IDM First Session 2024

This panel seeks to inspire more governments to join the global effort to establish, expand and enhance regular pathways as a key element of ensuring safe, orderly and regular migration. Sound migration policies and legislation aligned with international law, key global frameworks, and supported by the capacity to implement them are vital for coherence and consistency in regular pathways and effective migration governance more broadly and provide a starting point for operational implementation mechanisms. Using the Migration Governance Indicators success stories as a basis, participants will discuss innovative policy instruments that governments can leverage to facilitate regular migration as part of a 360-degree approach to human mobility.

The role of community as a peacebuilder can address integration, inclusion, and peaceful co-existence in the context of the facilitation of regular pathways in at least three areas: social cohesion, migration governance and participation/inclusion. Integration of migrants, including IDPs in humanitarian contexts, points to the need for a more strategic and systematic peacebuilding engagement with migration in the areas of social cohesion, migration governance and participation. This includes addressing social cohesion by improving relations between different groups of migrants, host communities, governments, service providers and international or national NGOs, including in countries of origin and destination. It also includes working with migration actors and policies to minimise the risk of migration management leading to conflict and to enhance its positive impact on peace.

Social cohesion is a key issue at the intersection of peace and migration, particularly when we are discussing the centrality of regular migration pathways. Horizontal relationships (e.g. between migrants and host communities, or between different groups of migrants) are as important as vertical relationships (e.g. between host communities and local authorities, or between migrants and service providers). In this context, peacebuilding community actors can play a role in addressing factors that undermine or enhance social cohesion, as well as the centrality for preventing conflict and sustaining peace.

During this panel, the discussions will contribute on the general objective to unpack actions on regular and safe complementary pathways for migration and the role of community in social cohesion, strengthening safety and security, and good governance. Social cohesion, migration governance and inclusion are relevant areas of engagement for policymakers interested in an integrated approach to migration. Additionally, political, economic, and social challenges in border areas often hamper development efforts and complicate interventions for the resilience and prosperity of border communities in conflict zones. In prioritizing whole-of-government, whole-of-society approaches to safely connect people, goods, services, knowledge and innovation, IOM is increasingly prioritizing strengthening Member State governments’ border governance approaches to be more inclusive to achieve safer cross-border movement and reduce irregular migration. Integrated approaches that combine cooperative border management and community-centered approaches further facilitate regular pathways and provide more safety and security protections and assistance to migrants in vulnerable situations and contributes to larger national and regional stability.

During this IDM session, IOM will discuss approaches from Africa, the Americas, and Europe to identify innovative community engagement and social cohesion efforts to harness integration of migrant communities in host countries as a key component of regular pathways.

Today the world is more interconnected, globalized, and interdependent than it has ever been in history. This has profound implications for the movement of people across borders, both voluntarily and involuntarily. Migration is not a new phenomenon, but it has become more complex and diverse in the 21st century. Among the various types of migrants, the diaspora, or the people who live outside their country of origin or ancestry, play a significant role in shaping the social, economic, cultural and political dimensions of their host and home countries.

The diaspora are already contributing to the development of both their countries of origin and destination, through remittances, investments, trade, skills transfer, cultural exchange and civic engagement. The World Bank reported in 2023 that remittance flows to low-and middle-income countries alone were estimated to have reached $669 billion.

Diaspora also act as bridge between different cultures, communities, and regions, fostering dialogue, cooperation, and mutual understanding. However, the diaspora also faces many challenges and barriers.

One of the key issues that affect the diaspora is the availability and accessibility of regular pathways for migration. Regular pathways are the legal and safe channels that allow people to migrate for various purposes, such as work, study, family reunification, humanitarian protection or personal reasons. Regular pathways can also reduce the risks and vulnerabilities associated with irregular migration, such as human trafficking, smuggling, exploitation and abuse. However, regular pathways are often limited, restrictive, costly and cumbersome, especially for low-skilled workers, women, youth and refugees. Therefore, it is important to expand and diversify the regular pathways for migration, in line with the global and regional frameworks, such as the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the African Union Protocol on Free Movement of Persons.

Globally, structural changes such as population ageing, automation and digitalisation of the economy and the green transition are affecting labour market dynamics. The global demand for skills has accelerated in recent years with a recent report published in 2023 indicating that nearly 4 in 5 employers globally report difficulty finding the skilled talent, more than doubling the difficulty since 2015.

Migrants, including displaced populations can play a key role in addressing labour market needs in countries around the world. If equipped with the skills, knowledge and competencies needed for the economies of the hosting and destination countries, refugees and displaced people can become a strong match to the labour market needs and find their ways into new life, get jobs which would suite their career aspirations, become financially independent and contribute to the communities in which they are living. Faced with a declining working-age population, the youth dividend and rapidly evolving skills requirements, the private sector is being called upon to harness recruitment as a channel for meeting current and future needs for skilled workers.

Skills-based mobility offers one solution in the search for global talent, providing opportunities with countries, the private sector, and migrants themselves to leverage the positive developments of migration, through targeted interventions that are responsive to labour market needs while at the same time protect migrant’s right. To harness skills-based mobility not only to address labour shortages but to bridge cross-regional skills gaps, IOM promotes tools and approaches that foster a skills-focused approach to labour mobility that is grounded in labour market and skills data and centred around skills development, recognition and matching to the benefit of labour markets, employers, communities, and migrants (e.g. Skills Mobility Partnerships or SMP).