Migrant Rights Protection in the Global Compact: The Baseline in 45 Major Destinations

Data analysis by the Migrant Rights Initiative shows that member States hosting more than 70 percent of the world’s migrant stock protect, on average, a majority of key migrant rights protections in national law. What is more, the extent of these protections actually increased since 2020, albeit slightly. These data also suggest that the GCM has had a net positive effect on domestic legal incorporation of key human rights protections into national law. This report finds net increases in the average protection of migrants across nine out of seventeen categories of rights evaluated by the Migrant Rights Initiative in the Migrant Rights Database (MRD). This suggests that member States convening at the second International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) should reaffirm international law in the Progress Declaration and can indeed stand firm against backsliding with a response grounded in a defense of their own sovereignty.