WASHINGTON, DC and PANAMA CITY, PANAMA — Governments across the Americas are managing increasing mobility pressures by expanding regular pathways for migration through regional mobility agreements, circular labor migration programs, humanitarian protection measures and other innovative policies. A new report from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) maps the evolving landscape, as countries from Chile to Canada seek to incentivize safe, orderly and regular migration while simultaneously tightening restrictions on irregular migration.

Despite the expansion of pathways, management migration pressures effectively remain a challenge across the Americas. High levels of irregular movement continue to test both destination and transit countries. Furthermore, these pathways often grant temporary statuses, leading to integration challenges for both migrants and host communities.

The report underscores the need for concerted efforts to create regular pathways that offer real alternatives to irregular migration.

“Understanding the landscape of regular migration pathways that exist in the Americas, as well as their strengths and weaknesses, is critical as we undertake national and international policy discussions to reshape migration in the region toward a safe, regular, and orderly system that works for all and takes full advantage of all the opportunities that migration presents for both origin and host communities,” said Serena Hoy, IOM’s Special Envoy for Regular Pathways.

The report, Building on Regular Pathways to Address Migration Pressures in the Americas, highlights commonalities, differences and notable limitations of these pathways. It also explores how these pathways could be enhanced or expanded to provide viable alternatives to irregular movements, aligning with governments’ aspirations for safe, orderly, and regular migration.

The report’s authors, MPI analysts María Jesús Mora, Ariel G. Ruiz Soto and Andrew Selee, propose several recommendations to better navigate mobility challenges in the Americas amidst significant displacement and other migration pressures. These include strengthening mobility agreements across countries and nationalities, leveraging private-sector interests in labor migration, expanding access to permanent status in part to maximize migrants’ contributions to host communities, enhancing regional coordination and prioritizing migration data and analysis.

“Facing the new migration realities in the Western Hemisphere requires governments to redouble their efforts to design regular pathways that can effectively adapt not only to current but also future migration trends and, importantly, benefit all segments of society—from businesses to migrants to the communities in which they settle,” said Selee, who is MPI’s president. “In this, the hemisphere’s rich mix of pathways can offer a solid foundation on which governments and their partners globally can build.”

Read the report here: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/regular-pathways-americas.

For more from MPI’s Latin America and Caribbean Initiative, visit: www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/latin-america-caribbean-initiative.

For more from IOM, visit: https://respuestavenezolanos.iom.int/es

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About the International Organization for Migration 

Established in 1951, IOM is the leading inter-governmental organization in the field of migration and works closely with governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental partners. With 173 member states, a further nine states holding observer status and offices in over 100 countries, IOM is dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all. It does so by providing services and advice to governments and migrants. Learn more about IOM: www.iom.int. 

About the Migration Policy Institute 

A non-partisan think tank, MPI seeks to improve immigration and integration policies through authoritative research and analysis, opportunities for learning and dialogue, and the development of new ideas to address complex policy questions. Established in 2001, MPI aims to meet the rising demand for pragmatic and thoughtful responses to the challenges and opportunities that large-scale migration, whether voluntary or forced, presents to communities and institutions in an increasingly integrated world. For more on MPI, visit www.migrationpolicy.org.