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 resources were strained even before these changes.

In this episode of World of Migration, host Lawrence Huang speaks with Micheal Gumisiriza, a program lead based in southwest Uganda for COHERE, an international NGO that works with refugee-led organizations, about how funding cuts by international donors are being felt on the ground—from food assistance and access to essential medicines to education. They discuss what the immediate impacts reveal about the humanitarian system’s capacity under pressure, and what “localization” could realistically mean as humanitarian response efforts adjust to a period of shrinking resources.

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 has at their disposal.

In this episode, we speak with Kelsea Best of The Ohio State University about climate (im)mobility and the economic and other factors that help shape futures amid changing climates. We also discuss the notion of “climate gentrification,” which occurs when wealthier people move into traditionally lower-income neighborhoods that are better shielded from natural disasters and other environmental harms.

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 prove even more challenging as workforces shrink and the digital and green transitions reshape which skills are most valued. At the same time, countries worldwide are competing to attract talent in critical sectors such as health care and construction, making it more important than ever that strategies to attract workers are designed to benefit both migrant-receiving and sending countries.

To ensure that labor migration works for everyone involved, the European Union has promoted a "quadruple win" approach, aiming to benefit employers, workers, and sending and receiving countries. In addition to targeted mobility partnerships with sending countries, European governments are expressing a broader interest in the lessons from existing labor migration corridors to expand opportunities for partnerships that combine support for the movement of talent with investments in local skills development.

This webinar features discussion of a study by the Migration Policy Institute and MPI Europe, commissioned by the European Commission, which examines best practices for designing and managing labor migration corridors between EU Member States and partner countries. Experts discuss findings from the research, which examines the Bangladesh-Portugal, India-Germany, Peru-Italy, Senegal-Spain, and Vietnam-Hungary corridors and offers insights on how to connect employers and workers, promote skills development, protect migrant workers, and maximize benefits for countries of origin and destination alike. Speakers:

• Sonam Denzongpa, Consultant, Emigration Policy & Welfare Division, Ministry of External Affairs, India
• Shakirul Islam, Chairperson, Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program, Bangladesh
• Francesco Luciani, Head of the Migration and Forced Displacement Unit, Directorate-General for International Partnerships, European Commission
• Ravenna Sohst, Policy Analyst, MPI Europe
• Moderator: Kate Hooper, Senior Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Institute (MPI)

Report is available at: https://bit.ly/migrationcorridorsEU

More information is available at: www.migrationpolicy.org

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 hearing, the delays are undermining the goals of both the U.S. asylum and immigration enforcement systems.

This discussion draws on an MPI policy brief that examines how the immigration courts have reached a point of crisis, with panelists focusing on how the courts have been shaped by the policies of the current administration and its predecessor.

The conversation also touched upon the administrative and legislative reforms that are urgently needed to transform the system, key among them increased funding for the courts, commensurate with the historic spending on immigration enforcement included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Speakers:

• Kathleen Bush-Joseph, Policy Analyst, MPI
• Muzaffar Chishti, Senior Fellow, MPI
• Chiqui Sanchez Kennedy, Executive Director, Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project
• Kyra S. Lilien, Former Immigration Judge, Concord Immigration Court, Executive Office for Immigration Review, U.S. Department of Justice
• Moderator: Doris Meissner, Senior Fellow and Director, U.S. Immigration Policy Program, MPI

Report available at https://bit.ly/immig-courts

More information at www.migrationpolicy.org

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 challenges, including being unable to access education or medical care, and even heightened risk of violence and other dangers. Despite the unique challenges that children face in displacement, there are relatively few international laws or systems particularly designed to assist those forced to move because of environmental factors. We speak with UNICEF’s Laura Healy about this reality and the opportunities to better protect children in a warming world.

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, becoming stateless. It also poses profound questions for international law and the obligations of other countries.

How likely is this possible outcome, and what can countries do to protect their sovereignty and their citizens? Join our discussion with Mark Nevitt, an international law scholar at the Emory University School of Law.

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 today’s challenges and is increasingly coming under political pressures, with some countries chafing at protection obligations.

In this episode of the World of Migration podcast, one of the leading voices in the humanitarian protection world, Vincent Cochetel, discusses the future of refugee protection and the evolution of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) with Meghan Benton, MPI’s director of global programs.

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 requirements, and narrowing pathways to long-term residency and citizenship.

Will these sweeping, highly visible policies designed to signal control meaningfully address the real pressures communities face and restore trust in the democratic institutions charged with governing migration?

This discussion, held in Berlin in collaboration with the Robert Bosch Stiftung, examines the relationship between migration policy, integration approaches, public trust, and democratic resilience in Europe and beyond. Looking at new research on public attitudes toward immigration and institutional trust, speakers explore how migration policy decisions—not just political narratives—shape public opinion and societal well-being.

Speakers:

Meghan Benton, Director of Global Programs, Migration Policy Institute (MPI)

Ben Mason-Sucher, Program Lead,Migration, More in Common Germany

Frank Sharry, Consultant, British Future; an advisor to the Kamala Harris campaign; former head of U.S. immigrant-rights organizations

Ulrich Weinbrenner, Former Director General for Migration, Refugees, and Return Policy, German Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community