Introduction

• An honour to speak at the 50th Anniversary Conference of the
  Council of Europe Development Bank and in such distinguished
  company of participants.
  
  
  
• As DG of the global migration agency - IOM’s views on
  some of the global challenges posed by migration today,
  particularly the links between labour migration, social cohesion
  and development, with particular reference to the Council of Europe
  region.
• • IOM is present in most of the sub-regions covered by the
    Council of Europe (e.g. Caucuses, Russian Federation, Scandinavia
    and the Baltic States, Eastern and Central Europe, Western Europe,
    Southern Europe, Balkans) as well as in many of the regions from
    which migrants come to Council of Europe Member States (Central
    Asia, Mahgreb, sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and Latin
    America).  This presence provides IOM with a good opportunity
    to take the pulse of migration trends worldwide and assess their
    impact on the European continent as well as countries of
    origin.
    
    
    
• Key migration priority in Europe also going to the heart of
  this conference is how European destination countries, which are
  clearly coming around to the need for migrants to meet labour
  shortages at a range of skills’ levels and to offset
  demographic imbalances, can ensure social cohesion and thus secure
  (economic) growth.
  
  
  
• Important related question is how Europe - relatively affluent
  and prosperous in comparison with many other parts of the world -
  may fulfil its responsibilities, in a spirit of solidarity with the
  developing world, and ensure that migration, in addition to
  benefiting the economies of destination countries as well as
  migrants themselves, may also have a positive impact on the
  societies from which migrants come.
  
  
  
• IOM initiative to enhance the positive development potential of
  labour migration (IMDI) - unique initiative because all relevant
  stakeholders - including countries of origin and destination, and
  the public and private sector - are invited to participate in this
  initiative and collaborate through it.

Key migration realities

• Three key migration realities emerging in the last few
  years.
  
  
  
• First, migration is here to stay. Mobility is greater now than
  ever before.  Globalizing forces – including reduced
  barriers to the movement of goods, capital and services worldwide -
  have implications for the movement of people, and Europe of course
  is no stranger to the movement of people.  Increasingly also,
  migration is a private sector affair.  Businesses, individual
  migrants and migrant networks are driving the movement of
  people.  The European Union, which will expand to 27 Member
  States from January 2007 with the accession of Bulgaria and
  Romania, views the free movement of persons as one of the building
  blocks for its prosperity.  The EU has succeeded in
  constructing the quintessential free movement regime at the
  regional level promoting the free movement of persons for various
  purposes (employment, establishment, provision of services,
  study).
  
  
  
• Second, most people migrate to Europe today not because they
  are fleeing persecution, but because they are looking for a better
  life.
• • They are seeking temporary or permanent employment
    opportunities, education or training.  They also come to
    reunite with their family members lawfully employed and resident in
    European countries.
    
    
    
• The third reality is the changing perception of
  migration.  Migration is no longer viewed as predominantly
  negative, but a prime factor in growth, stability and
  prosperity.  Economic migration in particular holds enormous
  potential benefits for all stakeholders.  Many Council of
  Europe member countries have come around (or are coming round) to
  viewing labour migration in a positive light.
• • Southern European countries (especially Italy, Portugal and
    Spain) have been transformed from emigration to immigration
    countries experiencing economic growth during this period. 
    They have also sought innovative ways to manage economic migration
    in cooperation with countries of origin, largely through bilateral
    arrangements.
  • Germany no longer views itself as a country of zero immigration
    and its new immigration law (entry into force January 2005)
    facilitates admission and employment of investors, highly skilled
    migrants, and enables students to switch to employment after
    completing their studies.
  • The Russian Federation has openly recognized the need for
    migrants at all skill levels with a view to sustaining its economic
    growth.
  • The UK and Ireland have underlined the positive benefits of
    managed labour migration.  Indeed, they were the first
    countries of the EU15 (together with Sweden) to open their labour
    markets to workers from the 8 Central and Eastern European
    countries which joined the EU in May 2004.
    
    
    
• IOM assisted the Irish Government to respond to new migration
  realities as a country of immigration through the preparation of a
  report, published in September 2006, on "Managing Migration in
  Ireland: A Social and Economic Analysis".

Why Europe needs migrants?

• Populations in many European countries are aging and shrinking,
  and migration is increasingly seen as a partial answer to the
  demographic deficit.
• • Highlighted clearly again in a recent European Commission
    Communication on "The demographic future of Europe - from challenge
    to opportunity" (October 2006), finding on the one hand inter alia
    that immigration may temporarily help to reduce the financial
    impact of an aging population when lawfully employed migrants pay
    contributions into public pension schemes.  On the other hand,
    the Communication also observes that the emigration of a large
    section of the young educated population may impact negatively on
    certain countries of origin and sectors and in this regard
    underlines the possibilities offered by temporary labour
    migration.
    
    
    
• In sharp contrast, populations in the developing world,
  including many of the countries from which migrants come to Europe,
  are generally growing.  As a result, there is an increasing
  global mismatch of labour supply and demand.  An important
  challenge is to see how gaps in European labour markets, both at
  the highly skilled and lower-skilled levels, can be filled by the
  admission of migrants through legal and orderly channels while
  ensuring that the outflow of migrants from poorer countries does
  not have a negative economic and social impact on those countries
  but instead is transformed into a positive force for their
  development.

Social cohesion

• In addition to the benefits of migration for countries of
  destination (e.g. mitigation of labour shortages; enhanced human
  capital formation; migrant entrepreneurial activities and their
  results; and increased flexibility, productivity and growth of the
  economy as a whole), it is well recognized that migration poses
  challenges for European countries of destination, namely
• • fears that migration has a negative effect on wages and
    employment - which evidence has shown to be largely
    unfounded; 
  • the need to preserve social stability and cohesion in diverse
    societies; and 
  • developing mutually-beneficial relationships between migrants
    and destination communities.
    
    
    
• Considerable efforts and resources are therefore required to
  develop genuine partnerships between migrants and host societies
  with a view to mitigating the possible negative effects of
  migration and to calm the concerns of host populations.  In
  July 2006, IOM held an inter-sessional workshop on this very topic
  as part of its IDM with the participation of all stakeholders
  (national, regional and local authorities in destination countries,
  governments in countries of origin, business and civil society)
  active in the process of integrating migrants.  If current and
  future migration flows are not to undermine social cohesion in
  European societies, the development of clear integration strategies
  aimed at all migrants, including those resident and employed in a
  country on a temporary basis, and partnerships between the
  pertinent stakeholders are a must.

IMDI

• In response to the efforts of the international community to
  find appropriate ways to maximize the development benefits of
  international labour migration and minimize its negative impacts,
  IOM has developed a proposal for an "International Migration and
  Development Initiative: Labour Mobility for Development
  (IMDI)".  This proposal was officially launched at a
  side-event during the UN General Assembly’s High-Level
  Dialogue on Migration and Development in September 2006.
  
  
  
• In short, IMDI is a framework for labour migration and
  development programmes and policy advice, drawing on voluntary
  inter-agency, governmental, public and private sector
  collaboration.  All of these stakeholders have major roles to
  play, as project partners, providers, or recipients of services and
  advice.
  
  
  
• These collaborative efforts between countries of origin and
  destination, and between public and private sectors, are envisioned
  to lead to more evenly-shared costs and benefits of labour
  movements - in particular sharing of the costs and benefits of
  human resource development and the responsibility for preventing
  brain drain.
  
  
  
• IMDI’s activities would help us better understand the
  mismatch between labour supply and demand - through data
  collection, exploration of future trends, and analysis of the
  effects of labour migration policies.
  
  
  
• Where countries of origin are interested in promoting the
  foreign employment of their nationals in Europe or elsewhere, IMDI
  would assist them in enhancing their capacity to devise
  development-friendly labour emigration strategies.  In
  addition, it would help build their capacities to undertake human
  resource training, so their emigrants are better equipped to
  satisfy the global demand for labour - giving them a comparative
  advantage in the international labour market.
  
  
  
• IMDI would also undertake to minimize the potential disruptive
  effect of migration on development.  To ensure that migration
  is a matter of genuine choice rather than necessity, in some
  situations there may be a need to create local job
  opportunities.  Where migrants freely choose to emigrate,
  their contributions to development can be increased.  This can
  be done through means such as lowering the transfer costs of
  remittances, creating incentives for investments by diasporas in
  priority economic areas, creating favourable conditions for the
  transfer of know-how and technology, and minimizing brain drain
  through brain circulation.
  
  
  
• European countries of destination seeking labour immigration
  could seek assistance through IMDI to design more favourable
  conditions and entry possibilities to strategically address unmet
  demand in specific sectors.  This could complement any future
  collective efforts undertaken by EU Member States to design uniform
  criteria for the admission and residence of third-country nationals
  for labour purposes.  Where limited legal opportunities for
  labour migration exist, the supply/demand gap is an attractive
  environment for the malicious work of human traffickers and
  smugglers.  The tragic deaths in the Mediterranean and Eastern
  Atlantic are a stark reminder of this problem.  By channelling
  labour migration into safe, legal, humane and orderly channels, the
  human rights of migrants can be better protected and migrants are
  enabled to maximize their human and development potential.
  
  
  
• IMDI is still a work in progress, and your thoughts on it are
  welcome.  Indeed, time has been dedicated at the upcoming IOM
  Council at the end of November for IOM’s membership to
  discuss the Initiative - to ask questions and provide their views
  on the proposal.  IMDI holds enormous potential as a tool to
  help realize some of the objectives of the High-Level Dialogue and
  to implement priority actions in the area of migration and
  development.

Conclusion

• Message is that we have and will continue to have migration
  into Europe and elsewhere.
  
  
  
• Choice is in the policies we develop and pursue to channel that
  migration into safe, orderly, humane and productive avenues which
  benefit individuals and societies.
  
  
  
• Addressing concerns of host populations and challenges of
  social cohesion resulting from migration to Europe is part of the
  package, but migration and migrants should not be seen solely as
  problems to be dealt with through barriers and walls.  In
  their determination to deal with the challenges, Governments and
  other stakeholders in Europe must not miss the opportunities.