Mexico - On 5 April, Ovais Sarmad, IOM Chief of Staff, gave a keynote address to the Centre for Research on North America (CISAN) at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) on IOM and the state of global migration.

“While some migrants have travelled long distances from their origin countries, more than 60 percent of global migration still consists of people moving to neighbouring countries or to countries in the same part of the world,” noted Sarmad. “In fact, nine of the ten top corridors globally (including Mexico to the United States – this is one the biggest corridors), connect neighbouring countries,” he continued.

“There are firmly established structural factors underlying global mobility and these are unlikely to change any time soon, if ever. It is inconceivable to imagine a world where people would be unable to move to take new jobs, to be reunited with family members, to conduct business, to study or simply to engage in tourism,” Sarmad emphasized during his briefing.

Sarmad detailed five complex and sensitive policy challenges policy makers must contend with when managing migration: forced migration, multiple disasters, distorted narrative on migrants, anti-migrant sentiment and political malaise.

“‘Migration crisis’ is the banner headline that is often used to sum up these crises, but we should perhaps ask: Is this is a truly a ‘migration crisis’ or a ‘crisis of solidarity?’” asked Sarmad.

IOM’s briefing was followed by commentary from Ambassador Martha Ortiz de Rosas, Head of UNAM’s Cátedra Fernando Solana, and Silvia Núñez García, Director of CISAN, on the current challenges for Mexican migrants in North America. 

UNAM is a non-profit institution that was founded in its modern form in 1910 and today is one of the world’s largest public institutions of higher education, with more than 346,000 students and almost 39,500 academics. UNAM’s goal is to serve Mexico and humanity by educating professional committed to transforming Mexico, as well as to do research at the highest level to contribute to resolving national and world problems.

Sarmad concluded by emphasizing the role universities can play in migration. “Universities such as UNAM have a role to play in the global migration management and governance through targeted research and academic initiatives,” he said. “These initiatives could be through inclusion of effective migration management policies and discourse in relevant curriculum of existing or new courses as well as specific teaching programmes at undergraduate, masters and even at doctorate levels,” he concluded.

For further information, please contact Chris Gascon, IOM Mexico, Tel: +52 55 55 36 39 22, Email: cgascon@iom.int.