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1. Funding Climate Mobility Projects: Key Players and Strategies for Growth

Author:
Lawrence Huang and Samuel Davidoff-Gore
Publication Date:
03-2025
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
While international donors have long supported responses to displacement driven by natural disasters, climate change is reshaping the challenge at hand. It can worsen extreme weather events such as storms while also posing slower-onset threats such as desertification and sea level rise, which can directly and indirectly force people to move. The growing scale and complexity of climate-related mobility thus requires a paradigm shift in global funding for responses. This issue brief provides an overview of how development funders are responding to climate mobility issues, highlights entry points for donors interested in engaging on this issue, and outlines common barriers and strategies to overcome them. It examines development assistance provided via both bilateral cooperation and multilateral funding, through multilateral development banks, global climate funds, and more. This research draws on insights shared by representatives of donor governments, philanthropic foundations, and multilateral development banks as part of a multi-year Donor Community of Practice on Climate Mobility.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Migration, Governance, Mobility, and Climate Refugees
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Diverging Paths: The Impacts of COVID-19 on Migration in the Middle East and North Africa

Author:
Samuel Davidoff-Gore
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
The shutdown of mobility at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic had drastic effects on movement throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Migrant workers comprise much of the workforce in Arab Gulf states, Jordan, and Lebanon, and many lost their jobs and returned to their countries of origin. Tourism and travel, which represent a sizeable share of GDP for many countries, largely halted. And border closures stranded irregular migrants along many major routes. Looking back, the global public-health crisis may have been less of a disruptor of existing trends, instead reinforcing and accelerating them. The Gulf has continued its shift away from petrowealth and toward more diversified economies that aim to depend less on migrant workers, and North Africa and Lebanon have become increasingly unstable. This report is part of a series of studies by MPI’s Task Force on Mobility and Borders during and after COVID-19 that explores opportunities to improve international coordination regarding border management during public-health crises. Other regional case studies in this series look at Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and South America. Thematic studies consider the role of digital health credentials in facilitating movement, the use of risk analysis to shape border policies, and the rise of remote work and “digital nomads.” A final capstone policy brief reflects on lessons for future public-health crises.
Topic:
Migration, Borders, Public Health, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Middle East and North Africa

3. Displacement and International Protection in a Warming World

Author:
Samuel Davidoff-Gore and Lawrence Huang
Publication Date:
09-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Most climate-related displacement occurs within a country’s territory, but when people cross borders, it poses particular challenges. Policymakers in destination countries face the task of simultaneously managing borders and addressing arriving migrants’ emergency assistance and protection needs. Yet, the migration and refugee policy tools available are rarely, if ever, designed with climate displacement in mind. There is no consensus, for example, on what status climate-displaced people should receive, what rights and benefits they are entitled to, and how states should respond if climate change has rendered their homes uninhabitable. And unless policymakers proactively manage climate displacement, these movements can further weaken already fragile migration management and asylum systems. This issue brief explores what role the international protection system can and should play in responses to cross-border climate displacement and highlights steps policymakers could take to diversify the policy toolkit beyond the protection realm.
Topic:
Climate Change, Migration, Refugees, Displacement, Protection, and Climate Refugees
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. Migration and Displacement in Secondary Cities: Insights from Côte d’Ivoire and Uganda

Author:
Samuel Davidoff-Gore and Camille Le Coz
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
The world is becoming increasingly urbanized, driven both by long-standing patterns of rural-urban migration and the growth of new small and mid-sized cities. While sprawling megacities often receive the most policy and public attention, secondary cities are some of the fastest growing in many parts of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa. Migrants and displaced persons, often drawn to small and mid-sized cities by the promise of greater economic opportunities and better access to services than exist in rural areas, can nonetheless face a variety of challenges, as can the communities in which they settle. This study explores these dynamics in Côte d’Ivoire and Uganda. These countries and the studied cities within them are emblematic of urbanization trends in West and East Africa, respectively, and they illustrate a range of migration and displacement experiences and policy approaches that offer lessons for refugee- and migrant-receiving secondary cities. The report examines common challenges to migrants’ socioeconomic inclusion in secondary cities, including the gender dynamics at play beneath broader trends. It also looks at how cities, local representatives of the central government, and civil-society organizations have sought to respond to migration-related challenges and factors that have limited their actions. The report is part of a multiyear research partnership between MPI and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation's Thematic Section Migration and Forced Displacement to support the development of global solutions for migration-related challenges.
Topic:
Migration, Urbanization, Employment, Economy, Displacement, and Inclusion
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, and Côte d'Ivoire