Africa may be the most climate-vulnerable region of the world, with drought, extreme heat and storms, and other impacts affecting millions across the continent. These environmental events have forced people from their homes and in some cases even contributed to conflict between different groups. By far, most climate-affected individuals who migrate stay either within their own country or go elsewhere on the continent, rather than migrating beyond Africa.

How prepared is the continent for a future of increased displacement? Governments are making some strides to accommodate displaced people—although there is often a gap between official rhetoric and the realities on the ground. This episode discusses climate-linked migration issues across Africa with Aimée-Noël Mbiyozo, a senior research consultant at the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies.

During the first year of his second term, President Donald Trump and his administration moved to enact sweeping changes to all corners of the U.S. immigration system. A mass deportations campaign that touched cities across the United States with an unprecedented show of force. Pause to refugee resettlement and asylum case processing. Bans and restrictions on legal immigration from 39 countries. Creation of a Trump “gold card” for wealthy individuals. And a repointing that forced immigration to the top of the foreign policy agenda with many countries.

Collectively, the administration’s actions and the resulting impacts on individuals, U.S. communities, job sectors, and the perception of the United States globally will be felt for years, if not decades, to come.

On this webinar, MPI analysts and a veteran journalist assess the actions taken during the administration’s first year back in office, sifting through what is signal and what is noise. They detail the legal picture and analyze the actual effects of the most consequential policy agenda that has been advanced in decades, including its effects on the labor market, U.S. communities, and future immigration to the United States. The conversation accompanied the release of a new analysis of the immigration actions taken during the first year of the second Trump term: Unleashing Power in New Ways: Immigration in the First Year of Trump 2.0

Speakers include:

Kathleen Bush-Joseph, Policy Analyst, MPI

Muzaffar Chishti, Senior Fellow, MPI

Doris Meissner, Senior Fellow and Director, U.S. Immigration Policy Program, MPI

Nick Miroff, Staff Writer covering immigration, The Atlantic

Counselling and reintegration assistance have become central tools for European governments aiming to incentivize and support the uptake of assisted return among migrants facing a return order. In recent years, the European Union has allocated more resources to strengthening these mechanisms, and Dutch policymakers have similarly undertaken efforts to encourage assisted return. Yet the actual influence of actions on migrants’ return decisions remains widely debated. New evidence from the Netherlands offers a clearer picture of how these forms of support function in practice, what shapes migrants’ decision-making, and what kinds of interventions make a meaningful difference.

This Migration Policy Institute Europe webinar explores the findings of its study for the Research and Data Centre (WODC) of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security. The study analyses nearly 118,000 case files from the Dutch Government’s Repatriation and Departure Service (DTenV), combined with interviews with dozens of experts as well as Iraqi and Nigerian migrants who left the Netherlands after receiving a return order.

Speakers discuss how timing, counselling approaches, and partnerships shape the potential for counselling to create space for meaningful conversation and results in the returns space. They also focus on practical steps to strengthen investments in this area.

Speakers include:

• Elena Cavagni, Project Leader, Dutch Council for Refugees
• Osita Osemene, Project Director, Patriotic Citizen Initiatives (PCI) Nigeria
• Ravenna Sohst, Policy Analyst, MPI Europe
• Claudia van der Horst, Senior Advisor, Knowledge and Strategy, Repatriation and Departure Service, Ministry of Asylum and Migration, The Netherlands

Moderator: Camille Le Coz, Director, MPI Europe

More information: www.migrationpolicy.org

Related Report: To Leave or Stay? Examining the Role of Counseling and Reintegration Assistance in the Return Decision-Making of Migrants Ordered to Leave the Netherlands