This event was in Spanish with English interpretation.  This is the English interpretation. 

Irregular migration from Guatemala to the United States has accelerated dramatically in recent years, much of it from the Western Highlands, a region that is among the poorest and most rural in the country. The remittances resulting from migration have been a crucial lifeline in supporting the region through the COVID-19 pandemic, almost equaling total exports in 2020.

A critical first step toward developing alternatives to irregular migration is to understand the factors that drive people to leave, including the underlying causes and the immediate triggers. The Migration Policy Institute and the Guatemalan nongovernmental organization Asociación Pop No’j undertook a study examining the patterns and drivers of emigration from Huehuetenango, one of the country’s top migrant-sending areas in the Western Highlands. The researchers also assessed potential strategies to address push factors and create alternatives to irregular migration.

This report release event features discussion on  changing migration patterns from Guatemala, along with how policymakers and development practitioners can help create livelihood options and address other drivers of migration, as well as expanding legal pathways for circular migration. The conversation also explores broader lessons for policy approaches in both sending and receiving countries that, over time, could help better manage migration and provide alternatives to emigration.

En los últimos años, la migración irregular de Guatemala a los Estados Unidos se ha acelerado drásticamente—particularmente aquella que proviene del altiplano occidental, una de las regiones más pobres y rurales del país. Las remesas han sido un salvavidas esencial para la región durante la pandemia de COVID-19, al casi igualar el total de las exportaciones en 2020.

Un paso fundamental para desarrollar alternativas a la migración irregular es comprender los factores que impulsan a las personas a salir, incluidas las causas subyacentes y los desencadenantes inmediatos. El Instituto de Políticas Migratorias y la organización no gubernamental guatemalteca, Asociación Pop No'j, llevaron a cabo un estudio en el que examinaron los patrones y los factores que impulsan la emigración desde Huehuetenango, una de las principales regiones de origen de migrantes en el altiplano occidental guatemalteco. Los investigadores también evaluaron posibles estrategias para atender los factores que impulsan la emigración y crear alternativas a la migración irregular.

En este evento de presentación del informe, los ponentes hablan sobre los cambios en los patrones de migración desde Guatemala, así como de la forma en que los formuladores de políticas públicas y los profesionales del desarrollo pueden ayudar a crear opciones de subsistencia para las personas, atender los factores que impulsan la emigración y ampliar las vías legales para la migración circular. La conversación también explora lecciones más amplias desde una perspectiva de política pública —tanto en los países de origen como en los de destino— que, con el tiempo, podrían ayudar a gestionar mejor la migración y ofrecer alternativas a la emigración.

More than 1.7 million people have fled Ukraine so far, and the United Nations expects more than 4 million others will leave the country and need protection and assistance in the coming months. Those fleeing to neighboring countries, mostly women and children, have been met with an impressive voluntary and government mobilization to answer immediate needs.

Similarly, European Union (EU) policymakers are organizing an unprecedented response, unanimously approving the first-ever activation of the Temporary Protection Directive that will provide immediate protection and rights, reduce pressures on national asylum systems, and enhance responsibility sharing. Questions remain, however, about how the directive will work in practice and how quickly it will be rolled out, in particular as European asylum agencies and migration authorities face a range of operational issues for the first time. They will need to set up a new process to register people, but also organize which agencies (including EU ones) and which funding mechanisms will be tapped to ensure adequate reception and emergency assistance.

In the medium term, populations fleeing Ukraine will need access to affordable housing, education, the labor market, and health care. How can European countries with tight housing markets and overburdened health-care systems, yet simultaneously pressing labor shortages, plan for the more medium- and long-term needs of those displaced by the war? And how can Ukrainian diasporas be mobilized effectively in the response without being overburdened with untenable demands?

This MPI Europe webinar features expert views from the European Commission's Asylum Unit Head Esther Pozo-Vera, Alexander Sorel from the European Union Agency for Asylum, Sophie Magennis from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representation for EU Affairs, and MPI Europe's Hanne Beirens and Jasmijn Slootjes. They offered information and key facts on the implementation of the Temporary Protection Directive, prospects for the integration of displaced populations, and lessons from the 2015-2016 refugee crisis that could apply in the current context.

The Omicron surge caused many U.S. schools to return to remote learning, an all-too-familiar status since the sudden shift to virtual learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The public-health crisis has tested school systems across the country and continues to pose operational challenges as schools transition between in-person, remote, and hybrid instruction. 

Remote learning has become a controversial tool and now is often considered a last-resort pandemic response. One reason is the digital divide in who can access computers, high-speed internet, and digital skills training. Children in immigrant families often have disproportionately less access to digital tools and training than their peers, which can lead to knowledge gaps, lower grades, chronic absenteeism, and disenrollment.

This webinar features findings from an MPI report that takes stock of lessons and promising practices from the pandemic, with insights from educators, community leaders, and other stakeholders on how to support immigrant children and U.S.-born children with immigrant parents during remote learning. Speakers from MPI, Internationals Network for Public Schools, Office of Global Michigan, and the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology, examine related parts of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 and how federal, state, and local governments; school districts; schools; libraries; and service providers can advance digital equity for children in immigrant families.

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM) calls for more gender-responsive return and reintegration programs. Yet many foundational questions remain unexamined, including how the migration experiences of women* affect their reintegration and the communities to which they return.

Concerns that large amounts of people will be displaced by climate change and head to wealthy countries in North America and Europe are often misplaced, according to migration scholar Hein de Haas. These types of narratives can tap into anti-immigrant sentiments, allow governments to avoid responsibility for their own failures, and may overlook the large numbers of people forced to remain in place amid environmental disaster, he argues in this episode. 

On his inauguration day one year ago, President Joe Biden proposed a sweeping list of immigration policy priorities, including advancing legislation legalizing millions of unauthorized immigrants and rolling back key executive actions taken by his predecessor. Now at its first anniversary, the administration has advanced numerous further immigration actions that range widely across the immigration system.

Migration surges at the U.S.-Mexico border and partisan deadlock on Capitol Hill have complicated moving forward on legislation that would revamp the U.S. immigration system. Courts and the continuing COVID-19 pandemic have stymied some of the administration’s other efforts. Yet, while less noted, the Biden administration has pursued a broad agenda that encompasses immigration changes in the U.S. interior—including overhauling immigration enforcement priorities, humanitarian relief by extending temporary protection to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and others from troubled countries, and administrative measures affecting important legal immigration processes.

This discussion with MPI's Muzaffar Chishti and Doris Meissner, the White House's Deputy Director for Immigration Esther Olavarria, former Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention Elizabeth Neumann, and Community Change Co-President Lorella Praeli examines the Biden track record on immigration and what lays ahead. The conversation draws from an article published in MPI's online journal, by Jessica Bolter and Muzaffar Chishti, detailing the administration’s first-year actions on immigration.

Environmental disasters can force people out of their homes and communities, complicating responses to ongoing humanitarian protection efforts. As a result, many humanitarian organizations have started paying attention to the impacts of climate change for multiple aspects of their refugee protection work. For this episode, we speak with Joan Rosenhauer, the executive director of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, about how natural disasters and other environmental harms affect her organization’s work and its faith-based mission.

MPI Europe Policy Analyst Liam Patuzzi moderated a breakout session where David Campbell, President, Jupia Consultants Inc.; Andrea Soler Eslava, Senior Rural Integration Project Manager, International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC); Danielle Gluns, Head of the Research and Transfer Office for Migration Policy, University of Hildesheim; Khmlin Haj Mohamad, Regional Refugee Ambassador, SHARE SIRA project (Expanding Social Orientation & Integration for Newcomers in Rural Areas in Europe); and Maher Dahdal, Regional Refugee Ambassador, SHARE SIRA project, discussed the following topics:

• As smaller towns and rural areas have stepped up their efforts to welcome refugees and migrants in recent years, what can we learn about these communities’ resources and limitations in promoting social inclusion and cohesion? What new bottlenecks has the COVID-19 pandemic generated?

In this session moderated by MPI's International Program Director of Research Meghan Benton, panelists Anila Noor, Member, European Commission's Expert Group on the Views of Migrants, and Founder, New Women Connectors, the Netherlands; Scarlet Cronin, Acting Executive Director, The Tent Partnership for Refugees; Katharina Bamberg, Policy Advisor on Migration and Integration, Eurocities; and Christina Pope, Senior Director of Welcoming International, Welcoming America discussed the following questions:

• Over the past year-and-a-half, we have heard a lot of conversations about (and calls for) "inclusive recovery". If we were to make this more concrete: what does inclusive recovery look like for you?