Conference - Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion Final Session - From Niche to Mainstream: Unlocking the Potential of Innovation for Lasting Change

Following the arrival of large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in Europe from 2015 onwards, many non-traditional actors—from tech start-ups to social enterprises—have pioneered innovative solutions to foster the social and economic inclusion of newcomers. In the context of this experimentation, business has played a fundamental role, with companies on both sides of the Atlantic leveraging their potential as employers, donors, and partners in innovative alliances. This two-day conference reflected on how innovative initiatives for refugee inclusion can grow beyond pockets of good practice and inspire large-scale, long-term change. The event brought together a diverse group of public officials, business leaders, service designers, social entrepreneurs, civil society organisations, and refugee initiatives from Europe, the United States, and Canada.
The final interactive panel session “From Niche to Mainstream: Unlocking the Potential of Innovation for Lasting Change” included contributions from:
Chair: Elizabeth Collett, Director, Migration Policy Institute Europe
Louisa Taylor, Director, Refugee 613, Canada 
Ben Mason, Project lead on digital innovation around refugees and migration, Betterplace lab, Germany
David Manicom, Assistant Deputy Minister, Settlement and Integration Sector, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Laura Corrado, Head of Unit Legal Migration and Integration, DG HOME, European Commission

Conference - Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion Workshop - Employer Engagement: Innovative Approaches to Training and Hiring Refugees

Following the arrival of large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in Europe from 2015 onwards, many non-traditional actors—from tech start-ups to social enterprises—have pioneered innovative solutions to foster the social and economic inclusion of newcomers. In the context of this experimentation, business has played a fundamental role, with companies on both sides of the Atlantic leveraging their potential as employers, donors, and partners in innovative alliances. This two-day conference reflected on how innovative initiatives for refugee inclusion can grow beyond pockets of good practice and inspire large-scale, long-term change. The event brought together a diverse group of public officials, business leaders, service designers, social entrepreneurs, civil society organisations, and refugee initiatives from Europe, the United States, and Canada.
This workshop on Employer Engagement: Innovative Approaches to Training and Hiring Refugees featured:  
Chair: Laurent Aujean, Policy Officer, Unit Legal Migration and Integration, DG Home, European Commission
Sayre Nyce, Executive Director, Talent Beyond Boundaries, United States
Peter O’Sullivan, Resettlement Officer, UNHCR, Bureau for Europe
Mustafa Alroomi, Web Developer & Askim Kintziger, Innovation Consultant, Cronos Groep, Belgium

Conference - Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion - Opening Session Day II: Refugees as agents of innovation

Following the arrival of large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in Europe from 2015 onwards, many non-traditional actors—from tech start-ups to social enterprises—have pioneered innovative solutions to foster the social and economic inclusion of newcomers. In the context of this experimentation, business has played a fundamental role, with companies on both sides of the Atlantic leveraging their potential as employers, donors, and partners in innovative alliances. This two-day conference reflected on how innovative initiatives for refugee inclusion can grow beyond pockets of good practice and inspire large-scale, long-term change. The event brought together a diverse group of public officials, business leaders, service designers, social entrepreneurs, civil society organisations, and refugee initiatives from Europe, the United States, and Canada.
In the opening session on the second day of the conference, Maher Ismaail, DaliliNow.com Co-founder and Saeed Kamali Dehghan, a journalist from The Guardian, engaged in a discussion on refugees as agents of innovation. 

Conference - Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion Panel II: Business, not as usual - Private sector innovation for refugee inclusion

Following the arrival of large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in Europe from 2015 onwards, many non-traditional actors—from tech start-ups to social enterprises—have pioneered innovative solutions to foster the social and economic inclusion of newcomers. In the context of this experimentation, business has played a fundamental role, with companies on both sides of the Atlantic leveraging their potential as employers, donors, and partners in innovative alliances. This two-day conference reflected on how innovative initiatives for refugee inclusion can grow beyond pockets of good practice and inspire large-scale, long-term change. The event brought together a diverse group of public officials, business leaders, service designers, social entrepreneurs, civil society organisations, and refugee initiatives from Europe, the United States, and Canada.
This panel is entitled "Business, not as usual: Private sector innovation for refugee inclusion”, and the speakers are:
Chair: Irini Pari, European Economic and Social Committee
Pastora Valero, Vice President, Government Affairs, EMEAR, Cisco
Justina Spencer, Manager, Global Corporate Responsibility, Deloitte
Samuel Engblom, Policy Director, TCO Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees, Sweden
Kavita Brahmbhatt, Co-founder, Action Emploi Réfugiés, France

Conference - Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion: Welcoming remarks, Opening Speech, & Panel session "How the field has matured: A progress report, one year on"

Following the arrival of large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in Europe from 2015 onwards, many non-traditional actors—from tech start-ups to social enterprises—have pioneered innovative solutions to foster the social and economic inclusion of newcomers. In the context of this experimentation, business has played a fundamental role, with companies on both sides of the Atlantic leveraging their potential as employers, donors, and partners in innovative alliances. This two-day conference reflected on how innovative initiatives for refugee inclusion can grow beyond pockets of good practice and inspire large-scale, long-term change. The event brought together a diverse group of public officials, business leaders, service designers, social entrepreneurs, civil society organisations, and refugee initiatives from Europe, the United States, and Canada.
This recording includes:
Welcoming remarks from:
Adam Shub, Chargé d’Affaires, U.S. Mission to the EU
Daniel J. Costello, Ambassador of Canada to the EU
Elizabeth Collett, Director, Migration Policy Institute Europe
Cristian Pirvulescu, President of the Permanent Study Group on Immigration and Integration, European Economic and Social Committee
Opening speech by Yara Al Adib, Design Consultant and Entrepreneur, From Syria with Love, Belgium
Panel session: “How the field has matured: A progress report, one year on”
Chair: Tamim Nashed, Policy Officer on Refugee Inclusion, European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE)
Eric Young, The Social Projects Studio/Distinguished Visiting Professor of Social Innovation at Ryerson University, Canada
Luisa Seiler, Co-founder and Director, SINGA Deutschland, Germany
Mireia Nadal Chiva, Head of Community Development, ReDI School for Digital Integration, Germany

Beyond Stock-Taking: The Path Ahead to a Global Compact for Migration

Representatives of national governments, UN agencies, and key civil-society organizations convened in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico at the beginning of December 2017 to take stock of the progress that has been made towards conceptualizing the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM). Formal negotiations are scheduled to begin in 2018 to fulfill the commitment made at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2016 by Member States to negotiate a Global Compact for Migration by the end of 2018—a task that was complicated with the decision by the Trump administration to withdraw from the further consultations.
To reflect on the latest developments and the outcomes of the stocktaking meeting, MPI hosted discussion with Eva Åkerman Börje, Senior Policy Advisor in the office of the UN Special Representative for International Migration, and Ilse Hahn, Head of Division on Policy Issues of Displacement and Migration, from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The discussion, moderated by MPI Senior Fellow Kathleen Newland, also drew from the conclusions of MPI's policy brief, The Global Compact for Migration: How Does Development Fit In?
This webinar is part of a project, "Towards a Global Compact for Migration: Rethinking the Links between Migration and Development", by MPI and the German Development Cooperation Agency (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH, or GIZ), supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. In 2018, the project will issue a series of policy briefs aimed at enriching the conversation around migration and development in the context of the Global Compact negotiations.

Legal Channels for Refugee Protection in Europe: A Pivotal Moment for Strategic Thinking

The European Union has long acknowledged the crucial role for new and expanded legal pathways in creating a well-managed migration system. Yet to date, there has been a lack of common understanding among Member States on how legal pathways can and should be used, how different channels fit together to achieve migration objectives, or what is meant by commonly used concepts, such as humanitarian visas. The refugee and migration crisis thrust the issue of legal pathways to the top of EU and national government agendas, bringing with it new energy for innovation and action; but progress has so far suffered from a lack of strategic thinking on how legal channels can work together and how to overcome the design and implementation challenges Member States have faced.
 
Following the recently released mid-term review of the European Agenda on Migration, this timely webinar offers insights from EU Member States on how existing, new, and untapped legal pathways—such as resettlement, community-based sponsorship, and family reunification—can interact with other humanitarian policies and fit into a larger protection strategy.
 
The publications discussed in this webinar are:
Tracing the channels refugees use to seek protection in Europe: http://bit.ly/2w3YMId
Engaging communities in refugee protection: The potential of private sponsorship in Europe: http://bit.ly/2xs188Y

2017 Immigration Law and Policy Conference – Panel: Humanitarian Relief Under Threat Across the Board

More than 1 million people in the United States receive temporary forms of humanitarian relief. Additionally, each year, tens of thousands are granted asylum or admitted as refugees. The Trump administration has sought to reduce these protections, by temporarily halting refugee admissions and reducing the number of refugee admissions to less than half of the prior level. Other forms of humanitarian relief, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS), are under threat from the administration, the courts, and Congress. In this panel, the Presidents of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) and HIAS, joined by the head of Hispanic and Migration Affairs at the Mexican Embassy, discuss the current state of humanitarian relief and the implications of the administration's policy decisions for the most vulnerable immigrants, including refugees, TPS recipients, and children.

Building an Evidence Base to Support Refugee Resettlement

The scale of the global refugee crisis has ratcheted up the pressure on governments and their international partners to find sustainable avenues for protection of the displaced. Successive international conferences, including the September 2016 UN summit for refugees and migrants, have highlighted the need for more resettlement places as an integral part of the international response to the crisis. At the EU level, Member State governments are under increasing pressure to open more legal channels to protection as part of a larger effort to reduce the demands on national asylum systems. Yet governments seeking to expand their resettlement program—or engage in resettlement for the first time—face a dearth of solid evidence on what resettlement practices work and why.
This webinar highlights the findings of an MPI Europe report on critical gaps in research and evaluation of resettlement programs, and recommendations for improving evidence gathering and knowledge sharing between resettlement countries. The discussion also includes insights from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and national resettlement actors on the knowledge and support needs that new and expanding resettlement countries face, and what role international initiatives such as the Emerging Resettlement Countries Joint Support Mechanism (ERCM) and the European Action on Facilitating Resettlement and Refugee Admission through New Knowledge (EU-FRANK) can play in filling these gaps.
This webinar is part of the European Action on Facilitating Resettlement and Refugee Admission through New Knowledge (EU-FRANK) project. The project is funded by the European Asylum, Migration, and Integration Fund (AMIF).

The Tech Turn in Refugee Protection and Integration: New Solutions or Hot Air?

Smartphones have become unlikely symbols of the global refugee crisis: selfies of refugees in harrowing situations abound on social media, people in conflict call for help on Skype or What’s App, and mapping and GPS technology have sometimes acted as a literal lifeline. Seeing an opportunity, numerous tech startups and social entrepreneurs have designed apps and tech tools to protect refugees along their journeys and help them settle in. The last few years have seen hundreds of “civic tech” initiatives emerge in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. But dozens of hackathons, hundreds of prototypes, and countless newspaper column inches later—has all this energy and enthusiasm actually made a difference to refugee lives? 
 
In addition to all the energy abounding in the tech sector for a tech-based solution to the current refugee crisis, more traditional stakeholders in the global protection system—such as national governments and NGO actors—have also made a major shift towards integrating technology into their protection strategy. Notably, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has set a goal of ensuring that “all refugees, and the communities that host them, are connected to mobile networks and the Internet so that they can leverage these technologies to improve their lives." 
 
This MPI webinar explores the recent “tech turn” in refugee protection and integration, and considers whether it is likely to make a lasting impact. Speakers discuss the most promising innovations and their broader implications for policymakers. They discuss the challenges and opportunities for governments, as they seek to work with new actors such as tech companies. And they discuss the broader digital infrastructure needs of refugee camps and services—including the crucial issue of Internet connectivity for refugees.
 
The reports discussed on this webinar are: 
A Global Broadband Plan for Refugees: http://bit.ly/2nwA400
Digital Humanitarianism: How Tech Entrepreneurs Are Supporting Refugee Integration: http://bit.ly/2dMiTlT 

European Union Third-Country Partnerships: Where Do We Go From Here?

As European leaders prepare to meet in Malta early next month, their search for means to reduce the number of boats departing the Libyan coast is becoming ever more desperate. In the year since the Valletta Summit, the European Union and Member State governments have ramped up cooperation with origin, transit, and hosting countries, yet questions remain over how effective these partnerships have been and how far they can be reasonably be pursued. Faced with mixed results thus far, there is a growing chorus calling for offshore processing for asylum seekers and greater efforts to bolster Libyan capacities in "pulling back" boats headed towards Europe. 
 
In this context, discussions around longer-term interventions —notably the ability of humanitarian and development support to affect migration drivers— are less prominent. While policymakers discuss the pros and cons of making development aid conditional on third-country cooperation, less focus has been placed on effectively forecasting humanitarian and development needs, shaping successful policy interventions, and filling gaps in our existing knowledge about who, why, and when individuals decide to move.  
 
In this webinar, experts assess how policymakers can best reflect on the lessons learned over the past year, align their objectives with the realities on the ground, and shape a longer-term agenda going forward. 

Cooperation on Migration: The Role of the European Union in the Follow-Up to the UN Summit

World leaders gathered at the United Nations in September 2016 for an unprecedented summit focused on discussing major movements of refugees and migrants. This historic gathering, spurred in part by the massive asylum seeker and migrant flows to Europe in 2015, was intended to launch a strengthened global effort to coordinate responses to refugee and migration flows. The absence of concrete commitments in the resulting New York Declaration disappointed many observers. 
During this Migration Policy Institute Europe event in Brussels, leading experts discussed how the slow progress on multilateral cooperation around migration evidenced in New York has particular salience for the European Union. Speakers included the European External Action Service’s Managing Director for Global Issues, the Director General for Asylum and Migration Policy in Sweden’s Ministry of Justice, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development’s Southern Dimension Director, and a key advisor to the UN Special Representative for Migration, in a discussion moderated by the Director of MPI Europe. 
The discussants examined what lessons the European Union’s experience offers for the prospect of multilateral cooperation on migration at the global level? What implications might better global coordination have for cooperation within the European Union? And finally, is there a role for EU institutions, and the EU-28, to play in ensuring that the UN effort to strengthen global collaboration is concrete and meaningful? 

Taming the Seas: Safety, Protection, and Attempts to Create Order in Maritime Migration Corridors

In recent years, dramatic images of migration—struggling boats crammed dangerously beyond capacity; two sisters, champion swimmers, towing their foundering boat to safety; a little boy’s body lying face down in the sand—have seized worldwide attention and catapulted unauthorized maritime migration onto national and international policy agendas. Whether it is the overwhelming Mediterranean crisis or movements across the Bay of Bengal and the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden, in the Caribbean, or around Australia, crisis has followed crisis, leaving almost intractable problems for policymakers. The challenges have only become more complex, widespread, and dangerous in recent years.  
  
While the issues presented by unauthorized maritime migration are constantly evolving, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) provides analysis, in a book discussed at this event, on some common themes that have emerged over the past decade, along with practical recommendations. This book, All at Sea: The Policy Challenges of Rescue, Interception, and Long-Term Response to Maritime Migration, is based on case studies of unauthorized movements by sea in several parts of the world. This book discussion explores the different facets of maritime migration—the multiple state and nonstate actors; the mixed flows of refugees and other migrants; the overlapping and sometimes contradictory legal regimes; fluctuating state policies; the secondary movements of people from countries of first asylum; the constantly shifting sources, routes, and destinations; and the inter-relatedness with other equally complex problems—and how these together create a “wicked problem” for governments, civil society, the private sector, and international organizations to tackle together.

The Mediterranean Dimension of the Refugee Crisis: Session II (New Solutions: Forging Alliances for Innovative Integration Models) & Closing Remarks

As record numbers of refugees and migrants undertake journeys across the Mediterranean, policymakers are faced with the challenging tasks of receiving, protecting, and integrating new arrivals—at every stage of their migration journey—while maintaining public confidence in an increasingly immigration-skeptic climate. 
  
This second session, in an event co-organized by the Migration Policy Institute during September 2016 in New York, examines what is known about promising approaches to settle and integrate newcomers, including the links between development and stability in the region and integration, and how to garner support for these policies in host communities. The session also examines what drives complex public reactions to immigration, and how policymakers and civil society can innovate to combat xenophobia, better understand rising support for populist parties, and assuage fears of loss of identity. The session is followed by brief closing remarks. 

The Mediterranean Dimension of the Refugee Crisis: Opening Remarks & Session I (New Regional Perspectives and Solutions to Address the Mediterranean Crisis)

Record numbers of people are on the move throughout the
Mediterranean region in search of protection or opportunity, placing
considerable pressure on national asylum and migration systems and fueling
anxiety among publics about their governments’ ability to manage these flows.
This discussion, co-organized by the Migration Policy
Institute during September 2016 in New York, focuses on how governments and
actors in the Mediterranean region can work together to expand durable
solutions for refugees and coordinate efforts to build welcoming communities
for newcomers.
Opening comments and welcome are followed by the first session that examines
how regional cooperation can complement international action to address the
refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. What factors are driving current flows of
refugees and migrants across the Mediterranean, and how have the routes they
are using to access protection and opportunity shifted? What roles are
different actors playing at the international, national, regional, and local
levels to help manage mixed flows across the Mediterranean, and expand
protection for those in need? How can policymakers in the Mediterranean better
share responsibility for providing protection and help countries on the
frontline manage these flows and meet refugees’ needs?

A New Era in Refugee Protection and Migration Management? Looking Forward After UN Summit on Refugees and Migrants

World leaders met with significant fanfare in New York in September 2016 for the UN Summit on Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants, with the aim of developing a more humane and coordinated approach by Member States to address sizable movements of refugees and migrants. The following day, President Obama convened a Leaders Summit on the Global Refugee Crisis, and private-sector leaders also met to focus on ways to respond to the rising humanitarian crisis.
Though the UN Summit fell short of producing the outcomes sought by many in the advocacy world, it did result in a New York Declaration where UN Member States affirmed the benefits of migration, standardized international protection of migrants and refugees, committed to programs to counter xenophobia and discrimination, affirmed international cooperation and responsibility sharing for refugee protection and solutions, and committed to draft a Global Compact on Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration and a Global Compact on Refugees by 2018.  The Obama summit gathered commitments from countries to resettle 360,000 refugees and rallied an estimated $650 million from private business leaders to empower refugees and improve their lives.
In this podcast, Migration Policy Institute experts, Kathleen Newland, T. Alexander Aleinikoff, and Gregory Maniatis, discuss the impacts of the summits and whether these efforts will gain enough momentum to respond capably to the complex threats that refugees and migrants are facing. 

2016 Immigration Law and Policy Conference – Panel: Refugee Resettlement in the United States: The Dawn of a New Era?

More than 65 million people have been forced to flee their homes, including 21 million refugees who have crossed international borders in search of a safe haven. The United States long has accepted more refugees annually for resettlement than any other country, though the numbers represent a tiny portion of those awaiting resettlement around the globe. Yet that historical welcome is under challenge in ways not seen since the immediate aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris, more than half of the nation’s governors announced opposition to the further resettlement of refugees in their states. And there are calls in Congress for major changes to the resettlement program, which will admit 85,000 refugees this fiscal year, even as defenders note that those under consideration for resettlement undergo more stringent security screening than all other would-be immigrants and travelers to the United States. This panel at the 13th Annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference discusses the policy and legal concerns raised by state and federal lawmakers about the resettlement of refugees, examines how the federal government and its humanitarian partners have responded to these concerns, and addresses the implications of these challenges for the future of a program that has resettled more than 3 million refugees since 1975. Speakers include T. Alexander Aleinikoff, former United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees and Visiting Professor of Law at Columbia Law School; Kevin Fandl, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at Fox School of Business, Temple University; Anna Greene, Policy and Advocacy Director for U.S. Programs at International Rescue Committee; and moderator Andrew I. Schoenholtz, Director of the Center for Applied Legal Studies and Human Rights Institute and Professor from Practice at Georgetown Law. The conference is organized annually by the Migration Policy Institute, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., and Georgetown University Law Center.

An Uncertain Future for Somali Refugees in Dadaab

Housing an estimated 263,000 Somali refugees, the Dadaab camp is one of the world's largest refugee camps, and for more than 20 years, it has been home to generations of Somalis who have fled conflict. However, in 2016, the Kenyan government closed its Department of Refugee Affairs and announced its intention to close Dadaab camp, or at the very least drastically reduce the number of refugees in the camp by the end of the year. Based on a 2013 agreement with Somalia and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on the “voluntary repatriation" of Somali refugees, the Kenyan government has been encouraging Somalis in the camp to volunteer to return in exchange for cash assistance. What these refugees will find on return to Somalia, however, is questionable, as conditions there do not appear stable or conducive to large-scale return. For those Somalis who remain in the camp and do not take the volunteer repatriation package, the future is no less uncertain—will they be forced to return without assistance if the camp closes, and if they do manage to remain in Kenya, will they be left without food assistance and subject to arrest for illegal presence?
Back from a recent trip to the region, Human Rights Watch researchers have released a report exploring the situation of refugees in Dadaab. Hear them share their findings from on-the-ground interviews and observations, along with their recommendations for the Kenyan government and international community. 

2016 Immigration Law and Policy Conference – Keynote Address: Alejandro Mayorkas

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas discusses refugee resettlement and other pressing immigration issues in this keynote address opening the 2016 Immigration Law and Policy Conference, organized by the Migration Policy Institute, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., and Georgetown University Law Center.

Using Supplementary School Funding to Improve the Educational Outcomes of Migrant-Background Students: A Transatlantic Comparison

The educational needs of immigrant students in primary and secondary schools pose a growing challenge for policymakers and educators, whether in countries such as the United States, where nearly 10 percent of students are learning English, or in Germany, which is dealing with record numbers of asylum seekers. Many local schools lack the resources and capacities to meet the needs of these students, particularly given that many have limited or interrupted formal education, coupled with low or no proficiency in the language of instruction.
Speakers on this webinar discuss the need for supplementary funding to support the educational needs of migrant-background students and provide an overview of the mechanics of school funding for migrant-background students in the four focal countries examined in the report. They also discuss how schools use those funds to provide specialized services, and highlight the most salient choices facing policymakers who seek to use supplementary funding mechanisms to better support effective, high-quality educational services for children from immigrant and refugee families.