Giving Compass' Take:

• This report, from the International Organization for Migration and the Migration Policy Institute, analyzes global migration throughout 2020 and the impact of COVID-19 border closures and travel restrictions. 

• What were the most significant impacts on migrants during 2020? What are the broader impacts of travel bans on human mobility during COVID-19? 

• Read more about migration amid COVID-19. 

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 picture of human mobility in 2020 is of movement dramatically curtailed, the details of this picture varied over the course of the year and across regions.

This report, which results from collaboration between the International Organization for Migration and the Migration Policy Institute, is a first-of-its-kind comprehensive analysis of the travel measures and border closures that governments worldwide implemented during 2020. This patchwork of fast-changing policies includes restrictions on the entry or transit of travelers through certain countries or regions, health measures (such as quarantine and testing requirements or medical certificates), and changes to visa regimes. At their peak in mid-December, these travel measures exceeded 111,000 in place at one time.

Read the full report on global mobility during COVID-19 by Meghan Benton, Jeanne Batalova, Samuel Davidoff-Gore, and Timo Schmidt at Migration Policy Institute.