Source Top 10 Library
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2023
International migration in 2023 was shaped by a broad array of conflicts, labor and protection needs, and political dynamics, among other factors. While many destination countries sought to raise barriers, some also offered new migration pathways and accommodations to workers in desired sectors. The Migration Information Source provides an overview of major 2023 trends in this annual list of the Top 10 Migration Issues of the year.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2022
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced millions of people to flee around the world, as did food insecurity, climate change-related disasters, and protracted conflict. Meanwhile, migrants navigated rapidly changing labor markets and governments struggled to keep pace with huge processing backlogs accrued during the pandemic. The Migration Information Source's annual list of the Top 10 Migration Issues of the year takes stock of the multiple and at times contradictory trends in 2022.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2021
The rollout of vaccines, increased testing, and other public-health measures led several parts of the world in 2021 to begin recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. But the virus and its variants abated in fits and starts. As a result, 2021 did not see a return to pre-pandemic migration trends, but instead witnessed new patterns of movement in some places. At the same time, new conflicts erupted in 2021, ongoing crises continued to smolder, and forcibly displaced migrants often found themselves stuck in the middle. Impacts of the pandemic were not responsible for all our Top 10 migration issues of the year, but the repercussions of the public-health crisis and related economic fallout were felt widely. Explore these and other issues in our annual countdown.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2020
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought a sweeping halt to global migration and mobility, leading to far-reaching consequences for migrants and countries at both ends of their journeys and through which they traveled. In many places the pandemic shaped other trends, including the erosion of humanitarian protection systems and the changing face of international movement. Major natural disasters also spurred displacement in 2020, and the U.S.-born Black Lives Matter movement evolved into a broader call for immigrant rights and justice in multiple countries. Explore how these issues and others shaped 2020, in our annual countdown of the Top 10 migration issues of the year.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2019
In 2019, long-running and emerging crises forced significant new displacement in places such as Venezuela, Syria, Iraq, and Africa's Sahel region. Elsewhere in the world, migrants and asylum seekers faced increased barriers to reaching international destinations; in places such as the United States, access to asylum was further narrowed. While gains made by far-right, populists in Europe and elsewhere faced some reversals in 2019, hardening attitudes about migrants and refugees spurred violent attacks in New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States. Learn more about these issues—and many others—by diving into our annual countdown of the Top 10 migration issues of the year.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2018
Amid rising public skepticism and outright opposition to migration in a number of countries, 2018 was marked by a turn to harder policies in the United States and parts of Europe—even as most of the world came together to endorse a first ever international compact on migration. The year unfolded with an escalation of humanitarian crises in sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and beyond. Join us here for a review of the most consequential developments of the year in this countdown of the Top 10 Migration Issues of 2018.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2017
The year 2017 was marked by ongoing mass displacement in many regions around the world—including a surge in Rohingya fleeing targeted violence in Myanmar, and large numbers of sub-Saharan Africans forced to leave their homes due to drought and conflict. Meanwhile, the United States took a hardline turn on immigration with the inauguration of President Donald Trump, while European countries worked to develop new—and often controversial—ways to manage arrivals of migrants and asylum seekers.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2016
As reality began to set in for countries on the receiving end of large numbers of migrant and asylum seeker flows, policymakers and other stakeholders in destination countries turned to the question of what comes next: namely, policies focused on integration, returns, and border enforcement. Political upheaval and the rise of populist movements in Europe and North America set the tone of public discourse on immigration. Meanwhile, regions including Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia moved forward with liberalization of intraregional movements. In the Migration Information Source’s Top 10 Migration Issues of 2016, MPI experts explore these trends and much more.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2015
The mass movement of refugees and internally displaced persons in 2015 was felt in many places around the world, and particularly in Europe where policymakers scrambled to find a coherent and humane response to the hundreds of thousands of people arriving on their shores seeking to build better lives. From the fluid business model of the smuggling industry and sharpened political rhetoric to changes in citizenship laws and climate-induced migration, MPI experts analyze these and other pressing issues in the Migration Information Source’s annual edition of the Top 10 Migration Trends of 2015.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2014
A range of migration crises, important policy changes, and developments punctuated the year 2014. The Top 10 Migration Issues this year include rising levels of humanitarian migration around the globe, President Obama’s action ordering deportation relief for millions of unauthorized immigrants in the United States, and the use of migration controls to halt the spread of Ebola from West Africa. In this edition of the Migration Information Source’s annual Top 10 migration issues of the year, Migration Policy Institute experts analyze these and other trends that occurred throughout 2014.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2013
The year 2013 was one full of developments—policy-oriented and otherwise—on the immigration front: from Europe wrestling with migration management challenges thrown into relief after a deadly shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa to the ever-widening Syrian humanitarian crisis and the United States seemingly on the cusp of enacting landmark reform only for the year to draw to a close without action. In the Migration Information Source's annual Top 10 migration developments of the year, we've invited Migration Policy Institute researchers to examine key issues of 2013.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2012
The 2012 Top 10 was framed with an eye to the emerging trends rolling into the new year: Syria remaining the humanitarian crisis to watch; Greece’s far-right party Golden Dawn jolting public attention by gaining a first-ever electoral foothold in Parliament in 2012 even as far-right nationalist parties elsewhere may be muting the anti-immigration message in their platforms; and significant challenges ahead for EU Member States and the European Commission, not only relating to Schengen and the Common European Asylum System but also a more concerted humanitarian response to the Syrian refugee crisis affecting Europe’s neighbor, Turkey. MPI experts analyze these and other pressing concerns of 2012 in this issue of the Migration Information Source's Top 10.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2011
In the Top 10 Migration Issues of 2011, MPI policy analysts look back at the dominant and emerging global migration developments and trends that occurred during the year. The articles span the effect of the Arab Spring to the faltering economic recovery and debt crisis in Europe; the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment and radical-right political parties; mounting criticism related to immigrant detention in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; and more.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2010
In major migration developments in 2010, the year began with major internal population displacement resulting from a devastating earthquake in Haiti and ended with Greece's call to Frontex for help on the Greek-Turkish border. During the months in between, Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigration and elections in Europe were among the significant developments of the year on migration. These topics, plus the latest on how the Great Recession affected migrants around the world, are all covered in the Top 10 Migration Issues of 2010.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2009
With the global recession touching so many facets of life, the Top 10 Migration Issues of 2009 assesses the various ways in which the economic meltdown has shaped migrants' lives and pushed countries to adapt their policies. The Top 10 issue also focuses on migration-related events that made headlines around the world, such as the bulldozing of the Calais "jungle," as well as the less visible ones, such as Brazil's legalization of Bolivian migrants.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2008
The seismic changes in the global economy that took place in 2008 will affect international migration patterns, in obvious and less obvious ways. One thing is clear: policymakers will need to adapt to the rapidly shifting needs of their labor markets as jobs become scarcer. The global economic downturn's effects on remittance flows, the hunt for skilled workers, return migration, and shifting immigration policies are among the topics examined in the Top 10 Migration Issues of 2008.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2007
In 2007, although polls show that American voters' main concerns were the war in Iraq, health care, and the economy, immigration surfaced repeatedly as a key issue. The Migration Information Source's Top 10 Migration Issues of 2007 examines this trend, addresses the lack of attention to climate-induced migration, and provides speculation that France could become the immigration trendsetter in Europe in 2008.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2006
During 2006, governments' policy focus on assimilation over multiculturalism tops the annual list of leading global migration developments. The 2006 Top 10 also analyzes the competition for skilled workers, the worsening situation in Darfur, crisis in Lebanon, and the United Nations General Assembly's first-ever High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, among other topics.
Top 10 Migration Issues of 2005
Welcome to the Migration Information Source's first annual list of the year's Top 10 Migration Issues around the world. The Top 10 for 2005 ranges over the whole world of migration issues, from proposed U.S. immigration reform to European integration challenges to massive displacement by natural disasters in Asia and the Americas. The Top 10 is based on news events, noteworthy developments, and increasingly important trends.
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