How do people migrate?

How do people migrate?

Pathways of mobility vary in terms of safety and adherence to regular migration governance regimes. This module will explore the pathways people choose to migrate, both in the physical sense—air, land and sea—as well as the legal sense, what we call regular and irregular migration.

Migrants with visas (from WMR 2024, Ch. 4)

Where possible, migrants will choose to migrate through regular pathways on visas. From a migrant’s perspective, the experience can be profoundly different impacting the migrant as well as his/her/their family, including those who may remain in the origin country.

• First, visas denote authority to enter a country and so offer a form of legitimacy when arriving in and traveling through a country. A valid visa provides a greater chance of being safeguarded against exploitation as well as potential abuse, detention and/or deportation.

• Second, traveling on visas is easier logistically, as the availability of travel options is far greater. In some cases, it can mean the difference between a journey being feasible or not.

• Third, visas provide a greater level of certainty and confidence in the journey, which is much more likely to take place as planned, including in relation to costs. Traveling on visas is more likely to be safer, more certain and more easily able to accommodate greater choice, such as length of journey, travel mode and with whom to travel.

Changes in modern mobility systems

The significant increase in international mobility has been spurred by increased transportation links and the rapid growth in telecommunications technology. By the mid-1960s, rapid technological changes in aviation, such as the development of the jet engine, resulted in the boom of air transportation. These advances allowed aircrafts to reach far-off destinations and at much lower cost, thus leading to greater changes in cross-border movements of people and goods.

Research and analysis on the topic

• Global Overview (WMR 2022, Ch. 2)
• Growing Migration Inequality (WMR 2024, Ch. 4)
• Migration and Human Security (WMR 2024, Ch. 5)
• A Post-Pandemic Rebound? (WMR 2024, Ch. 9)
• Migration journeys (WMR 2018, Ch. 7)
• Mobility, Migration and Transnational Connectivity (WMR 2018, Ch. 6)

Video: How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted mobility?

Unsafe migration flows

Some migration routes pose many more challenges than others, for migrants as well as for authorities. Migrants’ journeys can sometimes be characterized by unsafe and even deadly outcomes, often related to a range of social, political, economic, environmental and policy factors that can profoundly impact the way in which people undertake migration. In the wake of the tragic events of October 2013, in which more than 360 people died in the sinking of two boats near the Italian island of Lampedusa, IOM began collecting and compiling information on migrants who perish or go missing on migratory routes worldwide, as part of its Missing Migrants Project. Data sources include official records of coastguards and medical examiners, media stories, reports from non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies, and interviews with migrants.

The number of deaths recorded in 2023 (over 8,500) was the highest since 2016 and a significant increase over the previous three years, especially 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic and related mobility restrictions resulted in a lower overall number of deaths. Between 2014 and end of 2023, IOM’s Missing Migrants Project recorded over 63,000 deaths and disappearances on migration routes. Year-to-year, 2023 saw an increase in deaths across the Mediterranean, Africa and Asia, with an unprecedented number of lives lost across the latter two regions.

Dangerous Travel Routes for Migrants — The Darién Gap

“The Darién Gap is a lawless wilderness on the border of Colombia and Panama, teeming with everything from deadly snakes to anti-government guerrillas. The region also sees a flow of migrants from Cuba, Africa and Asia, whose desperation sends them on perilous journeys to the U.S.

As traditional pathways to the U.S. become more difficult, Cubans, Somalis, Syrians, Bangladeshis, Nepalis, and many more have been heading to South American countries and traveling north, moving overland up the Central American isthmus. The worst part of this journey is through the Gap. Hundreds of migrants enter each year; many never emerge, killed or abandoned by coyotes (migrant smugglers) on ghost trails.”