Mobility Patterns in the Americas

Mapping mobility in the Americas through administrative data

Nationalities
Trends
Map is for illustration purposes only. The boundaries and names shown and the designations used do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by IOM. Nationality refers to the legal bond between a person and a State and is often used interchangeably with “citizen” to denote someone who holds the nationality or citizenship of that State (IOM, 2019). Regular entry: The act of entering a country through an official border crossing point in compliance with the State's entry requirements and administrative procedures. Regular exit: The act of departing a country through an official border crossing point in compliance with the State’s exit requirements and administrative procedures. Irregular entry: An entry of a person who moves or has moved across an international border and is not authorized to enter or to stay in a State pursuant to the law of that State and to international agreements to which that State is a party (adapted from IOM, 2019). For Mexico, irregular entries refer to events of foreigners in an irregular migration situation who were subject to administrative procedures initiated by the National Migration Institute (INM). Data includes only non-nationals to ensure comparability across reporting countries.

Human mobility across the Americas is driven by intersecting political, economic, environmental, and policy factors, resulting in complex patterns of migration and mobility. Despite a rich migration data landscape, data is often fragmented, inconsistent, and difficult to compare across countries. To help address these gaps, IOM's Lighthouse Programme (Comprehensive Data Initiative in the Americas, implemented with the support of the United States Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration) consolidates and harmonizes secondary data including administrative data (border entries and exits) already collected by governments into a regional database. The database enables the month-by-month analysis of mobility patterns disaggregated by nationality in the Americas. Data is sourced from publicly accessible government platforms and, in some cases, direct sharing between IOM and national authorities.

This interactive report presents the consolidated data through a dynamic map visualization, allowing users to explore cross-border movement patterns across countries, indicators, and time. The map displays, for each selected country and year, the composition and magnitude of recorded entries, exits, or irregular entries (the countries that report data on irregular entries are Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Honduras) by nationality. Complementing this, the report includes a focused analytical section highlighting key trends in Venezuelan mobility, offering contextual insights to support data interpretation.

Deep dives

Venezuela
Regular entry records show Venezuelan mobility reshaping the region: Colombia registered 20% more entries from Venezuelan nationals in 2024 than in 2023 and kept growing in early 2025, Brazil followed with steady gains, while Ecuador and Mexico registered double-digit declines and Mexico's irregular entries of Venezuelans slipped to their lowest point since 2022.