Two women who grew up in Monterrey, Mexico explore how it has been transformed as a home to migrants from across Central America. They explain how, while Monterrey is not a border town with the US, it feels like one. For decades, it has been an important destination of internal indigenous migration. In recent years, Monterrey appears in the conversation as a transit city for Central American migrants, but the truth is that for more than a decade, migrants from Central America have arrived, settled in, and built a life in the city.

Thessaloniki is known by Greeks as the “Mother of Migration,” due to its centuries-long history of providing refuge to those fleeing persecution and conflict, from Sephardic Jews in the 1400s to Greek refugee returnees in the 1900s. Today, Thessaloniki hosts asylum seekers and refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, and south Asian and African countries. Some refugees treat Thessaloniki as a transit city where they stay while preparing to travel to other, wealthier European countries. Others see Thessaloniki as a permanent home. This report attempts to shed light on the integration process for the most recent wave of refugees in Thessaloniki. It is written by a four-person team of Iranian, Lebanese, Greek, and Pakistani nationals who work in the humanitarian sector in Thessaloniki.

Written by a life-long resident of San Jose, this case report looks at migration to Costa Rica and explores the main opportunities for and obstacles to integration in terms of migratory status, access to public health, jobs, education, and recreation. It shares which organizations refugees find supportive, what kind of aid is available or not, which areas of the city they find desirable and why.

This report examines the impact and experiences of Somalis in Mombasa, and how Somali refugees and Kenyan-Somalis navigate their ambiguous identities and find creative ways to access the privileges promised by recognized legal status, with or without the status itself. It is written by Aisha, a Somali long-time resident of Mombasa, and Ella, an American graduate student at The Fletcher School. Both have worked extensively with migration and Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) in Mombasa.

The author of the Harare report’s interest in return migration to her homeland, Zimbabwe, stemmed from her desire to return home, knowledge of other people trickling back, and research that showed that most migrants have a desire to return home. The yearning for return increased after the “peaceful coup” in November 2017 when Robert Mugabe, president since independence in 1980, was ousted, and Zimbabweans thought the ongoing violence and economic chaos would abate and conditions would improve. In this report, the author explores voluntary return to Zimbabwe, the reasons people return, returnees’ impact on the city of Harare, and their experiences of reintegration through rediscovering their culture, recreating social ties, accessing jobs and citizenship, and developing a sense of belonging again.