Migration Trends Across the Mediterranean: Connecting the Dots

IOM’s Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) commissioned Altai Consulting in November 2014 to create a fresh and updated understanding of the dynamics of the migration flows across the Mediterranean by looking at two routes in particular: the Western Mediterranean route and the Central Mediterranean route. This report takes a closer look at the triggers, patterns, and push and pull factors shaping these migration trends: who are the men and women, and increasingly children, who make the journey from their home countries across vast expanses of desert and eventually across the sea? What compels them, what are their aspirations? Who harms them and who helps them along them way? What are the routes travelled and what determines the stages of a journey?

Fieldwork was conducted between November 2014 and February 2015 across seven countries in the MENA region and Europe (Egypt, Italy, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Spain and Tunisia). Across the sample of locations, 60 in-depth interviews were conducted with migrants and 73 key informant interviews were conducted, resulting in a total of 133 in-depth qualitative interviews.