My plan was to spend the autumn processing data from fieldwork in Ghana over the summer, and carrying out new fieldwork in Cape Verde. But due to Covid-19, none of that is happening. Instead, I am doing desk-based work, mainly on the following questions: How can migration aspirations be measured through surveys? What are the determinants of migration aspirations? What are meaningful distinctions in people’s thoughts and feelings about the prospect of migrating? And how can migration theory be translated into empirical propositions? These analyses are part of two long-term research project that I lead — MIGNEX, a large collaborative project on migration and development, and Future Migration as Present Fact (FUMI), my ERC Consolidator project focused on West Africa — and the project Quantifying Migration Scenarios for Better Policy (QuantMig), that I contribute to. The work on the questions I listed above is all collaborative, carried out in different combinations with Tone Sommerfelt, Maryam Aslany, Mathilde Bålsrud Mjelva and Marta Bivand Erdal at PRIO, and Mathias Czaika at Danube University Krems.