of South America with the arrivals of large numbers of Venezuelans. This raises several questions: How can immediate post-crisis solidarity be harnessed and made more sustainable, such that it can withstand emerging narratives of newcomers as threats to jobs and limited public services? How can feelings of goodwill be leveraged to spread to others rather than remaining narrowly focused on a particularly sympathetic population? And how can policy responses such as temporary stay permits build longer-term goodwill towards populations needing protection writ large?
 
This Migration Policy Institute webinar convenes international experts to consider what we know about public opinion and narratives on refugees and what this means for the Ukrainian crisis. This event marks the launch of a publication from the “Beyond Territorial Asylum: Making Protection Work in a Bordered World” initiative led by MPI and the Robert Bosch Stiftung. The initiative aims to advance ideas to redesign the global protection and resettlement infrastructure in a way that is more equitable, flexible, and sustainable.

The U.S. government in March 2022 announced record job vacancies, with 11.3 million unfilled positions. With an aging population, declining fertility, shifting skills needs, and the Great Resignation underway in part as baby boomers retire, the United States is experiencing a major labor market transformation that will challenge the country’s economic growth and competitiveness.

How these mega forces play out is yet to be seen. As a policy option, immigration has always been one of the levers available to address labor shortages or skills gaps. But beyond recruiting workers from abroad, developing and leveraging the skills of immigrants already in the United States represents a smart policy option. What role could underutilized high-skilled immigrant workers occupy in the changing labor market, especially in high-demand sectors such as health and education? What national and state policy options exist to maximize immigrants’ economic contributions by more fully tapping their talents and potential?

During this webcast, experts -- including MPI's Jeanne Batalova and Muzaffar Chishti, former U.S. Labor Department Chief Economist Harry J. Holzer, Upwardly Global's Jina Krause-Vilmar, and Alexandra Manuel -- highlighted the latest demographic and labor market trends shaped by growing automation and the COVID-19 pandemic. They also discussed the merits of three policy approaches that leverage immigrants’ talents to address labor and skills shortages: tapping the existing skills of underemployed college-educated immigrants, increasing immigrant adults’ access to postsecondary credentials, and attracting new talent through the immigration system. The webinar featured the launch of an MPI issue brief on the underemployment of skilled health-care workers in Illinois and Chicago ( https://bit.ly/immskills22 ).

MPI Europe Director Hanne Beirens moderated a session where Laura Batalla from Ashoka Hello Europe Initiative, David Cashaback from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Drocella Mugorewera from the Refugee Congress, Cameron McGlothlin of the U.S. Department of State's Office of Refugee Admissions, and Vincent Catot from the European Commission's Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, discussed these questions:

• How is integration policymaking evolving, under the combined pressures of the pandemic, economic shifts, rising social needs, and technological transformation?
• How have policymakers in Europe and North America responded to the need for rapid and agile policy action to address COVID-19-induced disruption, at a time in which many of their usual routines, practices, and tools have been upended? How might these experiences shape integration policy in the longer run—in its objectives, practices, and overall mission?
• How can multi-level governance approaches and multi-stakeholder cooperation help governments address evolving integration challenges and promote innovation? How to ensure systematic learning and transfer between community-level innovations and government policy?

MPI Europe Senior Policy Analyst Jasmijn Slootjes moderated a session where Imad Elabdala, Founder, Hero2B and Kidnovation; Josephine Goube, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Techfugees for Impact; and Marco Campana, Freelance Communications Consultant discussed the following questions:

• What lessons can recent innovations provide on how to advance migrant and refugee inclusion through digital services—particularly in a context of social and physical distancing?
• What limitations, challenges, and inequities should social innovators in civil society, the private sector, and government keep in mind when exploring the potential of tech for inclusion?
• What investments are necessary to ensure that digitization does not lead to widening inequalities in diverse communities and societies?
• How can we prevent a proliferation of short-lived, fragmented digital tools and tech solutions—thus improving sustainability, quality, and impact?

This event celebrated the remarkable legacy of MPI's first president and MPI Europe's founder, Demetrios G. Papademetriou. One of the world's pre-eminent scholars and lecturers on international migration, he developed a rich body of scholarship shared in more than 275 books, research reports, articles, and other publications. He also advised numerous governments, international organizations, civil-society groups, and philanthropic organizations around the world on immigration and immigrant integration issues.

Read the event program and select writings from Dr. Papademetriou
Read MPI's press release on his passing.
For his obituary or to leave any memories for his family, click here.
Read a collection of tributes to his life and legacy.
Listen to his thoughts on this World of Migration podcast episode.

The Omicron surge caused many U.S. schools to return to remote learning, an all-too-familiar status since the sudden shift to virtual learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The public-health crisis has tested school systems across the country and continues to pose operational challenges as schools transition between in-person, remote, and hybrid instruction. 

Remote learning has become a controversial tool and now is often considered a last-resort pandemic response. One reason is the digital divide in who can access computers, high-speed internet, and digital skills training. Children in immigrant families often have disproportionately less access to digital tools and training than their peers, which can lead to knowledge gaps, lower grades, chronic absenteeism, and disenrollment.

This webinar features findings from an MPI report that takes stock of lessons and promising practices from the pandemic, with insights from educators, community leaders, and other stakeholders on how to support immigrant children and U.S.-born children with immigrant parents during remote learning. Speakers from MPI, Internationals Network for Public Schools, Office of Global Michigan, and the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology, examine related parts of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 and how federal, state, and local governments; school districts; schools; libraries; and service providers can advance digital equity for children in immigrant families.

On his inauguration day one year ago, President Joe Biden proposed a sweeping list of immigration policy priorities, including advancing legislation legalizing millions of unauthorized immigrants and rolling back key executive actions taken by his predecessor. Now at its first anniversary, the administration has advanced numerous further immigration actions that range widely across the immigration system.

Migration surges at the U.S.-Mexico border and partisan deadlock on Capitol Hill have complicated moving forward on legislation that would revamp the U.S. immigration system. Courts and the continuing COVID-19 pandemic have stymied some of the administration’s other efforts. Yet, while less noted, the Biden administration has pursued a broad agenda that encompasses immigration changes in the U.S. interior—including overhauling immigration enforcement priorities, humanitarian relief by extending temporary protection to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and others from troubled countries, and administrative measures affecting important legal immigration processes.

This discussion with MPI's Muzaffar Chishti and Doris Meissner, the White House's Deputy Director for Immigration Esther Olavarria, former Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention Elizabeth Neumann, and Community Change Co-President Lorella Praeli examines the Biden track record on immigration and what lays ahead. The conversation draws from an article published in MPI's online journal, by Jessica Bolter and Muzaffar Chishti, detailing the administration’s first-year actions on immigration.

MPI Europe Policy Analyst Liam Patuzzi moderated a breakout session where David Campbell, President, Jupia Consultants Inc.; Andrea Soler Eslava, Senior Rural Integration Project Manager, International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC); Danielle Gluns, Head of the Research and Transfer Office for Migration Policy, University of Hildesheim; Khmlin Haj Mohamad, Regional Refugee Ambassador, SHARE SIRA project (Expanding Social Orientation & Integration for Newcomers in Rural Areas in Europe); and Maher Dahdal, Regional Refugee Ambassador, SHARE SIRA project, discussed the following topics:

• As smaller towns and rural areas have stepped up their efforts to welcome refugees and migrants in recent years, what can we learn about these communities’ resources and limitations in promoting social inclusion and cohesion? What new bottlenecks has the COVID-19 pandemic generated?
• What does social innovation for inclusion look like in rural areas, and what conditions does it need to develop? How is it linked with other trends shaping the future of small and rural communities—such as demographics, infrastructural, and environmental ones?
• How can small communities successfully transfer and adapt innovative practices that originated in larger cities? At the same time, how can they nurture ‘home-grown’ innovations specifically tailored to their context(s)?

In this session moderated by MPI's International Program Director of Research Meghan Benton, panelists Anila Noor, Member, European Commission's Expert Group on the Views of Migrants, and Founder, New Women Connectors, the Netherlands; Scarlet Cronin, Acting Executive Director, The Tent Partnership for Refugees; Katharina Bamberg, Policy Advisor on Migration and Integration, Eurocities; and Christina Pope, Senior Director of Welcoming International, Welcoming America discussed the following questions:

• Over the past year-and-a-half, we have heard a lot of conversations about (and calls for) "inclusive recovery". If we were to make this more concrete: what does inclusive recovery look like for you?
• How can government, the private sector, and social-sector organizations partner design and promote strategies for post-COVID-19 recovery that reflect the needs and resources of diverse communities? Where can we identify examples of these strategies?
• How can "social innovation for inclusion" evolve into "inclusive social innovation"—expanding opportunities for diverse groups to participate in social entrepreneurship, community engagement, and policymaking?

In a breakout session, MPI Europe Senior Policy Analyst Jasmijn Slootjes led a discussion with Beba Svigir, Chief Executive Officer, Calgary Immigrant Women's Association; Lama Jaghjougha, Founder, Raise Women's Awareness Network; Kava Spartak, Director, YAAR e.V; and Drocella Mugorewera, Board Member of Refugee Congress and Executive Director of Bridge Refugee Services, United States on the following topics:

• What are the key success factors for interventions aiming to protect groups at high risk of exclusion and marginalization, promoting their well-being and participation? How far have we come since 2015-16, and what is still missing?
• How have organizations adapted their models of service provision in response to the pandemic, and how successful are these adaptations proving to be—for example, in recreating a sense of community and trust even in virtual and hybrid formats?
• How can holistic, highly tailored, and often resource-intensive forms of support be sustained and brought to scale?
• What models can help leverage the entrepreneurialism, innovativeness and resilience of migrant and refugee women, whose vital role in our societies has been further highlighted by the pandemic?

In a breakout session, MPI International Program Associate Director Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan led a conversation with Agnieszka Kosowicz, President of the Board, Polish Migration Forum; Suzette Brooks Masters, Senior Strategist, Center for Inclusion and Belonging, American Immigration Council; Sophie van Haasen, Coordinator, Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) Mayors Mechanism; and Moussa Al Jamaat, Journalist, Baynana, Spain on the following questions:

• How have new initiatives at different levels—from local efforts to international campaigns—sought to promote more positive narratives around diversity? What evidence do we have on what works (and what does not) in terms of shifting attitudes on highly polarized issues? What pitfalls should be avoided when seeking to shape inclusive narratives?
• How can innovative public communication strategies contribute to sustained investments in migrant and refugee inclusion, even as diverse societies move out of crisis?
• Beyond public communication strategies, what other types of activities and modes of engagement can foster positive narratives around diversity and inclusion? What are their strengths and limitations?
• How can refugees and migrants proactively and effectively contribute to shaping narratives around migration, diversity, and inclusion?

In this session Kenny Clewett, Director, Ashoka Hello Europe Initiative; Mustafa Alio, Managing Director, R-SEAT (Refugees Seeking Equal Access at the Table); Fayrouz Saad, Director of Public Engagement, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); and Kava Spartak, Managing Director, YAAR e.V, Germany discuss the following questions in a conversation moderated by MPI Europe Policy Analyst Liam Patuzzi. 

• What role has social innovation played in responding to new forms of marginalization and inequality exacerbated by COVID-19, supporting the most vulnerable while preventing rifts within diverse communities?
• How has the pandemic affected the operations of civil society, social enterprises, public service providers and other key players that have propelled social innovation for inclusion in recent years—on both sides of the Atlantic?
• What models of engagement and service provision have suffered, and which ones have proven more resilient? What new forms of community engagement and solidarity have originated amid crisis, and how sustainable are they?
• What main adaptation strategies have we observed—from shifting to digital to expanding emergency services, from seeking new funding/financing sources to strengthening collaboration with community leaders and other stakeholders?
• What short- and long-term impact could these transformations and adaptations have on refugee and migrant inclusion?
• After years of vitality and experimentation, but also persisting weaknesses and sustainability challenges, how well-placed is the ‘infrastructure of inclusion’ to address urgent and long-term needs of newly arrived refugees—both in Europe and North America?

Child care provided by family, friends, and neighbors (FFN) has long been critical in supporting immigrant and Dual Language Learner (DLL) families who are seeking to find safe, affordable, and culturally and linguistically relevant child-care options for their young children. While FFN caregivers offer important and resource-intensive services to these families, these types of care continue to be left out of policy conversations, professional development efforts, and funding considerations. With FFN care providers and the families that depend on them already significantly underserved by child-care and other systems, efforts to expand and improve child care that fail to take account of their needs may ultimately exacerbate gaps in quality and equity.
 
In this webinar, MPI Senior Policy Analyst Maki Park provides an overview of a policy brief she coauthored that discusses the importance of FFN care for immigrant and DLL families as well as barriers that immigrant-serving FFN caregivers face in accessing subsidies and other public supports. Lorena Garcia, Executive Director of the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition (CSPC), spoke about program and policy approaches to more equitably serve FFN caregivers that CSPC has supported in Colorado. Natalie Renew, Director of Home Grown, discusses opportunities to leverage historic new investments contemplated for child-care systems to better support FFN care providers and the families in their care.

Within Latin America, Costa Rica is a top immigrant-destination country. New dynamics emerged beginning in 2015 as migration flows became increasingly mixed, with the arrival of refugees, seasonal and permanent immigrants, and extracontinental migrants transiting the country en route to destinations further north. With increasing numbers of Venezuelans and extracontinental migrants, and more recently a surge in Nicaraguan arrivals, there are greater pressures on the Costa Rican migration system’s capacity. The arrivals also have tested society’s acceptance of immigrants amid the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic, which strained government resources and presented unique challenges for migrants. Yet migration holds opportunities as Costa Rica potentially stands to benefit from this influx of human capital if properly managed.

This webinar marks the release of a report examining the state of Costa Rica’s institutional framework and initiatives supporting the integration of migrants and refugees, a particularly critical policy area as the immigrant population continues to grow. The discussion, which features key Costa Rican government officials and members of the private sector and civil society,  explores where the migration system is most advanced and where challenges remain, along with how to better foster immigrant integration, in particular for recent arrivals, as well as social cohesion. Topics include regularization and registration, health, employment, and education.

The event was in Spanish and this is the live English interpretation.

One out of four children in the United States has an immigrant parent, and while the great majority of those parents are in the United States lawfully, 5 million children live with at least one parent who is an unauthorized immigrant. These families face many of the same issues and needs as other families and some have contact with state and local child welfare systems. Families with immigrant members interacting with state and local child welfare systems may face distinctive issues and challenges relating to a child or parent’s immigration status, barriers to service access resulting from linguistic and cultural differences, and fear or distrust toward public systems.

All child welfare agencies can take important steps to improve their responsiveness to the needs of these families and promote the well-being of these children. On this webinar, speakers will explore considerations for the child welfare field, along with promising state and local practices, and recommendations for staff training, procedures, child placement, and child welfare intersections with the immigration system.

The conversation draws on findings from Immigrant Families and Child Welfare Systems: Emerging Needs and Promising Policies, an MPI report done in collaboration with the American Public Human Services Association that explores recent developments and issues arising in states and local communities.

It is well established that the pandemic has upended the rhythms of school life, perhaps most acutely for high school English Learners (ELs) who are already racing to complete graduation requirements before aging out of the K-12 system. For many, the responsibility to care for family members or to earn family income took precedence over school, and for others, lack of digital access hampered regular attendance while most schools were engaged in distance learning. Beyond these major obstacles, students coped with disruptions to college and career planning, and missed out on academic, linguistic, and social-emotional supports, and the many extracurricular and community-based activities that often deepen and add meaning to students’ high school years. 

This webinar illuminates these and other challenges experienced over the last two years. Speakers describe state- and district-level efforts to help ELs re-engage in high school, recover academically, and address mental health needs. Participants also hear the results of new research on the postsecondary aspirations of immigrant-background Latina/o students and how the pandemic may have helped shape their decisionmaking.

Dentro de América Latina, Costa Rica es uno de los países principales de destino de migrantes. Desde el 2015, han surgido nuevas dinámicas a raíz de la diversificación de los flujos migratorios, dado la llegada de refugiados, migrantes estacionales y permanentes y migrantes extracontinentales que transitan por el país en ruta hacia destinos más al norte. Con un número creciente de venezolanos, migrantes extracontinentales, y más recientemente un aumento en las llegadas de nicaragüenses, el sistema migratorio costarricense ha enfrentado mayores presiones de capacidad. Las llegadas también han puesto a prueba la aceptación de los migrantes por parte de la sociedad en medio de la pandemia de COVID-19, que ha agotado los recursos gubernamentales y ha presentado desafíos para los migrantes. Sin embargo, la migración ofrece oportunidades y Costa Rica podría beneficiarse de esta afluencia de capital humano si se gestiona adecuadamente.

Este webinar marca la publicación de un informe que examina el marco institucional y las iniciativas del estado de Costa Rica que apoyan la integración de migrantes y refugiados, un área de política particularmente crítica a medida que la población migrante continúa creciendo. El debate, que conta con funcionarios de alto nivel del gobierno de Costa Rica y miembros del sector privado y la sociedad civil, explora dónde está más avanzado el sistema migratorio y dónde persisten los desafíos, junto con cómo fomentar mejor la integración de los inmigrantes, en particular para los recién llegados. Los temas incluyen la cohesión social, regularización y registro, salud, empleo y educación. 

Is immigration a net positive or negative for societies? It’s one of the key questions that underpins the debate over immigration levels, whether asked directly or tacitly underlying the conversation. And what policy levers exist to ensure that immigration is leveraged to bring the greatest benefits possible and blunt any downsides? In this conversation, Migration Policy Institute Senior Fellow and former President Michael Fix takes on the big questions with Senior Policy Analyst Julia Gelatt, examining the fiscal impacts of immigration, the importance of immigrant integration, how a greater focus on credential recognition could allow immigrants to more fully utilize the academic and professional skills they bring with them, and much more.

Immigrant integration is the domestic policy side of the immigration debate: The secret sauce as to whether immigration policy is successful or not. Yet the issue of how immigrants and their children fare and the integration policies and programs that help ease their incorporation into society often receive far less attention, certainly in the U.S. context, than questions around immigration levels, border security, and the unauthorized population. Some countries are quite intentional about their immigrant integration programming, while the United States has a more decentralized approach, even as immigrants have moved beyond the handful of traditional destinations in recent decades. In this conversation, Margie McHugh, director of MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, chats with Ivana Tú Nhi Giang about why integration is important not just for immigrants and their families but for the broader society as well.

The U.S. population included more than 25 million Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals in 2019, four out of five of whom were foreign born. Language barriers can pose serious obstacles for immigrant integration and hamper access to essential public services, ranging from schools and health care to police, fire departments, and the legal system. Recognizing the serious health, safety, and civil-rights issues at stake, many states and localities have introduced language access laws and policies to ensure LEP individuals have effective access to critical government services.

On this webinar, MPI researchers present an analysis that examines the common features and notable areas of innovation found in more than 40 state and local language access laws and policies. The discussion explores aspects of the policies that seek to build capacities to support their implementation and ensure the quality and consistency of services provided to LEP individuals. The conversation also illuminates key policy design elements and vital practical insights that state and local governments can employ as they face growing linguistic diversity and the need to ensure all residents have meaningful access to public information and services.