Migration Policy Institute

05/29/2026

The United States last meaningfully updated its immigrant selection system in 1990 — before the vanguard of the internet, much less artificial intelligence or today’s globalized world. As a result, the legal immigration system is not designed for the economy the country has now, nor the one it needs in the future.

A new short read from MPI’s Julia Gelatt, Doris Meissner, and Andrew Selee argues that while the immigration system must ensure migration is orderly and controlled, it is equally important for it to be positioned to help meet the country’s workforce, demographic, and strategic needs, particularly at a time of U.S. population aging and falling birth rates.

A forward-looking legal immigration system and can support effective enforcement by better aligning immigration pathways with economic forces, the analysts note.

The short read advances several ideas to modernize employment-based immigration:

✅Creating easier pathways for top global talent and international students to stay in the U.S.
✅Allowing a greater voice for employers and state governments in immigrant selection and identification of priority sectors
✅Developing a temporary-to-permanent path such as the bridge visa proposal MPI has championed (https://bit.ly/4dQgm9v )
✅Giving policymakers more flexibility to adjust admissions as labor market conditions change, as MPI has also championed (https://bit.ly/3RA63il
✅Allowing employers to sponsor some long-term, unauthorized workers with strong employment records in exchange for paying a fine
✅Building a more effective processing system so employers can hire workers when they need them, applicants receive timely decisions and the government can manage immigration with greater credibility and efficiency.

Read the short read here: https://bit.ly/4dPyZKz

05/28/2026

Temporary Protected Status was created by Congress in 1990 as a humanitarian safeguard for already present immigrants whose home countries were too dangerous or unstable for them to return. Over the last 36 years, TPS has become an increasingly enduring feature of the U.S. immigration system.

Now, the Trump administration is seeking to all but eliminate it. Nearly 1.3 million people held TPS as of March 2025. That number is on course to reach zero by November unless the courts or the administration itself act.

Muzaffar Chishti and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto trace the origins of TPS, how it grew and what’s at stake in the debate over its future.

https://bit.ly/3RrADuz

05/26/2026

Climate-linked natural disasters and slow-onset changes can be a risk to individuals’ health, causing death, injury, illness and damage to health-care systems. Does migration help mitigate these issues?

The answer is: It depends. While getting away from a climate-vulnerable area can protect someone from immediate danger, a new set of challenges may arise.

On our latest podcast episode, we discuss these issues with Ilse Ruyssen from Ghent University, United Nations University – CRIS, & CliMigHealth.

Hear more on “Changing Climate, Changing Migration.” Subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

05/20/2026

Migration patterns from and through Central America are changing in fundamental ways.

Once primarily a region of emigration and northward transit, the region is increasingly becoming a place of prolonged wait, forced return, and blocked movement. Migrants arrive, stay, and circulate in multiple directions, often without clear pathways forward.

In the new article in our Migration Information Source magazine, Pía Riggirozzi and Natalia Cintra examine how two converging forces — tightening immigration policies and sharp cuts to global humanitarian aid — are reshaping mobility across Central America. The result is not simply fewer migrants moving north, but a reconfiguration of who moves, where they end up, and what support is available to them.

Migration patterns from and through Central America are changing in fundamental ways amid rising immigration enforcement and a reduction in global humanitarian aid. These twin developments are putting new pressures on governments in the region and reshaping migrant experiences, as this article explo...

05/19/2026

Cities with growing immigrant workforces have a choice: leave potential on the table or invest smartly in economic inclusion for the benefit of all

New MPI + MMC research, which draws from a global scan of city practices and barriers, shows how

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Migrants and refugees make up notable shares of the workforce in many cities. By creating an environment in which they can find work, apply their skills, and thrive, urban areas can set themselves up to weather current and future economic changes, including the green and digital transitions. Drawing...

05/19/2026

For more than five decades, no immigrant group arriving in the United States received more favorable treatment than Cubans. That era is now over, and as Cuba struggles with its worst economic situation in decades, facing near-total power blackouts amid a U.S. embargo, Cubans looking to leave the island are heading to new destinations, chiefly in Latin America but also Spain and perhaps in the future countries in the Caribbean.

In a new episode of MPI's World of Migration podcast, foreign policy expert María José Espinosa Carrillo, who is executive director of Center for Engagement and Advocacy in the Americas and a former professor at the University of Havana, walks listeners through the cooling U.S. welcome, which began in 2017 and accelerated in 2025.

The result: Those leaving the island are going elsewhere — Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, Spain, and Guyana among the top destinations. In 2025, Cubans were the third-largest asylum-seeking nationality in the world, behind Venezuela and Sudan.

This is no longer a bilateral U.S.-Cuba migration story. It has become a regional one, which merits more attention than it is getting.

05/19/2026

Webinar - Future-Ready Cities: Unlocking Immigrant Talent for Inclusive Economic Growth

05/14/2026

The United States is home to the largest Brazilian community outside Brazil — larger than the next four destination countries combined. Yet the Brazilian immigrant population in the U.S. remains relatively small, at about 725,000 people, or just over 1 percent of all U.S. immigrants.

The new article in our Migration Information Source magazine offers a close look at who Brazilian immigrants are, where they live, and how their community has changed over four decades.

https://bit.ly/4dEXA5X

05/13/2026

More than 1 million foreign- and U.S.-born adults receive instruction every year through adult education services, including English, literacy and numeracy, high school equivalency, citizenship and family literacy programs. Yet the system, which has already been meeting less than 5% of the demand, faces disruption as the Trump administration seeks to eliminate federal funding for adult education.

Our new report, by policy analyst Jake Hofstetter, maps the states that have the most to lose. In 27 states, half or more of adult education funding under WIOA Title II comes from the federal government. Nine states rely on federal funds for 70% or more of their adult ed programs.

The good news: States have meaningful policy options, including creating flexible funding streams that support innovative program models, as the report explores.

05/12/2026

Central Asian migration is being reshaped. This is how:

🪪EU employment permits for Central Asians tripled between 2021 and 2024. In Lithuania alone, permits for Tajik workers increased 23-fold.

✈️In 2024, more than 3/4 of UK Seasonal Worker Scheme visas went to Central Asians. That marked a significant shift from just a few years earlier, when the program was dominated by Ukrainians and Russians.

📈 More than 20 governments have signed bilateral labor migration agreements with Central Asian countries.

Workers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are becoming integrated into global migration corridors in ways that go well beyond Central Asia’s historic ties to Russia. Get the full details about the shift—and its repercussions—with our new article.

https://bit.ly/48HhEC0