COVID-19 and the State of Global Mobility in 2020

The year 2020 marked a sudden break in mobility across international borders. The COVID-19 pandemic decimated tourism and business travel; cut the lion’s share of seasonal and temporary labor migration; temporarily ground refugee resettlement efforts to a halt; and held up the processing of visas of all kinds, from those for international students to family reunification. Yet even as the overall mobility picture dramatically changed, the details of this picture varied over the course of the year and across regions.

Joining to share the data behind this shift is Migration Policy Institute’s Senior Policy Analyst Jeanne Batalova and Policy Analyst Kate Hooper in a conversation with Immigration Nerds researcher Luke Bianco and Immigration Nerds host Ian Gaines.