Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General,

Excellencies; Distinguished Delegates;

Ladies and Gentlemen:

 It is an honor to chair this panel session on the
contributions of migrants to development.  Our objective today
is straight forward -- to identify and share best practices on
migrant contributions to development and to leverage those
opportunities to reduce poverty, promote economic growth and to
foster human development in countries of origin and
destination.

 I will limit my own remarks sharply, to allow as much time
as possible for discussion.  But I want to pickup a few themes
in the remarks of the President of the General Assembly and
Secretary-General.

 This event occurs at a timely moment.  We find
ourselves in a world on the move amidst a public wave of
anti-migrant sentiment in parliaments, state houses and the
media.  The overwhelmingly positive contributions to our
societies and economies by the overwhelming majority of migrants is
unfortunately often overshadowed, or forgotten all
together.  

 The subject matter before this esteemed panel is not
entirely new. 

 Migration is humanities' oldest actions against poverty
– the powerful manifestation of an individual's desire for
development, dignity and a decent life – even if it means
doing the dirty, difficult and dangerous jobs -- jobs that domestic
workforces often shun.

 Migration is the right to leave one's place of birth or
abode in search of new opportunities and a better life. 

 It is commonly acknowledged that migrants were largely
responsible for building up the Post World War II economies of
North America, Australia and the so called  "new world." 
But migrants have also contributed to strengthening the social
fabrics and economies of European countries over the past several
decades. 

 Countries often pride themselves publicly on being a
"migrant society" or a "nation of migrants."  Sadly, all too
often, these are referrals to yesterday's migrants – not to
those arriving on our shores or on our borders
today.  

 What is perhaps new is the growing acknowledgement, on the
part of governments and on the part of international organizations
that migrant labour -- skilled and unskilled -- is desirable and
needed to recover from the economic crisis and encourage economic
growth; and that migration is an essential driver of the global
economy.

 Given the global demographic and labour market trends, and
widening North-South disparities, large scale migration is both
inevitable, unavoidable -- and if intelligently humanely managed --
also desirable and necessary.

 Let me say something briefly about two transfer processes
(the two "T"s):

 One, the transfer of people and their skills.  The
population of the world's industrialized countries are expected to
decline by 25 percent by 2050 (according to UN estimates) -- will
significantly increase the demand for migrant workers. This
includes European countries, Canada, the United States, Japan,
Korea, and China.

 In all of these countries, migrant workers -- skilled and
unskilled -- will be needed -- in some cases for knowledge,
innovation, strengthening their multicultural workforces -- but in
far greater numbers to do the jobs for which there are simply not
enough people in these countries -- caring for children and the
elderly, working in service industries, construction sites, farming
and so on.  

 Two, the transfer of remittances – one of the
largest cash flows and cash transfers in the world - valued by the
World Bank to have exceeded US $440 billion in 2010 — making
migrant cash transfers home larger than the GDP of countries such
as Austria or Sweden. 

 Developing countries received the lion's share of this at
US $ 325 billion (This figure represents money sent through
official channels only — an additional 50 percent could be
added to obtain a rough idea of the real figure, including informal
remittances.)

 We will all need to work in concert to realize migration's
full potential to advance human and societal development –
while severely limiting any negative effects of migration on
development.