The global humanitarian protection system is at a critical juncture. It is under major strain as record numbers of people have been forced out of their homes by a complex array of factors and protracted crises. Yet at the same time, a system created in the wake of World War II no longer meets today’s challenges and is increasingly coming under political pressures, with some countries chafing at protection obligations.

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

Public trust in migration systems—and in democracy more broadly—is eroding. As rapid demographic shifts fuel anxieties in many communities, governments are feeling the pressure and responding with increasingly restrictive policies—scaling back immigration, imposing stricter integration requirements, and narrowing pathways to long-term residency and citizenship.

Will these sweeping, highly visible policies designed to signal control meaningfully address the real pressures communities face and restore trust in the democratic institutions charged with governing migration?

This discussion, held in Berlin in collaboration with the Robert Bosch Stiftung, examines the relationship between migration policy, integration approaches, public trust, and democratic resilience in Europe and beyond. Looking at new research on public attitudes toward immigration and institutional trust, speakers explore how migration policy decisions—not just political narratives—shape public opinion and societal well-being.

Speakers:

Meghan Benton, Director of Global Programs, Migration Policy Institute (MPI)

Ben Mason-Sucher, Program Lead,Migration, More in Common Germany

Frank Sharry, Consultant, British Future; an advisor to the Kamala Harris campaign; former head of U.S. immigrant-rights organizations

Ulrich Weinbrenner, Former Director General for Migration, Refugees, and Return Policy, German Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community

No single world region has experienced a greater relative increase in international migration since 2010 than Latin America and the Caribbean. Buffeted by displacement crises, economic dislocation, and changing migrant demographics, Latin America and the Caribbean have seen migration become one of the most pressing issues of our time. And while movement from the region toward the United States has dominated much of the public discourse, in fact, most migrants from the region remain within Latin America and the Caribbean.

How are these countries responding to this new reality?

In a newly published Stanford University Press book, On the Move: Migration Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean, Migration Policy Institute (MPI) President Andrew Selee and coauthors Valerie Lacarte, Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, and Diego Chaves-González offer the first comprehensive look at policy responses by governments in the region and shed light on the lesser-known dynamics of migration in, to, and through the region.

Through compelling storytelling and rigorous analysis, the authors uncover how governments and societies in Latin America and the Caribbean are adapting—unevenly, yet innovatively—to an era of unprecedented human mobility.

This webinar features discussion of the authors’ key findings, surprising patterns, and the urgent policy questions facing Latin America and the Caribbean today.

Andrew Selee, President, MPI

Valerie Lacarte, Senior Policy Analyst, MPI

Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, Senior Policy Analyst, MPI

Diego Chaves-González, Senior Manager, Latin America and Caribbean Initiative, MPI

Opening Comments by: Roberta S. Jacobson, Founding Partner, Dinámica Americas; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs; former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico

It is no easy task to say with certainty that a particular storm, drought, or other extreme weather event causes human displacement, or that those individual events are due to human-caused climate change. Hurricanes, wildfires, mudslides, monsoons, and other sudden-onset events, as well as slow-onset ones such as drought, extreme heat, and sea-level rise have happened for millennia. To attribute specific impacts to human-made environmental change requires scientists to parse through years of data and pattern detection. In this episode, we speak with climate scientist Lisa Thalheimer, of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, to explain how experts untangle the connections between climate change and migration.

The fact there is a growing backlash to immigration in communities around the world is well established. What is less discussed are the solutions to address decline in social cohesion and rise in mistrust, misinformation, and prejudice. Meaningful contact between different groups can reduce tensions. Under the right conditions, this dynamic can strengthen social cohesion when newcomers and members of established communities come together and build meaningful relationships. Linda R. Tropp, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has spent decades studying how members of diverse groups experience contact with each other. In this episode, she and Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, Deputy Director of MPI’s International Program, discuss contact theory and the triggers that can make such relationships succeed or fail.

As migrant return flows grow in complexity, the effectiveness of reintegration programming is coming under renewed scrutiny in Europe and Latin America. In Europe, the longstanding model of providing individual return packages—such as a small cash grant or temporary shelter—continues. But in an effort to make reintegration more sustainable, some policymakers are rethinking the future of this type of assistance and moving toward more coherent, development-based programming in countries of origin that can include longer-term reintegration support, psychosocial support, or help finding employment upon return.

Meanwhile, Latin American countries, some of which are facing the prospect of large-scale forced and voluntary returns from the United States, are navigating how to deliver meaningful reception and reintegration support despite financial and institutional constraints.

This conversation explores emerging models, policy shifts, and lessons learned from the European and Latin American approaches, as a means of shaping the future of reintegration support by international donors and others to strengthen service delivery systems, involve local actors, and address returnees’ evolving needs in ways that are grounded in real experiences.

The webinar is part of MPI Europe’s Community of Practice on Voluntary Return and Sustainable Reintegration, an EU-funded initiative supported by the Migration Partnership Facility.

The small island nations that make up the Caribbean are incredibly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Many people and businesses are concentrated along the coastline, exposing them to intensifying hurricanes and rising sea levels. Are these hazards prompting greater displacement, either within the region or beyond? And could they reduce tourism, prompting economic shocks to countries dependent on vacationers? This episode discusses these issues and others with Natalie Dietrich Jones, a migration expert at the University of the West Indies.

The global race for international talent has arrived. As populations in advanced industrial economies age and work evolves, labor shortages in critical sectors are increasingly driving countries to look outside their borders for workers. But in this context, who gets to migrate? And how? Crucially, can labor mobility be managed in a way that benefits workers, employers, countries of origin, and countries of destination alike? In this episode, migration and development expert Seeta Sharma shares insights from India, which is the world’s largest origin of migrants and leads in the export of physicians, for example. She unpacks the role of bilateral and multilateral agreements with countries eager to attract Indian talent and the implications of large-scale emigration for India’s economic advancement.