WASHINGTON, DC — As publics in Europe, the United States and beyond become increasingly vocal in their dissatisfaction with the management of their nation’s borders, governments face the challenge of designing border systems that prevent the outbreak (or perception) of chaos, even as major displacement crises and the complexities of mixed migration strain outmoded infrastructure. A Migration Policy Institute (MPI) report out today examines the challenges in shaping processes that can respond to current border pressures and are resilient to future changes in migration patterns while protecting the right to seek asylum. In Managing International Protection Needs at Borders, analysts Lucía Salgado, Susan Fratzke, Lawrence Huang and Emma Dorst examine strategies for creating adaptable border systems that can efficiently process mixed humanitarian, economic and family reunification migration flows; it also assesses the conditions under which these operations can be successful. The authors’ analysis of the broad array of approaches implemented by governments in recent years points to several elements that are central to the creation and execution of an effective and protection-sensitive border system: - Having differentiated procedures that can help move people through border crossing points quickly and efficiently based on their varying case profiles—with straightforward asylum cases, for example, completed entirely at the border while more complex cases (such as unaccompanied children or victims of trafficking) would unfold away from the border and with access to a broader range of services.
- Rapid screening and triage capabilities to ensure differentiated procedures are used to the greatest effect; these are essential to prevent processing backlogs.
- Flexible infrastructure and staffing capacity that can be rapidly scaled up or down is necessary to handle fluctuations in arrivals and resources, along with the use of well-designed forecasting and contingency planning protocols.
- Strong coordination and communication mechanisms among stakeholders in government, international organizations and civil society.
Even as countries experiment with moving access to protection closer to asylum seekers’ countries of origin and expand the availability of lawful migration pathways, national borders will remain vital sites for accessing protection and processing mixed migration flows. They also will continue to be key focal points in the public and policy discourse around migration. Without appropriate strategies to handle humanitarian and migration crises at borders, policymakers may be tempted to respond to public concerns with harsh measures that foreclose access to asylum. “Governments have experimented with a range of measures to manage mixed migration at their borders, many of which have been established or evolved in reaction to large or sudden upsurges. Faced with constant fluctuations in resourcing, migration drivers, public sentiment and political will, border management in many receiving countries has taken a whack-a-mole approach, prioritizing whatever problem seems most urgent in the moment,” the report finds. “Instead, what is needed is a well-functioning set of basic competencies capable of operating effectively regardless of shifting geographic and seasonal conditions, arrival numbers and migrant profiles.” The report is the latest analysis produced under the three-year Beyond Territorial Asylum: Making Protection Work in a Bordered World initiative undertaken by MPI and the Robert Bosch Stiftung. The initiative seeks to address challenges to asylum systems that are under immense pressure and seize the opportunity to explore and test new ways to facilitate access to protection that better support equity and result in more flexible, sustainable infrastructure. Earlier reports have examined meaningful ways to build refugee participation in policymaking, the growing use of external processing, role for digital tools in international protection, difficulty shifting public narratives about refugees, flexible approaches to protection, and the use of refugee travel documents. The final report, which sketches a future for asylum given the increasingly untenable pressures that the international protection system faces, will be released on July 25. Read today’s report here: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/international-protection-needs-borders. And for all of the work of the Beyond Territorial Asylum: Making Protection Work in a Bordered World initiative, visit: www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/international-program/beyond-territorial-asylum. | 
