Madame Chairperson,

Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Since this is the first time that we address the Second
Committee this year, Madame Chairperson, allow me to extend, on
behalf of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) our
congratulations to you and all members of the Bureau on your
election to this 63rd session. IOM is pleased to take this
opportunity to underline the relevance of migration on poverty
eradication efforts. 

The Secretary-General's Report on “Implementation of the
United Nations Second Decade on the Eradication of Poverty
(2008-2017)” reviews the First Decade with “mixed
results in achieving poverty reduction” offering that
“national development strategies need to be broad and
inclusive, and should adopt an integrated and holistic
approach”. In his Report on “The Role of Microcredit
and Microfinance in the Eradication of Poverty”, the
Secretary-General recognizes young people as being highly mobile
and more likely to be involved in overseas employment, thus
demanding better and cheaper remittance services. Indeed, both of
the Secretary-General's reports encourage us to look more broadly
at the entire financial and poverty landscape. With the current
financial crisis, we are even more warranted to do so. 

Madame Chairperson,

With 3% of the world's population as migrants, constituting nearly
200 million people, we need to include migration when discussing
poverty eradication. While migration itself cannot be a chief
driver of poverty eradication, migration is part of a process of
human capital investment when people move for better education or
employment opportunities. The Second Committee later in this
session will debate the topic “migration and
development” already recognizing this important nexus and the
ongoing Global Forum on Migration and Development addresses these
linkages in practical and action-oriented manners. 

International migration can generate substantial welfare gains
for migrants, family members left behind, their countries of origin
and of destination. Economic analysis suggests that if global
trends over the last thirty years continue, temporary migration to
industrialized countries may lead to gains of as much as US $ 300
billion a year by 2025, shared equally between people in developing
and developed countries.  Indeed, with the exception of two
migration causes, namely family reunification and displacement,
migration is usually a livelihood strategy with individual economic
motivations; it can benefit migrants and their families by
increasing their income, and advancing education, health and social
status and the quality of life.

Well-managed migration can benefit poverty reduction in a number
of ways. One of the most obvious and most prominently discussed
means is remittances. Estimated worldwide remittance flows might
have exceeded $318 billion in 2007, of which developing countries
received $240 billion. The true size, including unrecorded flows
through the formal and informal channels, is believed to be
significantly larger . While many tend to cite that remittances are
mainly used for consumption and not for development purposes,
consumption does contribute to the well-being of people who receive
them, and to a varying degree to the national economy as well. In
Sub-Saharan Africa, IOM, the Universal Postal Union and the Pan
African Postal Union have decided to join efforts and expertise
through implementing a pilot project aimed at improving,
strengthening and expanding remittance services to migrants and
their families, in particular, by reducing transfer costs and
enhancing access to formal transfer services through local Postal
Offices. This pilot project will build on expanding the electronic
postal money transfers between Uganda and Tanzania and on providing
capacity building trainings and public information campaign about
the channeling of remittances and their impact on development and
poverty eradication.

It is well recognized that remittances are ultimately private
resources and cannot be a substitute for ODA. They also cannot
alter the structural causes of poverty, but they can provide
stopgap relief to migrants' families if well-run institutional
arrangements for money transfers at reasonable costs are in place.
In addition, they can harness gender equality, in particular in
situations where women are empowered by receiving remittances and
being in control of household budgets and family property.
Certainly there is a need to closely analyze the role of migration
and remittances within wider financial and poverty
aspects. 

Madame Chairperson,

Migration has other powerful potential beyond remittances.
Recognition of the connection between migration and development is
growing even though the Millennium Development Goals, and most
government development policies, such as national Poverty Reduction
Strategy Papers (PRSPs), do not systematically integrate migration
considerations. Gradually, however, since the 2006 High Level
Dialogue on Migration and Development, this has been changing. IOM
encourages the international community to continue better
integrating migration into development policies and planning. To
this end, IOM is working with a number of countries in
mainstreaming migration into their PRSPs and is preparing with
partner agencies a Handbook to assist developing countries to do
so. More generally, the Organization works to identify migration
policies that are “development-friendly” and include a
stronger development perspective, supporting achievement of
development targets such as the MDGs. It is striking that such
ideas are indeed beginning to find their way into ever more
national development plans. In this scenario, South-South migration
is also relevant, accounting for nearly the same number of migrants
than South-North migration, or 61 million migrants. Whether in
their host countries or in their countries of origin the
contribution of diasporas can be significant. In the Bahamas for
example, immigrants have contributed to the development of such key
sectors as the police force, healthcare and education. In
Venezuela, the contribution of migrants towards the growth of a
variety of industries can be highlighted.  But also migrants'
contribution to their countries of origin can be substantial, if
effective cooperation can be established. While their contribution
varies from community to community, they participate in technology
and knowledge transfer, support political processes or even become
engaged in high level positions upon return.

Madame Chairperson,

The need to understand the relationship between migration and
poverty is critically important. Migration always comes at a cost
to moderate the benefits. As the upcoming Global Forum on Migration
and Development in Manila will highlight, the issue of the rights
of migrants cannot be separated from the issue of the poverty
eradication impact of migration. Even more so in the current
financial climate, when issues related to migrants' salary levels
and the impact on remittances, and the possible risks of an
increase in discrimination and xenophobia against migrants will
need to be kept under close surveillance. It is important now to
reinforce efforts to ensure that public perceptions of migrants are
fair and balanced. While labour migration policies should remain
flexible and responsive to changing circumstances, let us not be
short-sighted in this regard and allow migrants to become the
scapegoats of this financial crisis.

Thank you.