Mrs. Rosa Estarás, Vice President of the Government of
Baleares, Mrs. Encarnación Pastor, Counsellor for
Immigration and Cooperation, Mrs. Magdalena Contestí,
Director General for Cooperation

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very delighted to be with you this morning in the beautiful
Island of Palma de Mallorca, and have great pleasure in addressing
your Second Seminar on Migration and Co-development. The theme of
your Seminar is dear to me as someone coming from a country with so
many migrants abroad, and your discussion will be very timely since
the UN General Assembly has decided to have its first ever
High-Level Dialogue dedicated to International Migration and
Development (HLD), scheduled for 14-15 September this year in New
York. IOM is actively participating in the preparations for HLD at
national, regional and global levels. I will take a few minutes
towards the end of my presentation to speak about that and share
with you IOM key messages for HLD;

Migration and development mutually influence each other in many
ways, and it will be important for all countries - sending, transit
and destination - to work together at all levels towards maximizing
the benefits, mitigating risks and reducing shortcomings. Their
interaction is extensive and extremely complex, and the
understanding of both root causes and impact is still limited. For
example, remittances continue to make great contributions to
development, and can be used more effectively as a means to reduce
poverty. In 2005, developing countries officially recorded
receiving US $167 billion of remittances, representing more than
twice the level of development aid from all sources. But at the
same time, many developing countries are encountering the loss of
skilled human resources and are constantly suffer from increasing
brain drain phenomenon;

Migration is one of the major issues of our times, and
peoples’ mobility has indeed increased in ways not seen ever
before, thanks to advances in technology and transportation
systems. More and more people around the world will continue to
debate about migration triggers and effects on
societies.   Given the current direction and character of
globalization, there is a need to address the issue of
international migration and development taking into account the
multidimensional aspects and consequences of the migration
phenomenon as well as the need for more specialized studies and
comprehensive analysis of the contributions that migration and the
migrants themselves can make to the development of both sending and
receiving States. The aim should be to reverse the adverse effects
of migration and maximize its positive aspects;

Diasporas are increasingly being considered as both agents for
development in countries of origin and for positive change in host
societies. They play important roles in strengthening cooperation
between home and host societies, and make tremendous positive
contributions. In a globalized world, diasporas have great untapped
potentials to make and they are more than willing to help. However,
the extent to which diasporas can and are actually contributing to
development and social change is not well researched and documented
and may as well turn out to be quite significant. But in any case,
diasporas’ contributions are enormous and can be categorized
as follows:

1. Migrants contributions to countries of origin:
   
   
   
   • Financial capital: Diasporas transfer huge sums of remittances
     ($ 232 billion is the total globally in 2005), beside sending
     private capital for investment at home. Financial capital flows
     from the diasporas contribute to the welfare of their home
     countries;
     
     
     
   • Human capital: Transfer of skills accumulated from education,
     training and work experience of diasporas and can contribute
     to  capacity development in countries of origin through return
     migration or virtual return using communication technologies (like
     e-learning);
     
     
     
   • Social capital: Primarily takes on the form of migrant
     networks, and can provide home countries with greater access to
     more developed markets and foreign direct investment flows, and as
     such it also benefit the host countries, and help to link their
     economies to new markets.
     
     
     
2. Migrants contributions to host countries:
   
   
   
   In host countries, diasporas make many contributions to the
   societies in which they live. Their contributions are being
   increasingly recognized, and help to change negative perceptions
   about migration and strengthen its positive and humane side.
   Diasporas contributions in host countries fall into many mutually
   reinforcing dimensions:
   
   
   
   • Economics: Migrants often choose to move in order to secure a
     better life for themselves and their families, and countries of
     destination often select migrants on the basis 
     
     
     
   • Social: Migrants promote acceptance harmony and contribute to
     building healthier societies.  They bridge relations between
     different peoples and engender respect for tolerance and social
     cohesion among culturally distinct communities;
     
     
     
   • Cultural: Migrants bring with them their own sets of cultural
     and traditional heritages. They contribute to cross-fertilization
     among peoples from different cultural backgrounds, and promote
     respect for diversity between culturally distinct communities.
     

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Allow me to share with you some practical examples that show
some of the contributions that the African diasporas can make to
development. Since 2001, IOM began the implementation of its
Migration for Development Programme (MIDA). It builds on
IOM’s experience in facilitating the transfer of skilled
human resources, particularly the IOM programme for the Return and
Reintegration of Qualified African Nationals (RQAN-III), which
ended in 1999.  Many parts of the African continent are
currently affected by a shortage of qualified human resources.
Thousands of African professionals such as medical doctors, nurses,
accountants, engineers, managers, teachers, etc. continue to leave
the continent each year. The reasons for their departure
vary:  They try to either improve their careers by pursuing
studies or by seeking better paid jobs. Others simply depart
fleeing from havoc created by insecurity and/or unstable political
conditions. The resulting brain drain weakens African institutions
and inhibit capacity development;

What’s MIDA?

MIDA is a capacity-building programme, which helps to mobilize
the skills of African diasporas and make them available to support
development in Africa. It focuses on establishing a strategic
dialogue and partnership with the diasporas and between them and
the various stakeholders, including governments of host and home
countries, private sector institutions, civil societies, donors and
many financial and educational institutions. MIDA also proposes an
enlarged, flexible and innovative approach of skill transfers,
through multiple options including:

• virtual work and e-learning technologies
• sequenced visits
• permanent return

It also includes activities related to migrants’
remittances, thus recognizing their important role in foreign
exchange earnings and positive impact on national economies of many
developing countries.

MIDA Great Lakes

IOM began to implement in November 2001 the first MIDA programme
- targeting the three countries of the Great Lakes region: Burundi,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.

Under the MIDA programme for the the Great Lakes, IOM makes it
possible for professionals who reside in Belgium to return to their
home countries and offer technical short-term assistance and
expertise in technical fields including agriculture, banking,
engineering, economics, environmental protection and social and
educational sciences. Their cultural and linguistic affinities
facilitate the transfer of skills. The programme is instrumental in
responding to the need for strengthening the human resource bases
in these countries. It rectifies manpower imbalances, while it also
helps reverse the brain drain in the long run.

MIDA Italy

MIDA Italy is a project promoted by IOM with the support of the
Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its main objective is to
assess the interest and potentialities of sub-Saharan Africa
immigrants in Italy who are willing to contribute to their
countries of origin's socio-economic development.

The programme is also intended as a supportive tool for the
realization of self-sustainable development projects.

The role of Remittances in MIDA

Today in Africa migrants’ remittances constitute a very
important source of foreign exchange. Also remittances, if used
effectively, represent the most direct link between migration and
development. In 2005, migrant remittance receipts of developing
countries stood at USD 167 billion, exceeding both ODA and private
debt and equity flows. It is estimated that globally the value of
remittances flowing through informal channels is three times higher
than the official channels. At the household level it is generally
agreed that remittances help to reduce poverty, and the PRSP and
MDGs should fully tape into such a potential.

An important reason why migrants go abroad to work is to support
their families back home and they would therefore send most or a
part of their earnings home even in the absence of special
inducements. While recognizing above all that remittances are
private and family funds, MIDA encourages the voluntary and
efficient use of remittances for development in countries of
origin. These include initiatives that support cost saving and
reliable remittance methods and help consolidate remittances into
pools of development and investment capital.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

IOM has been invited by the UN to contribute to the HLD’s
preparations, and we have taken up initiatives with others in and
outside the UN to advance a more coherent approach to migration
policies and a better balanced understanding of migration and
migrants.

It is important here to note that representatives of
non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the
Economic and Social Council, civil society organizations and the
private sector, may also participate in each of the round tables of
the High-level Dialogue. While this will be determined by the
President of the General Assembly, in consultation with Member
States, I nevertheless would like to call upon the NGOs to take
full advantage of the HLD debate and contribute their best to
enriching the discussion on migration and development by sharing
their own unique perspectives and experiences. There is a lot that
we can learn, particularly from diasporas organizations. Having
said so, allow me to share with you the key messages identified by
IOM for the HLD:

1. Migration needs to be better integrated into development policy
   and planning.  Migration and its impact should figure in
   development planning. The HLD should call for migration to be
   incorporated as a required element in Poverty Reduction Strategy
   Papers (PRSPs) and integrated into discussion around the Millennium
   Development Goals (MDGs);
   
   
   
2. Countries need migration policies and the internal capacity to
   develop them.  The HLD should result in recognition/acceptance
   of the cross cutting nature of migration and should recommend
   creation of inter-ministerial working groups as a “good
   practice”. Capacity building initiatives should be undertaken
   where these are warranted; 
   
   
   
3. The business community needs to be drawn into the migration
   debate. The HLD should explicitly recommend real partnership
   between governments, intergovernmental organizations, the private
   business sector and civil society.
   
   
   
4. Better mechanisms are needed to match supply and demand of
   labor globally.  The HLD should specifically recognize that
   the labor market has become increasingly global. The world’s
   stock of human capital is diverse– thanks to temporary labor
   migration schemes and circular migration patterns, but also via
   “virtual” transfer of skills by diasporas.  The
   HLD could lead the way to a mechanism to better match supply and
   demand in a strengthened partnership amongst governments,
   organizations, employers and unions.
   
   
   
5. The development potential of diasporas needs to be explored and
   enhanced.  The HLD must continue to call for the cost of
   remittances to be reduced. To this it should call upon relevant
   organizations to study these issues and to make the findings widely
   available;  
   
   
   
6. Regional consultations are a key tool for international
   understanding and action.  Regional Consultative Processes
   (RCPs) are widely recognized to have been a crucial element in
   fostering dialogue, mutual understanding and, increasingly,
   concerted action in response to shared migration challenges over
   the past decade or so.  The HLD could foster greater
   cross-fertilization amongst RCPs for cross-regional sharing of good
   practice and lessons learned;
   
   
   
7. Better understanding of migration law will benefit States and
   migrants alike. In 2004, IOM began the task of compiling and
   disseminating information about the vast body of existing
   international migration law. We have recently launched our data
   base and training sessions have begun. The HLD should encourage the
   continuation of these efforts, calling upon the donor community to
   support them and all interested states, as well as RCPs, to take
   full advantage of them.
   

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Last and not least, I would like to once again say that the
choice for your Second Seminar to focus on Immigration and
Co-development has been very thoughtful, and will inspire all of us
to try to better understand the relation between the two. We need
to see how best we can unleash the full potential of migration as
an engine for change and development. The HLD will, in a few month
time, take place and we should make effective use of this
unprecedented opportunity to mainstream the debate on international
migration and development at all levels. I for one would like to
make, a suggestion to declare a decade for migration and
development. The decade will allow, among other things, for the
creation and strengthening of the global consultative process put
forward by the UNSG in his latest report.

Thank you!