Insights and key messages drawn from a decade of MMC research and 4Mi data collection
The question of why people migrate — the drivers and decision-making processes their journeys entail — has been a primary focus of the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC). This paper, based on a decade of extensive research and expert analysis, including more than 100,000 4Mi surveys with refugees and migrants, synthesizes our key insights and sets out five key messages to explain why people migrate.
Five key messages to help understand why people migrate
Refugees and migrants rarely leave their place of origin for a single, isolated reason; generally, departure drivers are multiple and intertwined. Some drivers, such as climate change, are indirect, and may affect other drivers, and different people may leave the same place for different reasons, and head to different destinations. Forced and voluntary mobility are often better understood as points on a spectrum than mutually exclusive categories.
The decision to leave depends not only on aspirations (impacted by multiple migration drivers), but also on the risks of staying, and the resources and capacity for moving. Understanding the complexities of the decision to leave (or stay) and where to go if the decision to migrate is taken, is essential.
Since most people in the world do not migrate, we need to better understand immobility, as it would also contribute to a better understanding of drivers and decision-making around migration.
It is important to recognize people’s individual agency in the decision making process on migration before leaving. The role of smugglers encouraging people to migrate is overestimated. Many people are well aware of the risks, but show resilience and determination to realise their migratory aspirations.
Approaching the decision to move using the “root causes” narrative in public and policy discourse frames it as a simplistic issue and a problem to be solved, rather than a complex phenomenon to be better understood. It diverts resources, attention and accountability away from many of the real ‘root causes’.
Do asylum policies encourage migration? Is climate change a driver? What shapes migration decisions? What role do smugglers play in irregular migration? Explore MMC’s latest data, research and FAQs on migration drivers and decision-making.
