I would like to mention three points today in regard to the link between migration and common security in the Mediterranean region. The world is on the move, and human mobility is occurring in a world in disarray.

I. Scene setter

Common security in the Mediterranean means, among other considerations, adapting current migration policies to global migration realities and trends. This presents both challenges and opportunities but, first, the situation we face on all sides of the Mediterranean and globally constitutes a “perfect storm”.

There is:

• Unprecedented, human mobility, in part owing to the quadrupling of the world’s population in the last century.
• Unprecedented forced migration – unfortunately the greatest number since World War II – and this owing to unprecedented conflicts and simultaneous, complex humanitarian emergencies from Africa to Asia
• Unprecedented fears based on the economic downturn of 2008; the post-9/11 security syndrome;  and fear of loss of identity, national and personal, all of these fears leading to unprecedented anti-migrant sentiment and policies
• Unprecedented political malaise: dearth of political leadership, courage and vision; serious erosion of international moral authority; with all sides violating international humanitarian law; unclear power relationships; and, worst of all, no active negotiations or viable political processes that could give us any hope of a short to medium term solution to these conflicts.

There are many other driving forces, perhaps the most important being the demographic deficit that Europe and other industrialized countries face.

Thus, citing the World Bank and IMF, “large scale migration from poor to rich countries will be a permanent feature of a global economy for decades to come as a result of major population shifts in countries.”

II. Challenges: “Weathering the storm” 

The challenge is that our migration policies have not kept pace with human realities. Migration is not a problem to be solved or a challenge to be met, but rather a human reality to be recognised and managed. That is the challenge.

This will require political leadership, courage and vision, the four specific challenges being:

1. Changing the Migration Narrative

At present public discourse is toxic. Migration has become a negative word. And yet we know that historically migration has been overwhelmingly positive. Many, if not most, countries were built on the backs and with the brains of migrants. Governments will need to engage in public education, information and awareness-raising efforts. We need to use the power of public pronouncement to make the transition to a more historically accurate narrative about migrants’ contributions.

2. Managing Diversity

Given all we know about demographic shifts and population deficit, we know that all our societies will inexorably become – indeed already are becoming – more multi cultural, multi ethnic and multi religious.

This is a transition that needs to be managed and this will require leadership. A key to managing this is to move the debate from one about identity to one about shared values and shared interests.

3. Conjugate National/Individual Conundrums

Successful migration policies are those which conjugate several paradoxes:

• Between national sovereignty and individual aspirations
• Between national security and human security
• Between nationalism and individualism

4. Surmount Subconscious Barriers 

1. Refugee “amnesia”; for example, in 1951 IOM and UNHCR were created to take persons ravaged by World War II to safe havens to start a new life
2. Systemic paralysis that becomes a “crisis of solidarity”  
3. Psychological adjustments
   Four centuries as a continent of origin, four decades as a continent of destination

III. Opportunities: Defining Moment

a) As mentioned the world is undergoing a major population shift, a shift that would reshape economic development for decades. In fact our future prosperity depends upon our capitalizing on the population shift but this will require major changes in our negative policies. Migrants bring solutions, new ideas, talent and hard work. As the World Bank president recently said, “the population shift offers us a path to ending extreme poverty and to shared prosperity, if the right evidence-based policies are put in place.”

b) The current situation may also offer an opportunity to achieve the EU’s illusive objective of agreement on a comprehensive, long-term migration and asylum policy – one that also recognises migrants as agents of development

c) Global phenomenon/global solidarity
Large scale human mobility is a global phenomenon. It is occurring in the Red Sea; in the Indian Ocean; the straits between Haiti and South Florida; the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

We need therefore to work together to ensure that migration benefits everyone: countries of origin, transit and destination and, of course, the migrants themselves.