E.g., 04/29/2024
E.g., 04/29/2024
Latin America and Caribbean Initiative

Latin America and Caribbean Initiative

MPI’s Latin America and Caribbean Initiative acts as a policy laboratory to develop evidence-based research and innovative, effective policy solutions for the migration challenges facing Latin America and the Caribbean.
A map showing Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean highlighted in teal
Once thought of primarily as a region of emigration, countries across Latin America and the Caribbean are confronting new and increasingly complex migration and humanitarian pressures, including the integration of millions of Venezuelan migrants and asylum seekers who have fled their country since 2014 and the management of regional migration flows across Central and North America.

The Initiative produces research, trends and policy analysis, and policy design; provides technical assistance; and organizes private convenings and public events to inform the decisions of policymakers, the private sector, civil society, and other stakeholders as they respond to evolving trends and policy developments.

Current focus areas include legal pathways, immigrant integration, migration and development, and regional cooperation on migration management.

Para leer las investigaciones de la Iniciativa en español, haga clic aquí.

A Haitian child looks over his mother's shoulder in Panama
Commentaries

Addressing the Next Displacement Crisis in the Making in the Americas

The next major displacement of people in the Americas is in the making, and it is going unnoticed. The response to the steady emigration from Haiti seen since a devastating 2010 earthquake has been largely haphazard and may not stand the test of new spikes as the country unravels further. This commentary suggests a way forward, based on a model used for the Venezuelan displacement crisis.

A Venezuelan man holds a passport in front of a sign for Ecuador's regularization process

Featured

Venezuelan displacement has prompted countries across Latin America and the Caribbean to launch policies and programs to register, regularize, and support the integration of arriving Venezuelans. However, the extent to which regular status has helped Venezuelans find work has varied from country to country, as this report discusses.

Migrants in the Darien Gap village of Canaan Membrillo, Panama.
Articles

How the Treacherous Darien Gap Became a Migration Crossroads of the Americas

Passage through the Darien Gap has transformed migration across the Americas. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken the incredibly perilous journey across the remote jungle between Colombia and Panama, risking exposure to hazardous terrain, criminal groups, and other dangers. As this article outlines, governments have struggled to respond to the growing movement, expected to top 500,000 crossings in 2023.

Recent Activity

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Reports
May 2011
Evolving Demographic and Human-Capital Trends in Mexico and Central America and Their Implications for Regional Migration
By  Aaron Terrazas, Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Marc R. Rosenblum
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Reports
April 2011
Obstacles and Opportunities for Regional Cooperation: The U.S.-Mexico Case
By  Marc R. Rosenblum
Articles
July 29, 2010
Time to Temper the Faith: Comparing the Migration and Development Experiences of Mexico and Morocco
By Hein de Haas and Simona Vezzoli
Articles
June 16, 2010
Jamaica: From Diverse Beginning to Diaspora in the Developed World
By Alex Glennie and Laura Chappell
Articles
May 27, 2010
On the Other Side of the Fence: Changing Dynamics of Migration in the Americas
By Jacqueline Mazza, Eleanor Sohnen
Articles
March 31, 2010
Hidden in Plain Sight: Indigenous Migrants, Their Movements, and Their Challenges
By Carlos Yescas
Articles
March 29, 2010
In Mexico, Mother's Education and Remittances Matter in School Outcomes
By Adam Sawyer
Articles
February 25, 2010
Mexico: A Crucial Crossroads
By Francisco Alba

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Recent Activity

Reports
May 2011

Evolving Demographic and Human-Capital Trends in Mexico and Central America and Their Implications for Regional Migration

Over the past half century, migration from Mexico and Central America to the United States has been driven in part by regional demographic and human-capital trends. As the U.S. labor force became better educated, fewer native workers accepted certain low-skilled jobs. This report offers a look at the economic changes that have coincided with a Mexican and Central American population boom.

Reports
April 2011

Obstacles and Opportunities for Regional Cooperation: The U.S.-Mexico Case

Migrant-sending and migrant-receiving countries rarely collaborate on migration issues because the structure of global migration systems ensures they often disagree about core policy issues. This report shows that migration collaboration makes sense when states share common goals they cannot achieve on their own.

Articles
July 29, 2010

Time to Temper the Faith: Comparing the Migration and Development Experiences of Mexico and Morocco

With about 10 percent of Moroccan and Mexican citizens living abroad, remittances have become a vital source of income and poverty alleviation for both countries. Hein de Haas and Simona Vezzoli of the International Migration Institute, University of Oxford explore how migration has affected development and ways to reframe the migration-development debate.

Articles
June 16, 2010

Jamaica: From Diverse Beginning to Diaspora in the Developed World

This former British colony in the Caribbean, once a destination for forced and indentured labor from across the globe, has experienced large emigration flows of both skilled and unskilled workers and their families to the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada over the last half century. As Alex Glennie and Laura Chappell of the Institute for Public Policy Research explain, the Jamaican government has a number of strategies to limit brain drain and to encourage return.

Articles
May 27, 2010

On the Other Side of the Fence: Changing Dynamics of Migration in the Americas

Migration from Latin America to the United States and Europe appears to have slowed in the wake of the recent global financial crisis. As Jacqueline Mazza and Eleanor Sohnen of the Inter-American Development Bank report, flows between Latin American countries expanded in the 1990s and are still growing, crisis or not, and some countries are taking a more regional approach to managing migration.

Articles
March 31, 2010

Hidden in Plain Sight: Indigenous Migrants, Their Movements, and Their Challenges

The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues estimates there are more than 370 million indigenous people in some 90 countries worldwide. Carlos Yescas of the New School for Social Research looks at the definition of indigenous people, the three types of indigenous-people flows, and how indigenous migrants maintain ties with their home communities.

Articles
March 29, 2010

In Mexico, Mother's Education and Remittances Matter in School Outcomes

Remittances would seem to boost the chances that children in Mexico complete high school. But money alone does not improve schooling outcomes in the educationally marginalized, migrant-sending regions of southern Mexico, as Adam Sawyer of the Harvard Graduate School of Education reports.

Articles
February 25, 2010

Mexico: A Crucial Crossroads

The recent recession has affected Mexicans in the United States, new flows northward, and remittances to Mexico. Francisco Alba of El Colegio de México examines the latest trends as well as Mexican government policies toward the diaspora, Mexico's role as a transit country, and immigrants and refugee and asylees in Mexico.

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