MPI's Top Ten Migration Stories of 2015

This is the time of year when we all tote up what's happened in the past year, and try to make sense of it by ranking things from high to low in some manner or another. I tend to do that on New Year's Day, but the Migration Policy Institute in Washington yesterday created their list of the top ten migration stories of 2015. The timing coincided, of course, with International Migrants Day, as proclaimed by the United Nations.

1. Migration Crisis Tests European Consensus and Governance
2. Displacement Reaches Record High as Wars Continue and New Conflicts Emerge
3. White House Uses Many Levers of Power to Effect Change as Obama and Congress Remain Deadlocked on Immigration
4. Big Business of Smuggling Enables Mass Movement of People for Enormous Profits
5. Governments Increasingly Restrict Citizenship
6. Refugee Crisis Deepens Political Polarization in the West
7. Climate Change and Natural Disasters Displace Millions, Affect Migration Flows
8. A Shared Challenge: Europe and the United States Confront Significant Flows of Unaccompanied Child Migrants
9. Border Skirmishes Resonate in National Domestic Politics
10. Shine Wears Off Investor Visa Programs as Questions about Economic Benefits and Fraud Lead to Reforms

I have focused attention on #s 1, 2, and 8 (with a focus mainly on the US), and a bit on 4 and 5. We'll see in a few days how the migration stories compare with other stories in terms of popularity among readers of this blog.