our Excellencies,
Senior Officials of the Government of the People's Republic of China,
Your Excellences and Representatives from the Diplomatic Missions,
UN Representatives and Colleagues,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honour and distinct pleasure for me to be with you on this evening, on my third official visit to China. It is also an honour to have the pleasure to be joined here tonight by our partners – government officials, UN representatives, and other partners. I wish to thank the Government and people of the People's Republic of China for their warm and generous welcome to the fascinating city of Beijing, which I first visited in 1986.

Allow me to first of all express my sincere gratitude to the Government of the People's Republic of China for hosting this visit so generously, including the first rate programme for me. I have this time had the pleasure of visiting Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as well as attending the International Conference on Immigration Inspection and Service, held in Shanghai on Monday and Tuesday this week.  The conference was very successful -- hosted by the Ministry of Public Security, and co-sponsored by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and IOM.

Tonight I would like us to reflect a little bit on migrants and the contribution that migrants make to development. Often migration is pictured as negative and we tend to forget that migration also, such as here in China, is a major force behind economic development.

However, allow me to start by providing you with some basic and general facts.

Today, there are nearly 1 billion migrants in the world – one in every 6 or 7 people – 214 million are international migrants, and 740 million – whereof over 220 million in China alone - are internal migrants. During the next three decades, we expect the number of international migrants to nearly double to 405 million by 2050. Large scale migration is therefore a reality that neither the current global economic downturn, nor increasingly restrictive security measures can halt, or even slow down. (When the numbers are so large, it is helpful to think in terms of mass mobility - - people on the move - - rather than simply migration.)

Countries of origin wish to attract migrants' and diasporas' talents and resources, while countries of destination hope to increase the effectiveness of their development assistance and immigration and integration policies. Policymakers and practitioners in both origin and destination countries share a common goal: to strengthen the role of migrants in general and diasporas in particular in economic development. This, in turn, creates a perfect window of opportunity for engagement by governments and other stake-holders.

That is the context in which my remaining points take place.

I. Migration as a Driver of the Global Economy

Today, we live in a world on the move.  Numerically, there are more people on the move than at any time in recorded history. As mentioned already, in a world of seven billion inhabitants, one in every seven of us is in some form of migratory status.

The phenomenon of migrants sending money back home did not start with the modern era. They are by no means a new phenomenon. Remittances are linked intrinsically to migration – the world's oldest "development strategy". Migration is the most powerful manifestation of the individual's desire for development – the right to leave one's place of birth or abode in search of new opportunities and better life. More than USD 400 billion was sent in remittances during 2010, which was more than double the total of official development assistance (ODA) and roughly equal to total foreign direct investment (FDI).

What is perhaps new, is the acknowledgement -- on the part of governments, international organizations, NGOs and academic researchers alike -- that over the past decade or so, migrant remittances are one of the drivers of the global economy; particularly so in relation to developing countries. The pivotal question now facing many policy makers is not so much if this group of migrants can benefit their countries of origin; rather, the question is how they do so and what kinds of government policies and programs can foster these relationships.

IOM wants to continue to pioneer the idea of mainstreaming or integrating migration and migrants' contribution into development planning. In this regard, IOM together with several of its UN partners in the Global Migration Group (GMG), produced a handbook, entitled "Mainstreaming Migration into Development Planning". This handbook -- available here tonight for you to take a copy with you -- was launched in November 2010 at the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) in Mexico.  The Handbook provides useful tools to incorporate migration into development planning through the formulation of strategic goals and priorities; the identification of key partners and beneficiaries; and the development of consultative mechanisms and institutional structures.

The forces driving the prioritization of migration as a priority issue for governments' will endure for decades to come. Globally I see four specific reasons for this: 1) demographic trends of an ageing industrialized population and an exponentially expanding LDC youth population with limited access to jobs; 2) consequential labour market demands that can no longer be satisfied by the domestic workforce; 3) widening global economic and social disparities; and 4) climate change and other man-made catastrophes and disasters. 

II. Positive Contribution of Migrants and Opportunities for Governments

International migration is linked inescapably to globalization – that is, the combination of distance-shrinking technology and cheaper travel, free flow of goods, services and capital but also increasing numbers of people to new and evolving markets. Allow me to illustrate through an interesting discussion I had with senior immigration officials earlier this week in Shanghai.

We talked about the role of sub-regions, more specifically the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS), one of the globe's most progressive and fastest growing regions – a region which there is growing appreciation that capital, goods, services and people must move in tandem. In such a region, and others around the globe, we see first-hand that human mobility and connectivity have resulted in economic growth, transfer of innovation and technology and enhanced commerce through progress in trade and transport. However, we also see that further improvements, especially through joint initiatives across the borders, are needed in border management and customs controls.

The economic growth is attributed in large measures to sound economic policies; the growth is also due, however, to a rich-labour force – and that labour force includes a wealth of migrant workers. A number of elements are likely to converge to ensure continued demand on migrant labour to sustain growth. These include changes in global supply chains resulting from continued economic integration; variations in labour market demands and skills shortages within certain sub-regions; and varied demographic profiles, including aging populations with declining birth-rates in some countries and younger populations and higher fertility rates in others.

I am told that projections for China show that cities will face an influx of another 243 million migrants by 2025, taking the urban population up to nearly 1 billion people. In the medium and large cities, about half the population will be migrants, which is almost three times the current level. Needless to say those migrants contribute to the economic development. It would be interesting in this regard to conduct extensive research in the sending and destination provinces of the amounts remitted by such internal migrants, or floating population.  

Such opportunity, or challenge, depending on which side of the coin you look at it, can only be addressed through an overall framework of dialogue on migration issues; through creating operational partnerships, such as we have successfully been implementing over the past few years between China and the EU -- partnerships on combatting migrant smuggling and human trafficking, on people-to-people dialogue; on tourism and students, on management of floating populations and urbanisation, on facilitation of high skilled migration, as well as on developing a partnership on China's role in the region.

Conclusion

In closing, let me summarize my points.

One, the more than USD 400 billion dollars that migrants contribute to global development alone is larger than the gross domestic product of a number of industrial countries. The contribution of internal migrants is also significant, even though less acknowledged and researched.

Two, governments' need to foster new comprehensive approaches in finding innovative means to capture migrants' contributions to economic development. A framework of this kind, especially in China, needs to address factors such as urbanization on the one hand and high-skilled labour migration on the other. It is not easy to do – but it has to be done!

Three, no single government or organization can manage migration effectively alone. Working together, we must continue to evolve and expand our capacities through partnership, to manage mobility in a humane and orderly manner, to maximize migration's enormous contribution to human development.

Ladies and Gentlemen, again thank you for joining me and my colleagues here tonight, and for pausing to reflect on migration issues in China and worldwide, which, if well managed, will continue to affect our global world positively for years to come.