Migration and Development Initiative

*A program trainer reviewing class design on decision-making map for migrants | Photo credit: Mercy Corps Niger, 2023*

Tens of millions of people are displaced from their homes and living outside their country of birth. The vast majority travel to and reside in developing nations. Yet, despite that reality and the fact that migration is expected to increase as people seek better economic opportunities and flee conflicts, including those exacerbated by the effects of climate change, most research efforts are centered on migration to Europe and North America, and most policy efforts are designed to reduce or prevent the movement of people.

The Migration and Development Initiative was launched in 2019 to use cutting-edge social science methods to study migration and development where it matters most – including West and Central Africa, the Middle East, and Central America’s Northern Triangle. Starting from the principle that migration can lead to better development outcomes around the world, the initiative tests interventions designed to improve the process for everyone involved: the people who migrate, the countries who receive them, and the communities they leave behind and sometimes rejoin.

The initiative developed a WhatsApp survey method and has used it to study Syrians in Lebanon and Venezuelans in Colombia; created a database of every nation’s asylum and refugee policies dating back to 1951 in partnership with the World Bank and United Nations; and is leading a randomized control trial, called Planning for Productive Migration (PPM), in Niger to study if training and cash assistance programs can help underemployed rural men improve their outcomes during seasonal migration to urban centers.

Since its launch, the initiative has become a leader within the applied policy research community. Its WhatsApp survey method has been adopted by other researchers and international organizations, and it has hosted multiple workshops for The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and U.S. Department of State personnel; in policy documents, USAID has pointed to PPM as an exemplar of research in the field.