Labor mobility that delivers value to workers, employers, and economies requires more and better legal channels to connect workers with rights-respecting jobs. LaMP works to help design, scale, and strengthen these well-regulated mobility pathways.

Traditional migration policies in developed countries have excluded workers who could meet critical labor needs because they are oriented around population settlement, family reunification, or skills thresholds not linked to labor market needs. LaMP takes an occupational approach to creating or improving mobility pathways, based on the needs of employing industries in high income countries. We identify ways to meet those needs via well-regulated programs that protect workers (and ensure orderly flows between source and destination countries).

This process includes diagnosing challenges and opportunities in sectors facing critical labor shortages – such as the elderly care or hospitality sectors, hit extremely hard by the Covid-19 pandemic; to implementing practical solutions to constraints within current policy frameworks; and  building a coalition of actors representing employers, workers, governments, and the recruitment industry to develop and support pragmatic policy solutions when required create new or larger legal pathways.

Along the way, LaMP assesses and applies lessons learned from emerging models for occupational mobility, including government-implemented recruitment, global skills partnerships, and a series of pilot programs creating multi-year and permanent visas for workers in key occupations.