Migration Policy Institute Podcasts

Latest Episodes:

The Role of Counselling & Reintegration Support in Shaping Migrants’ Return Decisions Jan 14, 2026

Show notes

Counselling and reintegration assistance have become central tools for European governments aiming to incentivize and support the uptake of assisted return among migrants facing a return order. In recent years, the European Union has allocated more resources to strengthening these mechanisms, and Dutch policymakers have similarly undertaken efforts to encourage assisted return. Yet the actual influence of actions on migrants’ return decisions remains widely debated. New evidence from the Netherlands offers a clearer picture of how these forms of support function in practice, what shapes migrants’ decision-making, and what kinds of interventions make a meaningful difference.

This Migration Policy Institute Europe webinar explores the findings of its study for the Research and Data Centre (WODC) of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security. The study analyses nearly 118,000 case files from the Dutch Government’s Repatriation and Departure Service (DTenV), combined with interviews with dozens of experts as well as Iraqi and Nigerian migrants who left the Netherlands after receiving a return order.

Speakers discuss how timing, counselling approaches, and partnerships shape the potential for counselling to create space for meaningful conversation and results in the returns space. They also focus on practical steps to strengthen investments in this area.

Speakers include:

Elena Cavagni, Project Leader, Dutch Council for Refugees
Osita Osemene, Project Director, Patriotic Citizen Initiatives (PCI) Nigeria
Ravenna Sohst, Policy Analyst, MPI Europe
Claudia van der Horst, Senior Advisor, Knowledge and Strategy, Repatriation and Departure Service, Ministry of Asylum and Migration, The Netherlands

Moderator: Camille Le Coz, Director, MPI Europe

More information: www.migrationpolicy.org

World of Migration: Humanitarian Assistance in a Time of Deep Foreign Aid Cuts Jan 09, 2026

Show notes

Foreign aid budgets have been slashed significantly by governments in the United States, Europe, and beyond, raising questions about what humanitarian assistance will look like in practice. Recent and abrupt funding cuts by major donors are already affecting refugee-hosting countries, where resources were strained even before these changes.

In this episode of World of Migration, host Lawrence Huang speaks with Micheal Gumisiriza, a program lead based in southwest Uganda for COHERE, an international NGO that works with refugee-led organizations, about how funding cuts by international donors are being felt on the ground—from food assistance and access to essential medicines to education. They discuss what the immediate impacts reveal about the humanitarian system’s capacity under pressure, and what “localization” could realistically mean as humanitarian response efforts adjust to a period of shrinking resources.

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Trapped by Climate Change: The Economics of Staying or Leaving Dec 16, 2025

Show notes

It is not guaranteed that someone harmed by a natural disaster or other environmental change will leave their home. A complicated web of factors affects whether climate-vulnerable individuals want to—or even can—move. One of these factors is financial: How much money or other resources someone has at their disposal.

In this episode, we speak with Kelsea Best of The Ohio State University about climate (im)mobility and the economic and other factors that help shape futures amid changing climates. We also discuss the notion of “climate gentrification,” which occurs when wealthier people move into traditionally lower-income neighborhoods that are better shielded from natural disasters and other environmental harms.

Achieving the "Quadruple Win": Labor Migration Strategies for Europe to Meet its Skill Needs Dec 11, 2025

Show notes

Europe’s demand for workers is growing across a wide range of skill levels, with more than three-quarters of small- and medium-sized enterprises struggling to find workers with the right skills. Meeting these labor needs will be essential to sustaining economic growth and competitiveness yet will prove even more challenging as workforces shrink and the digital and green transitions reshape which skills are most valued. At the same time, countries worldwide are competing to attract talent in critical sectors such as health care and construction, making it more important than ever that strategies to attract workers are designed to benefit both migrant-receiving and sending countries.

To ensure that labor migration works for everyone involved, the European Union has promoted a "quadruple win" approach, aiming to benefit employers, workers, and sending and receiving countries. In addition to targeted mobility partnerships with sending countries, European governments are expressing a broader interest in the lessons from existing labor migration corridors to expand opportunities for partnerships that combine support for the movement of talent with investments in local skills development.

This webinar features discussion of a study by the Migration Policy Institute and MPI Europe, commissioned by the European Commission, which examines best practices for designing and managing labor migration corridors between EU Member States and partner countries. Experts discuss findings from the research, which examines the Bangladesh-Portugal, India-Germany, Peru-Italy, Senegal-Spain, and Vietnam-Hungary corridors and offers insights on how to connect employers and workers, promote skills development, protect migrant workers, and maximize benefits for countries of origin and destination alike.
Speakers:

Sonam Denzongpa, Consultant, Emigration Policy & Welfare Division, Ministry of External Affairs, India
Shakirul Islam, Chairperson, Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program, Bangladesh
Francesco Luciani, Head of the Migration and Forced Displacement Unit, Directorate-General for International Partnerships, European Commission
Ravenna Sohst, Policy Analyst, MPI Europe
Moderator: Kate Hooper, Senior Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Institute (MPI)

Report is available at: https://bit.ly/migrationcorridorsEU

More information is available at: www.migrationpolicy.org

U.S. Immigration Courts at a Crisis Point Dec 11, 2025

Show notes

Backlogs in the nation’s immigration courts have reached record levels in recent years, with nearly 4 million removals cases pending—adding new pressures to longstanding challenges that have overwhelmed the courts. With it now taking an average of four years for an asylum applicant to get a hearing, the delays are undermining the goals of both the U.S. asylum and immigration enforcement systems.

This discussion draws on an MPI policy brief that examines how the immigration courts have reached a point of crisis, with panelists focusing on how the courts have been shaped by the policies of the current administration and its predecessor.

The conversation also touched upon the administrative and legislative reforms that are urgently needed to transform the system, key among them increased funding for the courts, commensurate with the historic spending on immigration enforcement included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Speakers:

Kathleen Bush-Joseph, Policy Analyst, MPI
Muzaffar Chishti, Senior Fellow, MPI
Chiqui Sanchez Kennedy, Executive Director, Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project
Kyra S. Lilien, Former Immigration Judge, Concord Immigration Court, Executive Office for Immigration Review, U.S. Department of Justice
Moderator: Doris Meissner, Senior Fellow and Director, U.S. Immigration Policy Program, MPI

Report available at https://bit.ly/immig-courts

More information at www.migrationpolicy.org

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: The Young Lives Uprooted by Climate Change Nov 10, 2025

Show notes

Children are especially vulnerable to displacement linked to climate change. Each year, millions of young people are displaced by weather-related disasters, as schools and other services break down and adults send children away to find safety. Forced from their homes, children often face new challenges, including being unable to access education or medical care, and even heightened risk of violence and other dangers. Despite the unique challenges that children face in displacement, there are relatively few international laws or systems particularly designed to assist those forced to move because of environmental factors. We speak with UNICEF’s Laura Healy about this reality and the opportunities to better protect children in a warming world.

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Will Climate Change Push Some People into Statelessness? Oct 29, 2025

Show notes

Within the next few decades, rising sea levels could wipe some small Pacific Island nations off the face of the earth. The prospect that the physical territory of countries such as Kiribati and Tuvalu is no longer habitable raises the prospect that their nationals could lose their citizenship, becoming stateless. It also poses profound questions for international law and the obligations of other countries.

How likely is this possible outcome, and what can countries do to protect their sovereignty and their citizens? Join our discussion with Mark Nevitt, an international law scholar at the Emory University School of Law.

World of Migration: Humanitarian Protection at a Crossroads: What Future for the Strained Refugee System? Sep 19, 2025

Show notes

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.

Immigration and Democracy: Rebuilding Trust in a Changing Europe Sep 18, 2025

Show notes

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

On the Move: Rapidly Evolving Migration Trends and Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean Sep 16, 2025

Show notes

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.

Speakers:

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