Watch: Can — and should — aid be used to tackle the root causes of migration?

Using development assistance to deter migration has become integral to the U.S. approach to Central America, where conditions see hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants fleeing their home countries each year for the United States. But the U.S. is not the first to consider this approach. The European Union has spent billions of euros attempting to address “the root causes of migration” in countries where high numbers of migrants to Europe come from. Efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of the spending in stemming the flow of migrants are ongoing. Devex spoke with Camille Le Coz at the Migration Policy Institute and Sarah Blodgett Bermeo of Duke University to discuss what the U.S. can learn from Europe’s approach. Highlights from the event include: • Evaluating the pros and cons of the European approach, through the European Trust Fund for Africa. • Challenges President Joe Biden faces in seeing quick results in Central America. • How legal pathways can take off some — but not all — of the pressure to migrate irregularly. • The challenges Europe faces in crafting unanimous migration policy after significant domestic political shifts. • How the U.S. can work productively with corrupt governments to see development gains. • Why localization is key to success in addressing the root causes of migration.