At Their Second Anniversary, the Global Compacts on Refugees and Migration Appear to Be on Separate and Increasingly Diverging Tracks

WASHINGTON — Two years after the adoption of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) at the UN General Assembly, the global landscape in which these instruments are being implemented has shifted dramatically. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought acute disruptions to global mobility; increased governments’ reliance on short-term, often unilateral responses to managing migration and humanitarian admissions; and imposed dramatic new burdens on public services while undermining their financial foundations.