Dynamics of mass migration

Armed conflicts, natural disasters, environmental degradation, or other crises can trigger massive population movements that present a serious challenge for the destination countries. We provide a theoretical analysis of the dynamics of population movements and their interaction with border-control policy of destination authorities. Our model exhibits a trade-off between the speed of the border-control response and the total cost of bringing immigration flows back to a target level. Simulations of the model, based on the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis, also highlight the implications of criminalizing human-smuggling activity and the influence of a diaspora on the dynamics of migration.