Madame Chair, distinguished members of the Permanent Forum,
delegates, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, and special guests,

IOM was indeed pleased to work in cooperation with the many
partners represented here on this panel, and to be here today to
help "set the stage" on this very important topic of urban
indigenous peoples and migration. The purpose of this Expert Group
Meeting (EGM) was to assess the impact of migration on indigenous
peoples, and to look at the policies, good practices and underlying
factors, patterns and characteristics regarding migration to urban
areas by indigenous peoples, with special focus on the violation of
their rights.

To put the topic of urbanization in some context, the UN
released earlier this year World Demographic Trends which estimates
that by next year, there will be more urban dwellers in the world
than rural inhabitants, which marks a new phenomenon in the history
of mankind. Already in 2005, there was an estimated 3.2 billion
living in urban settings. Out of the nearly 200 million migrants in
the world today, we do not have abundant data on how many in this
group represent indigenous peoples, and we have limited information
on their migration process. Even less data is available on
indigenous peoples' migration to urban areas. This scarcity of data
prevents adequate policy-making on migration issues as they
specifically regard indigenous peoples, despite the increased
attention on this issue. Indigenous peoples who migrate face
important challenges that, while not different than those faced by
migrants in general, do have specific peculiarities that relate to
their ties to their ancestral territories and lands. This leads us
to realize that we need to take into account the important
considerations in the complex decision for indigenous peoples to
migrate including their opportunities to return to their original
territories, and we must also realize that in some cases indigenous
peoples do not have the opportunity to make an informed decision to
migrate.

This EGM looked at some of the push factors of indigenous
peoples' migration including poverty, but also realized that the
loss of their traditional lands due to armed conflict or government
policies, including those with respect to development projects also
serve as important push factors in the urbanization of indigenous
peoples.  In general, several experts noted that the
urbanization process is associated with a number of negative
experiences including alienation that may devastate their
indigenous identity, belief systems, language and culture, and also
adversely affect their health due to changes to their customary
diet. Indigenous peoples' rights are often times violated when in
transit and after arrival to host societies. For that reason it is
essential that there be a human rights focus for indigenous
peoples' entire migratory process.

However, though indigenous peoples have a specific ancestral tie
to their territories, and may face particular challenges in their
urbanization process, we must not take this to imply a homogenous
migration experience for all indigenous peoples. For example, it
was highlighted by one of the experts that the Pacific indigenous
communities living in urban areas are heterogeneous which requires
caution in placing them under labels and categories that wrongly
homogenise their diverse experiences. Just as there is a diversity
of indigenous peoples themselves, also their migration experience
will be different depending on a number of factors including their
decision to migrate, whether their migration was voluntary or
involuntary, and their experience in their place of
destination.

Moreover, it was noted that some indigenous peoples move to
urban areas because of several pull factors relating to employment
and educational opportunities, improved access to health and
housing services, and also increased political participation,
social recognition and visibility or other benefits that they may
lack in their territories. For example, one expert noted that in
eastern Africa, pastoralists living in urban areas benefit from
more safety and wider availability of food aid, and send
remittances to their areas of origin to help alleviate poverty. The
experts noted that some indigenous peoples are aware that life in
their territories based on subsistence agriculture only is
unfortunately no longer possible, and indeed urbanization becomes
their only opportunity for survival. Another expert noted that
indigenous peoples migrate to cities consciously to ensure the
survival of the traditional way of life in their territories
through urban-rural remittances. Others considered the
commercialization of indigenous arts, crafts, dances, medicines as
income-generating activities to ensure their survival. Citing these
examples, it was strongly emphasized that indigenous peoples living
in urban areas are able to still benefit from the natural wealth of
their ancestral lands; in this context one of the overriding themes
of this EGM was the necessity to realize that those members of
indigenous peoples migrating to urban centres do not leave their
identity behind and we must not divide urban and rural members of
indigenous peoples. Their rights and identity should be considered
wholly irrespective of whether they live on their territories or in
urban areas.

The experts also emphasized the challenges that local and
national governments as well as the international community are
faced with as a result of indigenous peoples' increasing migratory
flows and mobility, specifically to urban areas. In this regard,
one expert put forward the idea of organizing a symposium on local
government best practices in multi-cultural cities to identify and
promote the participation and integration of indigenous peoples
into the governance process. Two experts proposed experience
exchanges at national or regional levels, including programmes
specifically tailored for the youth.

We must examine the urbanization of indigenous peoples from a
resilience framework, and acknowledge the uniqueness and
adaptability of indigenous peoples which have helped sustain them
for centuries and contribute to their own development. In order for
indigenous peoples to benefit most from their urbanization, their
migration should be based on a well-informed choice, and be an
orderly and humane process. I would like to conclude on the broader
topic of indigenous peoples and migration, by announcing that IOM
has recently made available a draft working paper entitled
Indigenous Routes: A Framework for Understanding Indigenous
Migration which examines the internal and international migrations
of indigenous peoples, along with exploring transborder indigenous
migration - copies of this work are available in the back of the
room. Finally, I would like to thank on behalf of IOM, the
Government of Canada for their support of this workshop, and our
partners in collaboration, UN-Habitat, OHCHR, PFII and its
secretariat and ECLAC.