MPI's Migration Information Source Newsletter

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December 3, 2021

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U.S. Policy Beat
Court-Ordered Relaunch of Remain in Mexico Policy Tweaks Predecessor Program, but Faces Similar Challenges
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/court-order-relaunch-remain-in-mexico
The Biden administration's court-ordered resumption of the controversial Migrant Protection Protocols, known informally as the Remain in Mexico policy, puts it in the awkward position of reviving a program it is simultaneously still trying to end. The Trump-era program forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers to wait out the duration of their hearings in Mexico and was only questionably successful at deterring migrants from reaching the U.S. border.

Country Profile
South Africa Reckons with Its Status as a Top Immigration Destination, Apartheid History, and Economic Challenges
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/south-africa-immigration-destination-history
South Africa hosts the most immigrants of any African country. Yet it faces conflicting pressures, including the legacy of apartheid, a steady outflow of well-educated South Africans, and the need to juggle bilateral labor mobility schemes at a time of economic insecurity and high unemployment. This article traces these pressures and how they have developed over time.


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EDITOR'S NOTE

Three years ago this month, the United Nations affirmed the Global Compact on Refugees, in perhaps the most important effort in years to create a new international framework for responding to forced migration. In a few weeks, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will host a high-level officials meeting to evaluate the compact's progress, and ahead of time the agency released its first-ever scorecard on implementation.

The prognosis is very much mixed. The compact has four main objectives--to ease pressure on host countries, enhance refugees' self-reliance, expand access to permanent resettlement elsewhere, and support conditions allowing refugees to safely return to their countries of origin--and there are both positive and negative stories to tell in all four areas. Overall, the global population of refugees grew by 3.5 million between 2016 and 2021, and most had the right to work and freedom of movement in their host countries. But the vast majority of refugees were still being hosted in developing countries, and most refugees lived in poverty even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, political leaders' commitment to the compact's principles has wavered, according to a somewhat pessimistic analysis by the International Rescue Committee, Danish Refugee Council, and Norwegian Refugee Council. Notably, while major donor countries might be willing to embrace the compact's tenets abroad, many have also hardened their borders and made access to asylum more difficult, sending a mixed message and undermining some notions of responsibility-sharing. "If there were a scorecard against [Global Compact on Refugees] progress three years on, the international community collectively would not pass," the report concluded.

Many challenges to the global refugee regime are long running. Each year, only a tiny fraction of the refugees in need of resettlement are relocated to third countries, and the share has continued to shrink, as Benedicta Solf and Katherine Rehberg described in a recent Migration Information Source article.

In some ways, the current situation is similar to last year, when my MPI colleagues compared progress on the Global Compact on Refugees to that of its sister document, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration. Implementation of the refugee pact had been quicker, they found, but nonetheless interrupted by the pandemic.

Indeed, complications caused by COVID-19 can be blamed for many challenges over the last two years. But one of the goals of the Global Compact on Refugees was to make the world's response to refugees more predictable and equitable--including in times of crisis. The novel challenges presented by the pandemic might be an explanation for some of the compact's continuing struggles, but they are hardly an excuse.

Best regards,

Julian Hattem

Editor, Migration Information Source

[email protected]


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NEW FROM MPI

Can Omicron Finally Get the World to Cooperate on Pandemic Mobility Management?
www.migrationpolicy.org/news/omicron-travel-restrictions
By Meghan Benton

The Invisible Work of Family, Friend, and Neighbor Caregivers and Its Importance for Immigrant and Dual Language Learner Families
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/family-friend-neighbor-care
By Maki Park and Jazmin Flores Peña

The State of Costa Rican Migration and Immigrant Integration Policy
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/costa-rican-migration-immigrant-integration-policy
By Diego Chaves-González and María Jesús Mora

El estado de la política migratoria y de integración de Costa Rica
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/politica-migratoria-integracion-costa-rica
By Diego Chaves-González and María Jesús Mora

Charting a New Regional Course of Action: The Complex Motivations and Costs of Central American Migration
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/motivations-costs-central-american-migration
By Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, Rossella Bottone, Jaret Waters, Sarah Williams, Ashley Louie and Yuehan Wang


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HAVE YOU READ?

Sub-Saharan African Immigrants in the United States
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/sub-saharan-african-immigrants-united-states-2018

Interlocking Set of Trump Administration Policies at the U.S.-Mexico Border Bars Virtually All from Asylum
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/interlocking-set-policies-us-mexico-border-bars-virtually-all-asylum

The Resettlement Gap: A Record Number of Global Refugees, but Few Are Resettled
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/refugee-resettlement-gap


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MEDIA CORNER

In Rejimon Kuttappan's "Undocumented: Stories of Indian Migrants in the Arab Gulf," the stories of six individuals serve as windows to understand broader dynamics of migration to the Middle East.
[link removed]

Historian Emily Baughan analyzes 50 years of humanitarian aid and its relationship to colonialism in "Saving the Children: Humanitarianism, Internationalism, and Empire."
www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520343719/saving-the-children

"Human Trafficking: Global History and Perspectives," edited by Elisha Jasper Dung and Augustine Avwunudiogba, traces the roots of human trafficking throughout history.
[link removed]

Masha Rumer uses research and interviews with immigrant families to describe immigrants' approach to raising children in "Parenting with an Accent: How Immigrants Honor Their Heritage, Navigate Setbacks, and Chart New Paths for Their Children."
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/676286/parenting-with-an-accent-by-masha-rumer/

"Rethinking Internal Displacement: Geo-political Games, Fragile States and the Relief Industry," by Frederick Laker, looks at the origins, structure, and impact of UN efforts on internal displacement.
www.berghahnbooks.com/title/LakerRethinking


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