Chapter 7 discusses the importance of understanding migration from migrants’ perspectives, principally by listening to and learning from migrants through rigorous research. While all migrants make decisions before and during their journeys – some decisions being of greater consequence than others, and even involving life-and-death scenarios – this chapter focuses more on people who have fewer means and more restricted choices. This chapter argues that better understandings of migrants’ choices about migration and migration journeys are of fundamental importance to more effective policymaking on migration.

A number of policy implications for research and policy initiatives are identified, including the need for researchers to take more notice of migrants’ agency; further investment in the formulation of innovative and practical ideas on how regular pathways can be enhanced without inadvertently creating overwhelming increases in “demand” for migration; and harnessing the opportunities, as well as managing the risks that new research technologies present.