Migration Policy Institute Podcasts

Latest Episodes:

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Connecting the Dots: How Climate Detectives Link Human-Caused Environmental Change to Migration Aug 27, 2025

Show notes

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.

World of Migration: Amid Backlash to Immigration, Can Contact Smooth Relations between Groups of Diverse Backgrounds? Aug 21, 2025

Show notes

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.

Making Migrant Return and Reintegration Sustainable: Lessons from Two Continents Jun 26, 2025

Show notes

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.

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Small Islands, Big Challenges: Climate Change and Migration in the Caribbean Jun 26, 2025

Show notes

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.

World of Migration: The Future of Labor: Lessons from India in the Global Race for Talent Jun 06, 2025

Show notes

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.

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Can AI Predict Climate Migration? May 29, 2025

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Does AI have a role to play in mapping and predicting climate migration trends? In this episode of the podcast, we explore the issue with John Aoga, a postdoctoral researcher at UCLouvain in Belgium. He led a study using machine learning algorithms to trace how climate shocks affected migration intentions in several countries in West Africa. We discuss his findings and the broader promise and peril of using these types of technologies to map and predict migration flows.

Supporting Migrants Returning to Fragile Contexts: Lessons from Iraq and Somalia May 07, 2025

Show notes

As the focus on returning failed asylum seekers and other migrants to their countries of origin remains high, there is a commensurate need to consider reintegration support that assists returnees in rebuilding their lives. Reintegration programs help returnees establish the social, economic, and psychosocial foundations needed to regain stability and, in the process, can aid host communities while seeking to address the drivers of irregular migration. Putting this support into practice is, however, very challenging—particularly in fragile settings, where infrastructure and services are limited, livelihood opportunities are scarce, and communities often contend with insecurity.

Beyond difficulties accessing housing and property, many returnees experience significant psychosocial needs, including trauma and social stigma. Organizations supporting returning migrants also navigate specific challenges, including difficulties operating in some areas and engaging with local and national authorities.

On this Migration Policy Institute Europe webinar, speakers outline under what conditions return to these fragile settings happen, and representatives from organizations that support returning migrants in Iraq, Somalia, and other fragile environments explore the specific challenges those environments pose for designing and delivering reintegration support. They also discuss the role that reintegration programming can play in helping returnees rebuild their lives and strengthening social cohesion.

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Immigration Actions in First 100 Days of Trump Second Term Apr 30, 2025

Show notes

During his campaign, Donald Trump pledged swift and sweeping actions on immigration enforcement and policymaking more broadly. From his first day back in office, President Trump and his team began delivering on their promised “shock and awe,” with policies ranging from a halt to refugee resettlement and dramatically widened immigration enforcement in the U.S. interior to an effort to end birthright citizenship. Other high-profile actions, including the declaration of an “invasion;” dispatch of deportees to third countries such as Panama, Costa Rica, and El Salvador; and first-ever peacetime triggering of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, have followed.

Amid the “flood the zone” tempo and blizzard of headlines and legal filings during the administration’s first 100 days, it is sometimes difficult to anticipate which actions will have the greatest impact and be most long-lasting.

On this webinar, MPI analysts assess the most consequential actions taken during the first 100 days, detail the litigation picture, and analyze some of the early effects of policies on communities across the United States.

Read the related policy beat.

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: In a Climate Tinderbox, Migration Can Spark Violence Apr 08, 2025

Show notes

Under the right circumstances, climate-induced migration can aggravate the drivers of violent conflict. In places such as the Middle East and West Africa’s Sahel region, migration during times of environmental precarity can upset delicate social and demographic balances and place additional pressure on local authorities. Left to fester, the results can be deadly. This episode explores this connection between climate change and human mobility in conversation with journalist Peter Schwartzstein, author of the book The Heat and the Fury: On the Frontlines of Climate Violence.

Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Climate Change, Migration & Conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan Mar 18, 2025

Show notes

Floods, drought, extreme temperatures, and other climate events have devastated parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Repercussions of climate change come on top of years of conflict, which have left countless numbers of people unable to adapt to changing conditions. In response, many have fled, either in short-term displacement or permanent migration. Our podcast speaks with researchers Maryam Abbasi and Nasrat Sayed about how climate change is compelling migration in Afghanistan and Pakistan, layering on top of conflict as a driver for displacement.