Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a distinct honor to be invited to take part in this important Ministerial Conference on the theme "Building Migration Partnerships in Action".

I wish to express my profound appreciation and congratulations to our hosts, the Government of Poland, for this timely initiative of the Polish EU Presidency. It has been my privilege to participate in almost all of the EU Presidency migration conferences since assuming my mandate in 2008, including at Paris, Brussels, Stockholm, Prague and now in beautiful, historic Poznan.

There are few regions of the world that face greater migration challenges – and opportunities – than Europe. And, none is making greater effort to manage these than Europe. Here, I recall the important strides the EU has made in its efforts to develop a common EU Migration Policy. A common EU Migration Policy represents a major challenge in view of the great differences across the EU.

Approval of the Action Plan represents a further step in strengthening your collective ability to address migration's numerous challenges and opportunities.

In an effort to contribute to your discussion of this important topic, I would like to make three points.

I. MASS MIGRATION: A CONTEMPORARY REALITY

In implementing an Action Plan for Migration Partnerships it would be important, it seems to me, to recognize a fundamental reality – namely, that today, large-scale migration is inevitable, necessary, and desirable. Why do I say this?

We live in an era of the greatest human mobility in recorded history. Numerically, there are more people on the move today than ever before: 1 billion people; a seventh of humanity on the move at any one time. Why is this so? If all the migrants were to form a nation, they would be the third largest on the globe, right after China and India.

A. "Push-Pull" Factors

The reasons are many and complex, including population growth. I call these migration trends and dynamics -- or "push-pull" factors -- that propel human mobility the nine "Ds":

(1) Demography and (2) Demand: aging populations and labour deficits in the North; Youthful populations and joblessness in the South.
(3) Disparity: between North–South; widening economic and social gaps;
(4) Distance-shrinking technology and cheap travel;
(5) Digital Media and the effect of social media on mobility as we have seen in Libya, the MENA regions and afar;
(6) Disasters: natural, man-made, slow-onset;
(7) Degradation of land, climate, environment; and
(8) Dreams and (9) Desires: the age-old urge to seek one’s fortune; to build a better life; one with dignity, safety and prosperity. Migration is mankind’s oldest poverty reduction strategy.

There are many questions about the impact of migration on European countries and we are gathered here in part to address these. But what is certain is that large –scale human mobility will be a “mega-trend” of the 21st century. It is already.

Today, virtually every Government regards migration as a top geopolitical issue, one that will inexorably contribute to defining relations among states and world regions. Migrants are, indeed, the human face of globalization.

II. DE-MYTHOLOGIZING MIGRATION

My second point is this: If we are to build productive migration partnerships and make concerted progress, it would be useful to examine and discredit misleading and harmful myths and stereotypes about migrants and migration -- myths that prevent us from seeing clearly the path before us.

A. Economic Crisis

The unprecedented financial crisis has created a myth that migrants are one of the causes of the crisis -- by taking jobs away from nationals. We know, of course, that migrants are part of the solution, as they always have been during economic downturns; Migrants do the jobs that locals either refuse to do, or, cannot do. Scapegoating will only lead us away from solutions.

Moreover, these same migrants also pay taxes, often the equivalent of the money they send home. In 2010, migrants sent an estimated US$400 billion to developing countries, which far exceeds the volume of official aid flows and direct foreign investment in that same year -- and is roughly the equivalent of the GDP of a small to medium-size EU Member State.

In many developing countries, migrant remittances range between 10 and 30 percent of gross domestic product (GDP): a partial offset for "brain-drain".

B. Anti Migrant Sentiment

It is a cruel irony that we mark IOM's 60th Anniversary at a time when more people are on the move than at any other time in recorded history; yet many governments, even those that have traditionally benefited from migration, now feel under pressure to tighten visa regimes; to close their borders to migrants; and to pass laws that criminalize irregular migrants.

Another myth is the belief the North is being overrun by migrants from the South -- when in fact, South-South migration is much greater — at least by 80 per cent — than are South-North population movements.

Tougher migration policies and stronger controls will not stop, or even slow migration. The inherent danger of such negative measures is that they may facilitate criminal activities, such as smuggling and trafficking in persons and lead to the opposite effect -- namely, an increase in the number of irregular migrants.

C. Migration Emergencies

Another area that requires clarification is the impact on migration and migrants caused by natural disasters – for example those over the last year in Colombia, Haiti, Japan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Each of these catastrophes brought into stark relief the reality that humanitarian emergencies affect migrants and migration disproportionately, especially their impact on women and children.

In Libya alone, since February, IOM and UNHCR have evacuated and repatriated nearly 250,000 migrant workers to 54 countries with more than 800 charter flights and 20 sea evacuations from Mistrata and Tripoli at a cost of USD 125 million. Your generosity in supporting this partnership ensured that the fear of a massive movement of migrants northward did not occur.

III. CHALLENGES AHEAD

This brings me to my final point. In the current migration scenario, therefore, European countries face a number of challenges. Addressing these effectively requires regional and inter-regional dialogue and partnership.

A. Managing Social Diversity

First and foremost, is the challenge of managing growing social diversity as nation states become increasingly multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multicultural societies. In the future, multicultural societies are likely to become the norm rather than the exception, if current trends prevail. And there is no reason to believe they will not. Therefore, Governments will need to help their people to address their fears -- fears associated with the changing composition of the nation state and perceived threats to national and personal identity.

Informing and educating the public about the overwhelmingly positive contributions of migrants may be the single most important thing that Governments can do to dispel the myths and destructive stereotypes associated with migration and migrants.

B. Managing the Global Labour Market

A second challenge – addressing the global labour market. In the future, countries, including EU Member States, will need labour migration schemes that benefit destination and origin countries and migrants alike. These can take many forms: circular migration; mobility partnerships; integration (e.g. choosing a model most suitable to your particular country – assimilation; full integration; or, a multi-cultural model.)

All of these complex challenges require the combined efforts of multiple partnerships that bring together the many actors now crowding the migration scene. Yet among the various actors, inter-state cooperation and partnership will continue to hold special significance.

C. Regional Partnerships

Establishing regional partnerships is a key to better migration management. Over the past decade, a dozen and a half regional consultative processes (RCPs) established between countries of origin, transit, and destination; between so-called sending and receiving countries. IOM supports 17 of these regional arrangements around the globe. A number of these, as you know, are in Europe and EU-supported:

• Inter-Governmental Consultations on Asylum, Refugee and Migration Policies (IGC);
• The Budapest Process;
• The Söderköping Process (Cross-Border Co-operation Process);
• The Mediterranean Transit Migration Dialogue;
• 5 + 5 Dialogue on Migration in the Western Medite

In September, I was in Mongolia to attend a meeting of European and Asian Directors General of Migration, a further example of regional cooperation. While each regional arrangement is unique, all share some characteristics in common, for example:

1. All of these regional groupings are state-owned;
2. They share identified values and views on migration.
3. They are informal arrangements, open, non-binding and transparent consultation and cooperation.
4. Finally, the best performing RCPs have had small, active secretariats -- usually IOM -- that help to facilitate communication. The low-profile secretariats do not drive the process, they accompany it.

CONCLUSION

This Conference and the Action Plan you are here to adopt -- and soon to start implementing -- are clear confirmation of the importance and benefits you see in creating a space for dialogue, discussion, and information sharing.

The Action Plan with its 22 points is a comprehensive synthesis of the priority needs you see in migration management. The Action Plan provides a clear Road Map for States to respond to the challenges and opportunities of unprecedented human mobility.

For its part, IOM is pleased to see within the Action Plan all of the areas in which the Organization is already actively engaged with you. Your priorities are all our priorities as well.

I congratulate you on the clarity and precision with which you have outlined in detail the specific tasks and timeframe for implementation of the Action Plan. This Ministerial Conference is itself a testimony to the value that regional processes add to the definition of concrete and effective measures to harness the positive potential of migrants.

In conclusion, let me summarize briefly:

1. Migration is here to stay;
2. We need partners;
3. Interconnectivity of today’s world makes regional cooperation the most reasonable response to large-scale migration.

For its part, IOM stands ready to work closely, in the future as in the past, with European Governments, the European Union and its institutions, to implement the Action Plan and advance common goals in the interest of origin and destination countries and migrants themselves.