Migration Governance Insights on Regular Pathways: Delivering on the promise of migration – Executive Summary

Regular pathways are essential to realizing the promise of migration. These pathways are the legal and policy frameworks that enable people to move to, enter, stay in, exit or re-enter States along their migration journey in an authorized manner. The impacts of migration depend on where and how people migrate, which in turn depend largely on the options available to them. More and better opportunities for people to move in a regular way are key to realizing the promise of migration.

This publication, based on the Migration Governance Indicators (MGI) data from 100 national and 69 local-level assessments conducted between 2016 and 2023, provides insights into what pathways for regular migration look like around the world. It showcases examples of relevant policies at different stages of the migration continuum and across a range of contexts. The report also explores how different enabling factors can support effective and impactful pathways, and which scaling mechanisms can expand existing pathways, and assesses the potential benefits of regular pathways for migrants and countries of origin and destination.

Regular pathways are highly diverse and can be characterized in different ways. In this publication, the focus is on the purpose of migration facilitated by a given pathway. Four main reasons for migration are analysed, recognizing that these are not exhaustive or mutually exclusive, as individuals’ motivations to migrate often overlap.