Why has immigration become so politically divisive – and why is it so difficult for governments to design policies that satisfy both public concerns and economic needs?

In this episode, MPI’s Meghan Benton speaks with Madeleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford and a member of the UK's Migration Advisory Committee. Drawing on insights from her new book, What Is Immigration Policy For?, she explains why immigration policy involves trade-offs between economic, humanitarian, and political goals—and why these tensions often lead to public dissatisfaction. The episode also examines challenges in regulating unauthorized migration and spontaneous asylum flows, the limits of deterrence policies, and decisions around low-wage labor migration.

Nearly 28 million U.S. residents, more than half of whom are U.S. citizens, reported limited proficiency in English as of 2023. How government agencies at all levels communicate with multilingual publics can have significant consequences for public safety and emergency responses, access to public information and services, community well-being, and the overall effectiveness of government programs.

Amid a shifting landscape, with the Trump administration enshrining English as the official language and dismantling language access initiatives across federal agencies, the work of state and local governments in this area over the past two decades is taking on even greater relevance.  

While longstanding federal civil-rights requirements to provide language access remain in place, the changes coming out of Washington in this policy area have created uncertainty and confusion. 

This webinar from MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, which has long mapped the language access policy landscape, exploreS the role of state and local policies in today’s rapidly changing national policy context. Experts assess opportunities for state and local stakeholders to support and expand their language access policies and programs. The webinar accompanies the release of the report, New Frameworks for Language Access: Tracking the Expansion & Features of State & Local Laws & Policies.

Speakers include:

www.migrationpolicy.org

As states begin to take up the U.S. Secretary of Education’s offer to apply for waivers to their obligations under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, there are significant implications for English Learner (EL) students around the country.

In July 2025, the U.S. Department of Education issued a letter encouraging states to seek waivers to their federal mandate to improve student academic achievement and maximize the impact of federal education funding. One state, Iowa, received waiver approval, and several other states have begun the waiver request process. 

ESSA outlines statutory requirements that not only fund public education, but also provide guardrails to ensure all students, regardless of their background or community, have access to a quality education that prepares them to achieve in today’s world. The law also grants the Secretary of Education the authority to waive certain requirements outlined in the law, which has long been viewed as ensuring that ELs and all other students receive an equitable, quality education. 

While states have long had the ability to seek waivers, the Trump administration’s efforts to end the federal role in education, including by diminishing civil-rights oversight of schools, and attempts to cut program funding for particular populations, such as ELs, underscore the importance of understanding the potential implications of these actions for ELs and their communities.

This webinar brings together a panel of experts to discuss the ESSA waiver process and requirements, an overview of current state waivers and their objectives, and what these developments mean in practice for ELs and the schools they attend. 

Speakers include:

More information: www.migrationpolicy.org

As humanitarian protection needs grow amid near-record displacement globally, labor migration pathways offer another route to safety and stability for qualified refugees while helping meet destination countries’ skill needs. In practice, however, qualified refugees can struggle to qualify for work visas due to poorly designed frameworks or operational practices. The circumstances of their displacement can make it impossible to meet certain requirements, such as providing a valid passport or original proof of qualifications or traveling for necessary appointments. And employers and visa applicants alike can be deterred from using these pathways because of cumbersome procedures, complex requirements, and unpredictable results.

As countries across Europe and beyond explore reforms to their labor pathways to attract sought-after talent, and civil-society actors push to expand protection opportunities, this MPI Europe webinar explored ways to make work visas more accessible to qualified refugees. 

Speakers examined the barriers that prevent refugees from successfully applying for work visas and assessed initiatives and practices that aim to close this gap. They will discussed concrete policy design changes and practical solutions to help make visa systems more accessible and predictable—benefiting not only refugee workers, but employers and all applicants alike. The webinar marked the launch of Building Refugee-Inclusive Labour Mobility Pathways: A visa evaluation framework and accompanying scorecard that give policymakers a framework to understand how accessible different work visas are for refugee candidates and opportunities for reforms that can achieve these twin goals of addressing labor shortage and protection needs. 

This webinar was organized as part of the Skills, Talent, and Empowerment through Pathways (STEP) project, which focuses on developing and expanding labor mobility channels for displaced workers, in particular those to Ireland, Italy, and Spain. STEP is co-funded by the European Union’s Asylum, Migration, and Integration Fund (AMIF).

Speakers included:

More information: www.migrationpolicy.org

With the world’s lowest fertility rate and one of the fastest-aging populations, South Korea is confronting a shrinking workforce and mounting economic pressures. Immigration has become part of the policy conversation, but questions remain about how much it can help and how Korean society will adapt to diversity.

In this World of Migration episode, our Lawrence Huang speaks with Juyoung Jang, chief of the Policy Research Department at the Migration Research and Training Center in South Korea, about the rapid shift from being a country of emigration to one of immigration. They discuss how migration to South Korea has evolved over the past decades, how the government is expanding pathways for workers and international students, and what challenges migrants encounter – from housing and language barriers to social acceptance. Looking ahead, they consider what the next 10 to 20 years could bring as immigration, integration, and demographic change reshape South Korean society.

Many Indigenous people have a deep connection to their ancestral homelands that dates back centuries. What happens when climate change and other factors force them to move away from those lands? This episode discusses issues affecting Indigenous people, especially in the Americas. Our guest is environmental scientist Jessica Hernandez, a climate justice and Indigenous advocate. She discusses the factors compelling migration for Indigenous communities, their experiences after migration, and the dearth of Indigenous voices in policy discussions over climate change and migration.

Climate change is driving and altering migration in a variety of ways. Patterns of human movement often differ in the face of fast-moving environmental disasters such as floods and wildfires, versus slow-onset changes including extreme heat, drought, and sea-level rise. Other factors, including the resilience of a community’s infrastructure and their dependence on agricultural livelihoods, can help determine whether, when, and how people migrate. 

At the same time, leaving home can be a way for individuals to adapt to a more precarious climate. The money that migrants earn and send back can help families and communities invest in defenses against changing climates and ultimately help them stay in place long term. As the effects of climate change increase globally in the coming years, the ramifications for human migration—as well as forced immobility—will only grow. 

On this webinar, speakers discuss on-the-ground experiences of climate change and migration in East Africa, South Asia, and other global contexts.

Speakers:

Opening Remarks:  Andrew Selee, President, MPI

Moderator:  Lawrence Huang, Policy Analyst, MPI 

www.migrationpolicy.org

Africa may be the most climate-vulnerable region of the world, with drought, extreme heat and storms, and other impacts affecting millions across the continent. These environmental events have forced people from their homes and in some cases even contributed to conflict between different groups. By far, most climate-affected individuals who migrate stay either within their own country or go elsewhere on the continent, rather than migrating beyond Africa.

How prepared is the continent for a future of increased displacement? Governments are making some strides to accommodate displaced people—although there is often a gap between official rhetoric and the realities on the ground. This episode discusses climate-linked migration issues across Africa with Aimée-Noël Mbiyozo, a senior research consultant at the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies.

During the first year of his second term, President Donald Trump and his administration moved to enact sweeping changes to all corners of the U.S. immigration system. A mass deportations campaign that touched cities across the United States with an unprecedented show of force. Pause to refugee resettlement and asylum case processing. Bans and restrictions on legal immigration from 39 countries. Creation of a Trump “gold card” for wealthy individuals. And a repointing that forced immigration to the top of the foreign policy agenda with many countries.

Collectively, the administration’s actions and the resulting impacts on individuals, U.S. communities, job sectors, and the perception of the United States globally will be felt for years, if not decades, to come.

On this webinar, MPI analysts and a veteran journalist assess the actions taken during the administration’s first year back in office, sifting through what is signal and what is noise. They detail the legal picture and analyze the actual effects of the most consequential policy agenda that has been advanced in decades, including its effects on the labor market, U.S. communities, and future immigration to the United States. The conversation accompanied the release of a new analysis of the immigration actions taken during the first year of the second Trump term: Unleashing Power in New Ways: Immigration in the First Year of Trump 2.0

Speakers include: 

Kathleen Bush-Joseph, Policy Analyst, MPI

Muzaffar Chishti, Senior Fellow, MPI

Doris Meissner, Senior Fellow and Director, U.S. Immigration Policy Program, MPI

Nick Miroff, Staff Writer covering immigration, The Atlantic

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: 

Moderator: Camille Le Coz, Director, MPI Europe

More information: www.migrationpolicy.org

Related Report: To Leave or Stay? Examining the Role of Counseling and Reintegration Assistance in the Return Decision-Making of Migrants Ordered to Leave the Netherlands