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 ...
Jun 26, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 359
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...
Jun 26, 2025•24 min•Season 1Ep. 358
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 ...
Jun 06, 2025•24 min•Season 1Ep. 357
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.
May 29, 2025•26 min•Season 1Ep. 356
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, howev...
May 07, 2025•57 min•Ep. 355
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 d...
Apr 30, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 354
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, a...
Apr 08, 2025•23 min•Season 1Ep. 353
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, lay...
Mar 18, 2025•22 min•Season 1Ep. 352
Connecting with and providing counselling to irregular migrants, especially those living on the streets or in transit, is crucial for addressing irregular migration. Yet it remains a challenging and underexplored area, due in part to the difficulty engaging with a population often living in precarity and avoiding contact with authorities due to fear of deportation or past negative experiences. A pervasive lack of trust coupled with a concealed lifestyle often prevents irregular migrants in Europ...
Feb 04, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 351
Natural disasters and other impacts of climate change are already affecting migration, but often in complex ways. This episode, we speak with Julia Neusner, a lawyer and researcher with the International Refugee Assistance Project. She has conducted surveys and interviews with migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border about whether, where, and how they have experienced climate impacts, and offers some of their stories here. More than 40 percent of respondents said they experienced climate-related disas...
Jan 30, 2025•25 min•Season 1Ep. 350
Immigration has been a central issue for the Biden presidency, with the administration challenged by record levels of arrivals of asylum seekers and other migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border while also seeking to modernize the bureaucracy that manages the U.S. immigration system and rebuild a refugee resettlement system that had plunged to a record low under the prior administration. Sharply criticized by both the left and the right for its actions to manage the border—accused of being too hard a...
Dec 27, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 349
For the more than 25 million U.S. residents who have limited proficiency in English, language barriers can prevent or hinder access to critical public services such as education, health care, emergency response, and the legal system. Federal, state, and local government agencies also regularly need to communicate with linguistically diverse communities to conduct outreach, deliver services, and provide information. Removing language barriers to public services—commonly known as providing languag...
Dec 23, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 348
Successive displacement crises over the past decade, combined with limited growth in traditional resettlement, have highlighted the urgent need for alternative legal pathways for people in need of international protection. Civil-society organizations across Europe, often in collaboration with governments and other stakeholders, have launched various refugee sponsorship initiatives and complementary pathway schemes, including education and labor-based programs. While some of these initiatives hav...
Dec 19, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 347
Despite the ongoing war and heavy destruction across Ukraine, some of the more than 6 million Ukrainians who fled after Russia’s invasion in February 2022 are already returning to Ukraine. As of August 2024, an estimated 1 million Ukrainians had returned to their country from abroad, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). While most visit briefly, to see family or tend to their property, others return with the intention of staying permanently. These actions raise questi...
Dec 18, 2024•57 min•Season 1Ep. 346
A growing body of evidence links climate events such as sea-level rise or droughts to migration—both within and across borders. As climate change amplifies the risks and severity of disasters, policymakers should better understand their options for managing how environmental change interacts with mobility. Held ahead of the COP29 United Nations Climate Change Conference, this webinar offered concrete examples of how governments across the globe can respond to the nexus of climate change and migr...
Dec 18, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 345
Many countries need more workers to fill jobs in clean energy and other sectors that are critical in the fight against a warming planet. Immigrants may be one part of the solution to the challenges posed by climate change. But governments have been slow to ramp up responses to recruit, train, or accredit foreign-born workers necessary for the green transition, with one model estimating a shortage of 7 million green workers globally by 2030. This episode discusses the labor picture and global tre...
Dec 12, 2024•23 min•Season 1Ep. 344
The international humanitarian protection system that was built in the aftermath of World War II does not offer protection for people displaced by climate change. In this episode, former UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees T. Alexander Aleinikoff, who is now Executive Dean of The New School for Social Research, calls the refugee system “broken.” Rather than expanding to accommodate climate migrants, he makes the case for starting over with a new paradigm focused on a right not to be displac...
Nov 15, 2024•24 min•Season 1Ep. 343
The ways in which people talk about climate migration can affect how individuals are treated. While many activists frame climate migrants as blameless victims of circumstance and even refer to them as “climate refugees,” this approach does not always lead to public sympathy. Moreover, highlighting the role of climate in displacement can unintentionally cause a backlash among host communities, who themselves likely are experiencing or expecting to face similar environmental challenges. In this ep...
Oct 04, 2024•23 min•Season 1Ep. 342
The Arctic region is warming much faster than other parts of the world. Nordic countries—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden—have a reputation for being at the forefront of efforts to combat climate change. But does their track record also extend to helping people who have been displaced by environmental impacts, internally and internationally? In this episode, we discuss the impacts and responses in the Nordic region. Our guests are the researchers Miriam Cullen and Matthew Scott, who...
Sep 03, 2024•40 min•Season 1Ep. 341
Climate change is remaking vacations, particularly in hot months. Extreme heat can be deadly for tourists and events such as wildfires, hurricanes, and sea-level rise can devastate tourism-dependent communities. Tourism is also a major contributor to climate change, and some travelers have begun rethinking their plans, taking emissions into account as they consider transportation and destinations. This episode explores how climate change is affecting global tourism. Our guest is Daniel Scott, re...
Jul 23, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 340
More than 25 million U.S. residents have limited proficiency in English, and as the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated, all levels of government have an important need to deliver services, outreach, and critical health and safety information to individuals and communities who communicate in languages other than English. Providing access to public services and information for individuals who have limited proficiency in English has been a civil rights requirement for federally funded state and local p...
Jul 01, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 339
Floods and other fast-moving natural disasters are becoming more common and more severe because of climate change. When these disasters strike, they can displace huge numbers of people. This episode turns to Brazil, where historic flooding in 2024 forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. Our guest is Valéria Emília de Aquino, a human-rights lawyer and researcher in Brazil.
Jun 26, 2024•29 min•Season 1Ep. 338
Human mobility has reached a new scale and complexity amid rapid transformations, ranging from changing climates and the COVID-19 pandemic to urbanization and demographic shifts. Following an unprecedented era of border closures during the pandemic, the past two years have seen a major rebound in human mobility, alongside new displacement crises, climate shocks, and the resurgence of labor migration in response to acute shortages. Global mobility flows continue to shift and diversify, featuring ...
Jun 25, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 335
Young children in immigrant and refugee families can encounter mental-health risks related to their migration and integration experiences, ranging from discrimination and economic stress to persecution and violence in the case of young refugees. Infant and early childhood mental-health (IECMH) services have the potential to provide beneficial supports and treatment during the foundational early years for these young immigrants, promoting their healthy development and future well-being. However, ...
Jun 18, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 334
The U.S. military has long warned that climate change poses a challenge to global security. Instability and insecurity can be a result of unmanaged migration, with the potential for widespread climate displacement creating tensions in host communities. And they could also spark additional migration, if people flee precarious political dynamics. This episode, with Climate Migration Council member and retired U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott H. Swift, evaluates the security dynamics...
May 31, 2024•26 min•Season 1Ep. 337
In recent years, the Ethiopian government has pledged to increase access to education and employment for the more than 900,000 refugees living in Ethiopia, most in camps. There have been ups and downs along the way, but a few key trends have emerged. In this episode of our podcast, Migration Policy Institute Europe Associate Director Camille Le Coz speaks with researcher Abis Getachew about the major policy shifts to open classrooms and jobs to refugees and whether they have been successful....
May 02, 2024•30 min•Season 1Ep. 336
Do countries that are major polluters have a moral responsibility to aid people displaced by hurricanes, sea-level rise, and other events driven or exacerbated by climate change? What form might that responsibility take? For this episode, we are joined by Jamie Draper, who focuses on political philosophy and ethics at Utrecht University. While he argues that certain countries do have a responsibility to aid displaced people, labeled “climate migrants” by some, in his view that does not necessari...
Apr 26, 2024•29 min•Season 1Ep. 331
The world is grappling with the idea of restitution for people who have been negatively affected by the impacts of climate change—potentially including displacement within a country or across international borders. World leaders are at the early stages of creating a global loss and damage fund to financially compensate these climate victims. Much remains unresolved, including complicated and controversial questions about which countries owe money to whom, and how to attach a dollar figure to int...
Mar 26, 2024•26 min•Season 1Ep. 330
Many people are leaving rural mountain areas around the globe because their livelihoods are becoming less profitable and the threat of landslides and other disasters is increasing. As the impacts of climate change grow, these mountain residents may face additional challenges dealing with environmental disruption. And by moving to urban areas, they may face a new set of issues and lose connection with their homelands. In this episode, we speak with Amina Maharjan from the International Centre for...
Feb 27, 2024•26 min•Season 1Ep. 329
A landmark climate migration deal inked in late 2023 would allow hundreds of climate-vulnerable residents of the small island nation of Tuvalu to move to Australia. The pact is the latest step for a region that is at the leading edge globally in policy experimentation to address climate displacement. This Australia-Tuvalu deal, which is not uncontroversial, follows a brief and ultimately shelved attempt by New Zealand to create a “climate refugee” visa. How are these policies playing out, and wh...
Jan 24, 2024•31 min•Season 1Ep. 328
