Switzerland - On 26 and 27 October in Geneva IOM will bring ministers and mayors to debate for the first time in a global policy forum – the High-level Conference on Migrants and Cities (CMC) – the complex dynamics of human mobility in cities and assess how challenges can be managed and development opportunities maximized.

With urban population expected to reach almost 70 per cent of the world’s population by 2050, migration is a significant component of cities.  Migrants play an important role in the global shift to cities and in driving cities’ development agendas. However, this role seems to be largely overlooked in the global debate on urbanization and development.

“Today’s world cannot be understood without looking at cities,” says William Lacy Swing, IOM Director General, “and today’s cities cannot be understood without looking at human mobility patterns. This calls for new approaches to urban governance and migration policies.”

Mayors are at the forefront of migration governance as they are responsible for making and implementing policies and meeting migrants’ needs in their cities. However, their voice has been missing from the global debate on migration and urbanization, and barely present in international policy. Local authorities, and particularly mayors, are increasingly facing the complex challenges of managing human mobility in cities.  

The Conference will thus examine among others, integration, inclusive urban planning, migrants in vulnerable situations in cities and multi-stakeholder partnerships for migration management including the diaspora’s role in promoting cities’ co-development.

IOM’s CMC will take place in the framework of the International Dialogue on Migration (IDM) – IOM’s main forum for migration policy dialogue – and follows the Diaspora Ministerial Conference held in June 2013 when 600 participants, including 60 ministers and high-level government representatives debated diaspora’s role in bridging societies for development.

IOM has invited and expects a significant participation of mayors, ministers in charge of cities, high-level government officials and representatives of relevant governmental departments and of local authorities; international organizations and UN agencies, civil society organizations and the private sector, experts, researchers and academics.

Several ministers, mayors and representatives of other local authorities as well as heads of regional and international organizations have already confirmed participation and many more are expected to do so in the coming weeks.

The conference will also be the venue for the launch of the World Migration Report 2015 – Migrants and Cities: New Partnerships to Manage Mobility – a report which explores how migration and migrants are shaping cities and how the life of migrants is, in turn, shaped by cities, their people, organizations, and rules.

For more information please visit http://www.iom.int/conference-migrants-and-cities

For further information please contact: Azzouz Samri, IOM HQ, Tel: + 41 227 179 468 Email: asamri@iom.int  or the IDM Workshop at idmworkshop@iom.int