Episodes
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration | Could a Super El Niño Displace Millions from Their Homes?
A forecasted historic El Niño, labeled “Super Godzilla,” is expected to peak in late 2026 and turn 2027 into the hottest year ever recorded on the planet. Expected to be the largest El Niño in at least 1,000 years, the event is expected to result in extreme temperatures, devastating rainfall and...
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Secondary Schools' Bilingual Gap: Promising Practices and a Path Forward
Nearly 5.6 million students in U.S. public schools are classified as English Learners, and over 2.3 million are enrolled in secondary grades. Yet bilingual programs are heavily concentrated in the elementary grades, leaving many older multilingual students in grades 6 through 12 without access to...
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration | Precedent or Cautionary Tale? The U.S. Climate-Driven Relocation of Isle de Jean Charles
In 2016, the U.S. federal government provided $48 million to relocate the climate-threatened Louisiana island of Isle de Jean Charles. The effort, which was the government’s first climate-driven community relocation project, was closely watched as a potential model for the future. But the...
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration | Fiji on the Front Lines of Climate Mobility
Fiji has long been at the forefront of developing policies to help its residents voluntarily relocate to escape the extreme effects of climate change. The country, which is comprised of hundreds of islands in the Pacific, faces rising sea levels, extreme weather, and other dangers. But for many...
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration | How the World Is Learning to Respond Collectively to Climate Displacement
The coordinated global response to climate change-driven displacement is relatively new. Just a few decades ago, virtually no governments were paying attention to the ways in which people were being displaced by extreme weather, sea-level rise, and other climate events. Although the international...
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World of Migration: Why Is Sudan's Humanitarian Crisis Largely Invisible?
Sudan is experiencing the world's largest displacement crisis, with nearly 14 million people forcibly displaced by civil war, famine, and acute food insecurity. Yet the scale of suffering has not translated into proportionate global attention or funding: the Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan...
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World of Migration: When Sports and U.S. Immigration Policy Collide
The FIFA 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada, is the largest in history and first to be co-organized by three countries. Yet for international fans, ever stricter U.S. immigration admissions and enforcement policies have introduced layers of uncertainty around…
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Climate Change Is Making People Sick. Can Migration Help?
Climate change can be devastating for individuals’ health and safety. Climate-linked natural disasters can cause physical injuries and damage health-care systems, while slow-onset changes such as sea-level rise can lead to the spread of disease and make it harder for people to obtain care. In…
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World of Migration: America’s Closing Door: Where Do Cuban Migrants Go Now?
Cuba is facing one of its deepest economic crises in decades, and the United States has significantly narrowed the legal pathways that once made it the primary destination for Cuban migrants. As a result, migration patterns are shifting across the Americas in ways the region is not yet prepared…
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration | Priced Out: Climate Change, Home Insurance, and the People Stuck in the Middle
Climate change is making home insurance more expensive and less available, as the multibillion-dollar losses caused by hurricanes, wildfires, and other disasters increase in scale. Rising insurance premiums can push some people to relocate or force others to either pay more money to remain in…
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: First Displacement, then Disasters: How Refugees Contend with Climate Change
Refugees are often some of the people most vulnerable to climate change. After fleeing armed conflict or persecution, many refugees end up in camps located in rural areas, with few resources and little support. That can leave them vulnerable to floods, storms, extreme heat, or other impacts of...
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World of Migration: Why Is Immigration Policy So Hard to Get Right?
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...
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State and Local Language Access Efforts Amid Federal Policy Shifts
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...
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The ESSA Waiver Landscape and Implications for K-12 English Learners
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...
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Meeting Labor Skill Needs While Expanding Refugee Protection
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…
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World of Migration: The Role of Immigration as South Korea Navigates Demographic Decline
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...
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Climate Displacement from Indigenous Lands
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...
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Migration amid Climate Change: Adaptation, Displacement, and People Trapped in Place
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…
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Is Climate-Vulnerable Africa Prepared for Increased Displacement?
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.…
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Beyond “Shock and Awe”: Immigration Actions in the First Year under Trump 2.0
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...
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The Role of Counselling & Reintegration Support in Shaping Migrants’ Return Decisions
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...
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World of Migration: Humanitarian Assistance in a Time of Deep Foreign Aid Cuts
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...
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Trapped by Climate Change: The Economics of Staying or Leaving
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…
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Achieving the "Quadruple Win": Labor Migration Strategies for Europe to Meet its Skill Needs
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...
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U.S. Immigration Courts at a Crisis Point
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...
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: The Young Lives Uprooted by Climate Change
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...
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Will Climate Change Push Some People into Statelessness?
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,...
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World of Migration: Humanitarian Protection at a Crossroads: What Future for the Strained Refugee System?
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...
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Immigration and Democracy: Rebuilding Trust in a Changing Europe
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...
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On the Move: Rapidly Evolving Migration Trends and Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean
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…
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Connecting the Dots: How Climate Detectives Link Human-Caused Environmental Change to Migration
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...
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World of Migration: Amid Backlash to Immigration, Can Contact Smooth Relations between Groups of Diverse Backgrounds?
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...
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Making Migrant Return and Reintegration Sustainable: Lessons from Two Continents
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...
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Small Islands, Big Challenges: Climate Change and Migration in the Caribbean
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...
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World of Migration: The Future of Labor: Lessons from India in the Global Race for Talent
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?…
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Can AI Predict Climate Migration?
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...
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Supporting Migrants Returning to Fragile Contexts: Lessons from Iraq and Somalia
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...
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Immigration Actions in First 100 Days of Trump Second Term
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...
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: In a Climate Tinderbox, Migration Can Spark Violence
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...
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Climate Change, Migration & Conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan
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,...
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Reaching Irregular Migrants in Europe: Harnessing the Value of Counselling
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...
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Stories of Climate Change and Migration to the U.S.-Mexico Border
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...
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The Biden Legacy on Immigration: A Complex Picture
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...
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Emerging and Established Efforts by States to Expand Language Access
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…
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The Future of Complementary Pathways: Paving the Way for Growth
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...
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To Stay or Go: Factors Shaping Ukrainian Refugees’ Intentions Whether to Return to Ukraine
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...
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Charting a Smart Agenda for Managing Climate Migration
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...
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: The World Is Going Greener. What Role Can Immigrants Play?
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...
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: The Reverse of Climate Migration: Should There Be a Right Not to Be Displaced amid Climate Change?
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...
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Changing Climate, Changing Migration: How We Talk about Climate Migration Shapes Treatment of “Climate Refugees”
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…
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About this show
MPI discusses interesting developments and seek to peer around the corner on pressing migration topics in conversations with top experts
Hosted by
Migration Policy Institute
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