Episodes

Friday Dec 15, 2017
Friday Dec 15, 2017
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

Friday Dec 15, 2017
Friday Dec 15, 2017
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.

Friday Dec 15, 2017
Friday Dec 15, 2017
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

Friday Dec 15, 2017
Friday Dec 15, 2017
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

Tuesday Dec 12, 2017
Tuesday Dec 12, 2017
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.

Tuesday Nov 07, 2017
Tuesday Nov 07, 2017
Brexit negotiators have made the rights of EU nationals in the United Kingdom and UK nationals in the European Union a priority in the ongoing talks in 2017, but progress has been painfully slow. A number of sticking points still need to be resolved, including the looming question of whether the European Court of Justice will continue to adjudicate the rights of EU nationals in the United Kingdom. And there is still a risk that negotiations on other topics—such as the bill the United Kingdom will owe when it leaves the European Union—will derail the overall deal.
As the European Council gears up to move onto the next phase of negotiations (which will look at the future relationship between the European Union and United Kingdom), this Migration Policy Institute Europe webinar marks the release of an MPI Europe report that offers a demographic profile of the approximately 1 million UK citizens living in the European Union and examines the ways in which many are likely to see their futures significantly reshaped after Brexit. The discussion -- with European Commission Task Force for the Preparation and Conduct of the Negotiations with the United Kingdom under Article 50 Legal and Policy Officer Marie Simonsen, European Citizen Action Service Director Assya Kavrakova, Financial Times Brussels Bureau Chief Alex Barker, and MPI report author Meghan Benton -- takes stock of citizens' rights, reflects on what may happen next, and considers the prospects for Britons abroad both in a situation of ‘no deal’ and if there is an ultimate agreement. Which groups are likely to be vulnerable to losing legal status or access to benefits and services following Brexit? What are the other main challenges and concerns that the UK population is facing, such as access to health care or the labour market? What are the prospects for a deal, and what are the main points of disagreement?

Friday Nov 03, 2017
Friday Nov 03, 2017
This webinar marks the release of a Migration Policy Institute report that explores some of the responses made by school districts to bring immigrant and refugee newcomer students up to speed in English and basic academic skills, all while focused on the educational system’s ultimate goal of high school completion with the skills necessary for today’s college and career demands. During the webinar, the author, Julie Sugarman, summarizes findings based on insights from interviews and activities conducted for MPI’s Learning Network for Newcomer Youth Success, a private network that brings together administrators and practitioners in the education, social services, and health and mental health fields who are engaged in providing services to immigrant and refugee newcomers ages 12 to 21. The discussion focuses on how schools create and expand systems around the identification of students’ immediate and ongoing academic and socioemotional needs, and how they design programs and curricular pathways to balance these needs with state policy constraints.
Also in this webinar, two practitioners illustrate specific responses to serving newcomer youth. Nicole Mitchell discusses the efforts of Los Angeles Unified School District's School Enrollment Placement & Assessment Center to address the academic and socioemotional needs of incoming newcomer students. Marguerite Lukes discusses how educators in schools supported by the Internationals Network for Public Schools create systemic supports, such as team teaching, to ensure quality instruction for ELs.

Friday Oct 13, 2017
Friday Oct 13, 2017
Dual Language Learners (DLLs) now make up nearly one-third of all children ages 8 and under in the United States. Despite many strengths that these young children and their parents possess, the DLL population faces significant risk factors. And although DLLs stand to benefit disproportionately from high-quality early learning opportunities, they are significantly less likely than their native, English-only peers to be enrolled in pre-K programs.
The Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy on October 12 released a set of state and national demographic and policy profiles to highlight characteristics of DLLs and their families and the policy context they encounter in state early childhood education and care (ECEC) systems. This series, with profiles for the United States and 30 states, aims to provide stakeholders with an understanding of the substantial and growing DLL population across the United States and the level of program and policy responsiveness by states to the needs of these young children.
In this webinar, MPI analysts outline key findings from the national demographic and policy profile and discuss their implications for ECEC programs and systems that seek to provide equitable access and quality for DLLs and support them in building a strong foundation for their future success.
The fact sheet series discussed in this webinar is available here: https://t.co/X7HtuxBlPI

Thursday Oct 12, 2017
Thursday Oct 12, 2017
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

Thursday Oct 05, 2017
Thursday Oct 05, 2017
In a highly polarized atmosphere on immigration where federal lawmakers are largely paralyzed on policy change, states and localities in recent years have increasingly taken on a larger role in challenging Washington’s immigration authority. With the Trump administration focused on cracking down on “sanctuary” cities and enticing law enforcement agencies to take a greater role in immigration enforcement, politicians and policymakers in communities across the United States are lining up on opposing sides of the issue. Even as some states and cities are declaring themselves sanctuaries, others are rushing to bar jurisdictions from noncooperation with federal immigration authorities. In this panel, the President of the Major Cities Chiefs Association and the President of the National Sheriffs’ Association discuss immigration enforcement on a panel with immigration attorneys. Themes include the growing patchwork of stances on immigration from states, counties, cities, and even universities and local school boards; what is driving the pattern of increasingly active and litigious states in the immigration space; what the legal landscape is for state/local action; and how the administration may seek to further engage state and local jurisdictions in immigration enforcement.

Thursday Oct 05, 2017
Thursday Oct 05, 2017
During the first six months of the Trump administration, arrests of noncitizens identified for removal rose nearly 40 percent over the same period a year earlier. At the border, apprehensions fell by nearly 50 percent from the first half of 2016, as fewer people sought to enter without authorization. And the White House announced plans to seek funding for thousands of Border Patrol agents and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel, and build new immigrant detention facilities. In this panel, a high-ranking ICE official, the Deputy Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, and a senior Department of Homeland Security official discuss the many immigration law enforcement and detention policy changes that have been occurring under the Trump administration.

Thursday Oct 05, 2017
Thursday Oct 05, 2017
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.

Thursday Oct 05, 2017
Thursday Oct 05, 2017
Within days of taking office, President Trump ordered sweeping changes to immigration enforcement both at the border and within the United States, kicking off dramatic changes in how unauthorized immigrants, would-be refugees, and international travelers are handled. In this discussion, a high-ranking former Bush administration Department of Homeland Security official, former Mexican Ambassador to the United States, and Brookings Institution scholar examine the administration’s initiatives, ranging from the contested travel ban and reductions in refugee resettlement to changes in enforcement policy and practice, repointing the legal immigration system into one focused on “merit-based” admissions, building a border wall, and more. This fast-paced panel, moderated by MPI’s Doris Meissner, discusses the policies and ideas, challenges in their implementation, and responses from states, Congress, the judicial branch, and other actors.

Thursday Aug 31, 2017
Thursday Aug 31, 2017
This is a Spanish language call.
La migración de México a Estados Unidos ha disminuido debido a una combinación de factores en Mexico (una economía en mejora, una tasa de natalidad decreciente y mejores oportunidades educativas y laborales), asi como mas seguridad fronterizo del lado estadounidense. Hoy en dia el número de detenciones de migrantes de otros países supera el número de detenciones de mexicanos en la frontera. Por primera vez la Oficina del Censo de Estados Unidos ha reportado que China y India han superado a México en términos de nuevos flujos de inmigrantes al país. Al mismo tiempo, el Congreso de los Estados Unidos debate si se debe extender mas el muro en la frontera con México y agregar miles de agentes adicionales a la Patrulla Fronteriza.
Durante los últimos años ambos países han incrementado el número de detenciones de migrantes de Centroamérica que transitan por México para llegar a los Estados Unidos. Con la reciente decisión de la administración Trump de poner fin al trámite de la libertad condicional para los menores que buscan ingresar a los Estados Unidos a través del Programa de Menores de Centroamérica (CAM, por sus siglas en inglés), el tema de los menores no acompañados en México, su tratamiento, protección internacional y otras necesidades serán cuestiones políticas más urgentes para México, que ha detenido a más de 50,000 menores no acompañados de Centroamérica desde 2014. Esta oleada ha cuestionado la capacidad de las autoridades mexicanas de inmigración para mantener los requisitos legales para la protección de menores.
Durante este seminario, ponentes presentaron hallazgos de un reciente informe del Instituto de Políticas Migratorias (MPI, por sus siglas en inglés) que utiliza datos de agencias gubernamentales mexicanas, entrevistas con funcionarios clave y relatos de la sociedad civil para examinar el marco legal para la protección de menores no acompañados y su aplicación, al igual que las brechas entre este marco y su aplicación durante los procesos de detención, interrogación y alojamiento. El nuevo presidente de MPI, Andrew Selee, también expuso cómo el cambio en la dinámica política en Estados Unidos puede afectar las cuestiones migratorias con México, así como los efectos en la relación bilateral en medio de tensiones sobre el muro fronterizo, la renegociación del acuerdo del TLCAN y una cifra significativa de repatriaciones de migrantes mexicanos. Después de breves presentaciones, los ponentes respondieron preguntas de la audiencia.

Thursday Jul 13, 2017
Thursday Jul 13, 2017
An estimated 244 million people—or about 3.2 percent of the world’s population—were international migrants in 2015. Migration will only grow both in size and complexity, partly in response to the inexorable aging and persistent low fertility of a growing number of wealthy and middle-income countries. It has become increasingly unclear, however, whether the migration system can be managed well enough so that all actors—immigrants, members of the communities they leave and in which they settle, and sending and receiving societies—can fully draw its many benefits.
As Migration Policy Institute co-founder, President (2002-2014), and since then, Distinguished Senior Fellow and President Emeritus Demetrios G. Papademetriou steps down from his day-to-day work at the Institute, he provides a far-ranging presentation of what migration's challenges and opportunities are likely to look like in the next couple of decades. His presentation is followed by a conversation with Andrew Selee, MPI's incoming President. Drawing from his decades of experience as a thought leader on migration policy around the globe, Papademetriou sets forth his views on the immediate and long-term challenges governments face as they grapple with the economic, social, and political impacts of aging populations and low fertility—and the proper role for migration as one of the responses to it. He offers suggestions on how governments on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond might better manage migration and thus capitalize on the opportunities it presents while reducing its negative effects on those who lose from the process.

Wednesday May 24, 2017
Wednesday May 24, 2017
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).

Thursday May 11, 2017
Thursday May 11, 2017
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

Thursday May 04, 2017
Thursday May 04, 2017
In the midst of efforts to further ramp up enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border even as illegal crossings are a fraction of what they were at their peak in 2000, MPI research sketches the changing realities at the border and offers data that should help inform the policy debate.
This discussion features the release of two MPI publications that provide a comprehensive analysis of U.S. immigration enforcement at the border and the Consequence Delivery System used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to analyze the effectiveness of its efforts, as well as map the significant changes in Mexican crossing trends and intent to re-enter the United States after deportation.
MPI speakers, along with former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske and former Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan discuss the contemporary border enforcement picture and progress in achieving “operational control” of the Southwest border; the next steps for the U.S.-Mexico border management relationship that has been built over the past two decades; and what policy responses by the United States, Mexico, and Northern Triangle would be most responsive to the changing nature of migrant flows in the region.
As the Trump administration and Congress consider the future of border policy and funding proposals for a border wall, this discussion evaluates the state of the border, the effectiveness of various enforcement strategies, current trends in apprehensions and the flows of migrants, and what the changing realities mean for the migration policies and agendas of the United States, Mexico, and the region.
The related reports are:
- A Revolving Door No More? A Statistical Profile of Mexican Adults Repatriated from the United States
- Advances in U.S.-Mexico Border Enforcement: A Review of the Consequence Delivery System

Monday Apr 24, 2017
Monday Apr 24, 2017
April 29, 2017 will mark Donald Trump's 100th day in office. As a candidate, Mr. Trump laid out an ambitious plan on immigration for his first 100 days and provided greater detail in his immigration blueprint than on many other priorities for his administration. His promises included building a border wall paid for by Mexico, curtailing federal funding for sanctuary cities, deporting more criminal aliens, ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, "extreme vetting" for refugee admissions, and suspending immigration from terror-prone regions. This Migration Policy Institute discussion, with MPI's Doris Meissner and Muzaffar Chishti, former ICE Director Julie Myers Wood, and former DHS Assistant Seceretary for Policy and Planning C. Stewart Verdery, examines the administration's track record on immigration in its first months, the policies articulated in its executive orders, legal challenges, reactions by publics and policymakers, and what the long-term effects of these policies might mean.

Wednesday Apr 12, 2017
Wednesday Apr 12, 2017
Public anxiety about immigration and the fast pace of social change has reached a boiling point in many parts of Europe, contributing (in part) to the ascent of populist far-right parties. The strong showing of Geert Wilders' right-wing, anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) in the March 2017 Dutch elections, along with the increasing strength of Marine Le Pen’s National Front ahead of the first round of the French presidential elections on April 23rd, have raised questions about why so many are casting their votes in favor of radical change.
While these votes represent citizen discontent with many aspects of globalization, it is immigration, concerns about the loss of cultural identity, and the fear that the nation-state has been losing ground almost irreversibly to supranational institutions that may be at the heart of the popular reaction. This discussion focuses on what we can learn from Brexit and the Dutch elections, along with the election of Donald Trump in the United States, and what these results portend (if anything) for the next round of contests in France, Germany, and elsewhere.
Will this trend continue? Will national and subnational politicians in countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Austria, and Belgium, along with the leaders of the European institutions, learn the right or wrong lessons from these upheavals? And if the power shift continues, what impact will it have on migration policy at European Union and national levels? Finally, how will governments manage broader public concerns about rapid social change, economic opportunity, and security in ways that can reduce public anxiety about immigration and the pace of change it has brought while also regaining, slowly, the trust the public has clearly lost?
In this discussion, experts explore the implications of recent and upcoming elections for the future of migration policy.