In 2025, we are living through the largest era of human mobility in modern history. With over 120 million people forcibly displaced worldwide and countless others moving in search of better opportunities, understanding migration has never been more critical 2 .
This massive movement of humanity is reshaping politics, economies, and societies across the globe, making migration one of the most pressing—and misunderstood—issues of our time.
Beneath the heated political debates and sensational headlines lies a complex reality: migration is a fundamental human response to changing circumstances, driven by factors ranging from climate disasters and conflict to economic opportunities and family ties.
Thanks to groundbreaking research methods, we're now able to see these global movements with unprecedented clarity, revealing patterns that challenge many of our assumptions about why, how, and where people move.
Forcibly displaced people worldwide
Annual average migrants (2019-2022)
Projected climate migrants by 2050
Migration scholars have developed the concept of "migrantisation" to describe the social processes that classify certain groups of people as "migrants" while others are not 1 .
Consider this paradox: why are some mobile people considered "migrants" while others—like international business travelers or students—typically are not?
All people moving across borders
Power dynamics determine who gets labeled
Selective application of the label
The climate crisis has emerged as a powerful driver of displacement, acting as what the World Health Organization calls a "risk multiplier" .
Source: World Health Organization, World Bank
The connection between climate and displacement creates a vicious cycle: displaced populations often end up in locations highly vulnerable to climate hazards like floods, drought, and heatwaves, further undermining their ability to rebuild stable lives 5 .
In 2025, a groundbreaking research collaboration between Meta, the University of Hong Kong, and Harvard University published a study that would revolutionize our understanding of global migration patterns.
Their approach was both simple and revolutionary: using the location data of three billion anonymized Facebook users to track permanent migration between 181 countries 3 7 .
Determine user's country via IP and self-reporting
Classify migration after 1+ year in new country
Adjust for Facebook penetration and income levels
Add statistical noise for anonymity
Interactive map showing migration flows between countries
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Annual average migrants | 30 million |
| 2022 documented migrations | 39.1 million |
| Data source | 3 billion users |
| Data coverage | 181 countries |
| Strengths | Limitations |
|---|---|
| Consistent data across 181 countries | Excludes China, Iran, Cuba |
| Near real-time tracking | Cannot determine legal status |
| Validated against official statistics | Requires statistical weighting |
| Privacy-protected | Dependent on Facebook penetration |
Perhaps the most significant revelation was how the data challenged common assumptions about global migration. Rather than showing simple flows from "poor" to "rich" nations, the maps revealed a complex "great network of human movement," with all nations participating in interconnected flows shaped by cultural, economic, historical, and family ties 3 .
Modern migration research draws on a diverse array of methods and tools, each offering unique insights into different aspects of human movement. The field has evolved significantly from traditional census and administrative data, embracing both high-tech innovations and traditional approaches.
Tracking real-time migration patterns across multiple countries using digital trace data from platforms like Facebook.
Understanding migrant experiences through structured interviews and questionnaires to provide depth and context.
Documenting lived experiences through immersive fieldwork to capture the human dimensions of migration.
Tracking displacement due to disasters and environmental changes through remote sensing technology.
Digital trace data from platforms like Facebook represents one of the most promising—and debated—developments in migration research. While offering unprecedented scale and timeliness, it also raises important questions about ethics, privacy, and representation 8 .
The revolutionary mapping of global migration through Facebook data represents more than just a technical achievement—it offers a new way of seeing our interconnected world.
By moving beyond anecdotes and assumptions to comprehensive, consistent data, we can begin to understand migration not as a crisis to be feared, but as a fundamental aspect of human behavior in response to changing circumstances.
All nations participate in migration flows
New methods reveal complex patterns
Environmental factors drive displacement
What emerges from this research is a vision of a world where migration is normal, widespread, and not confined to any single region or direction. As the New York Times analysis of the data noted, "This picture of migration is one in which all nations, rich and poor, participate in a great network of human movement" 3 .
Understanding these patterns is crucial, because the forces driving migration—including climate change, conflict, and economic transformation—are only likely to intensify in the coming decades. Building policies and systems that recognize migration as a reality rather than a problem, that see migrants as people rather than statistics, may be one of the most important challenges of our century.
As we continue to refine our tools for tracking human movement, we also refine our understanding of our shared humanity—a species constantly in motion, adapting to a changing world, and forever seeking better horizons.