Migration Policy Institute

Migrant-destination countries seeking to externalize their borders has become a defining trend of late. What began as a niche approach for managing irregular migration has become mainstream policy, with governments in Europe, North America, and beyond racing to deploy tactics that screen, detain, or otherwise process migrants elsewhere.

The policies have often been criticized, but the range of externalization models is more nuanced than is commonly understood.

While some strategies seek to offload responsibility for asylum altogether, others have been designed to fix niche challenges—such as what to do with deportees whose governments will not accept them—and some to facilitate access to protection closer to peoples’ home.

In our new article, Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, Meghan Benton & Susan Fratzke explain how models have evolved ⤵️

This week, we celebrate Refugee Week, ahead of on June 20. This is an annual time to contemplate the more than 100 million people forcibly displaced around the world.

Explore MPI's recent work on refugee and asylum policy:

🗺️Check out our interactive map portraying refugee and asylum seeker populations by country of origin and destination. It is an essential tool for researchers, policymakers, and anyone else interested in refugee movement: https://bit.ly/refugeetool

🏙 The report “Creating Inclusive Urban Economies for Migrants and Refugees” examines how urban economies can be structured to create genuine opportunity for refugees and other newcomers, drawing on evidence from cities around the world: https://bit.ly/cityinclusion

📊 Who are the refugees and asylees living in the U.S. today? This article brings together the latest data on their demographics, geographic distribution, economic outcomes, and more: https://bit.ly/RefugeesAsyleesInfo

✈️ Legal barriers too often prevent refugees from accessing work opportunities that could transform their lives and the places that receive them. The report “Building Refugee-Inclusive Labor Mobility Pathways: A Visa Evaluation Framework” explores how labor mobility schemes can be designed to connect people who need safety with countries that need workers: https://bit.ly/reflabour

📖 The 1951 Refugee Convention is the foundation of international protection but it's straining under modern pressures. “Mending, Not Ending, the Refugee Convention Could Save the Protection System and Restore Public Trust” considers thoughtful reform possibilities: https://bit.ly/4uEe8jO

📚 Browse MPI's full library of research, data, and analysis on refugee and asylum policy: https://bit.ly/mpi-refugees

Refugee & Asylum Policy Tens of millions of people around the globe have been forcibly displaced by conflict, natural disaster, or persecution, seeking refuge either within or beyond the borders of their country. Humanitarian protection, whether for refugees, asylum seekers, or internally displaced persons (IDPs), represen...

Voters in Switzerland just rejected a plan to cap the country’s population at 10 million. The measure, which had been pushed by the far right, could have led to drastic changes to the country’s immigration rules, including potential withdrawal from the European free-movement zone.

The vote followed decades of public anxiety over immigration in Switzerland. While migration has been central to the country’s economy and its ties to the European Union, immigrants’ rising share of the population has triggered unease in some corners.

Get the backstory with our migration country profile, from Philipp Lutz and Sandra Lavenex: https://bit.ly/4ek87CM

Watching the FIFA World Cup?

See if you can count how many players were born in a country other than the one for which they are now playing. Historically, the number has been about 1 in 10.

Understand the trend by revisiting our article from Gijsbert Oonk https://bit.ly/4okeU3M

⏰ LAST WEEKEND TO APPLY: The deadline to become one of our Fall 2026 research interns is almost here!

Apply by end of day June 15 to become a Demetrios G. Papademetriou Young Scholar for our September-December 2026 cycle.

As a research intern, you will:

💡 Work alongside leading experts
✏️ Contribute to high-impact policy research and analysis
📌 Gain valuable professional development and networking experience
✔️ Be able to work remotely or in person at our Washington, DC HQ

Get the full details and apply by June 15: https://bit.ly/43QSfm2

The Syrian civil war displaced one-quarter of Syria's population, including more than 6 million people who fled the country. While only a small fraction made it to the United States, the new arrivals more than doubled the size of the country’s Syrian immigrant population.

About 122,000 Syrian immigrants live in the U.S., representing less than 0.5 percent of the total U.S. immigrant population.

Want to learn more?

Kyung Ju Lee and Jeanne Batalova share data-backed insights in our new article.

Here's a striking finding: Across OECD countries, immigrants have higher employment rates than the native born, yet earn significantly less, in part because they're concentrated in low-wage sectors. 📊💰

That earnings gap narrows over time as immigrants advance into higher-paying roles. Which means job quality and career mobility matter just as much as initial employment. And immigrant entrepreneurship? In two-thirds of OECD countries, immigrants are more likely to be self-employed than the native born, but this remains one of the most underutilized engines of urban growth.

A new report from MPI and Mayors Migration Council draws on research and consultations with city officials, civil society, and migrants themselves in cities around the world to offer 7 high-impact actions city leaders can take now to ensure economic inclusion for all. 🌐

🇨🇺 As Cuba’s humanitarian crisis intensifies and prospects for protection in the U.S. shrink, Cubans’ migration decisions will be impacted by complex geopolitical factors.

Our resources offer helpful data and perspectives:

🎙️ In a recent podcast episode, Senior Policy Analyst Valerie Lacarte spoke with María José Espinosa Carrillo about how the current situation is affecting Cuban migration: https://bit.ly/4nC6hRN

💡 Our article on Cuban immigrants in the U.S. showcases the diversity of this population, with details on rates of English proficiency, educational attainment, and other demographic features: https://bit.ly/cubanimmigrantstats

🗂️ Our migration profile of Cuba lays out the island’s history of mobility, tracking flows since the Spanish colonial period: https://bit.ly/4e7oMcL

🔗 🌴 Check out these resources and more on our dedicated Cuba country resource page: https://bit.ly/3Qoeqx6

When people think about climate migration, they might imagine mass movements across international borders. The reality is different: Most people stay within their own countries, and many move to large cities.

Our new article examines what happens to some of the millions of people displaced by rising environmental threats. Nasrat Sayed provides insight from people displaced by severe flooding to informal settlements in Karachi, Pakistan’s booming megacity, to explain why they fled their homes and what they faced upon arrival.

https://bit.ly/4uQFt3j