Dear Partners,

The 2010 World Migration Report has been launched yesterday in Geneva. 
The full report can be downloaded for free from 
http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37&products_id=653&language=en

Below please find the press release for your kind information and 
distribution.

Please send all replies to: [log in to unmask]

Best regards
Roberto

Invest Now for Tomorrow's Migration, Says IOM's 2010 World Migration Report

The world will be taken by surprise by the relentless pace of migration 
unless States, international organizations and civil society make a 
concerted effort to invest in how they respond to it, says the World 
Migration Report (WMR) 2010 launched today by the International 
Organization for Migration (IOM).

The report, “The Future of Migration: Building Capacities for Change”, 
argues that in a world where demographics, economic needs and the 
effects of environmental change are driving the inexorable rise in 
numbers of international migrants, governments and non-state actors have 
little choice but to invest adequate financial and human resources to 
ensure States, societies and migrants reap the full potential of future 
migration.

Although hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year to 
strengthen the ability of States to effectively manage migration, WMR 
2010 notes that responses to current and emerging migration challenges 
and opportunities are often short-term, piecemeal and fragmented. This 
is having a profound effect on human mobility and economic and social 
development, with every country affected in some way.

“The risk of not putting in place policies and adequate resources to 
deal with migration is to lose an historic opportunity to take advantage 
of this global phenomenon,” says IOM Director General William Lacy 
Swing. “Given the unrelenting pace of migration, the window of 
opportunity for States to turn the negatives of migration into positives 
is rapidly shrinking.”

If the number of international migrants, estimated at 214 million in 
2010, continues to grow at the same pace as during the last 20 years, it 
could reach 405 million by 2050.

One of the reasons for this steep rise will be significant growth in the 
labour force in developing countries from 2.4 billion in 2005 to 3.6 
billion in 2040, accentuating the global mismatch between labour supply 
and demand. The impact of environmental change will also affect 
migration trends in the future.

New migration patterns are already in evidence. For example, the 
emerging economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America are becoming ever 
more important countries of destination for labour migrants, emphasizing 
increasing South-South movements of people and the need for those 
countries to invest in migration management programmes and policies.

The number of irregular migrants will continue to grow as labour supply 
in migrant origin countries exceeds demand in migrant receiving 
countries and legal migration channels remain the exception rather than 
the rule.

The report notes that emerging patterns of irregular migration involve 
growing numbers of unaccompanied minors, asylum-seekers, victims of 
trafficking, or those seeking to escape the effects of environmental or 
climate change but for whom there is currently little international 
protection. These groups will present even greater challenges for States 
and societies currently struggling to deal with them in a humane way.

“Without significant investment in migration issues, there is no doubt 
that critical questions such as the human rights of migrants and their 
integration into host societies will become even more acute,” adds 
Swing. “Investing and planning in the future of migration will help 
improve public perceptions of migrants, which have been particularly 
dented by the current economic downturn. It will also help to lessen 
political pressure on governments to devise short-term responses to 
migration.”

Looking at the impact of the economic crisis, the report notes that the 
total number of migrants has remained stable as relatively few migrants 
have returned home even though they have been particularly affected by 
unemployment. As a result, remittances to developing countries declined 
by 6% in 2009, although some countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and 
The Philippines benefited from an increase in remittances between 2008 
and 2009.

The report identifies labour mobility, irregular migration, migration 
and development, integration, environmental change and migration 
governance as areas expected to undergo the greatest transformation in 
the coming years.

Each thematic chapter lists 10 key areas where greater investment and 
policy planning are needed. Key issues relating to environmental 
migration, for example, include the need to strengthen national laws and 
policies on internal displacement as a first step given that most of 
those displaced by environmental change tend to move within their own 
countries.

Other recommendations include generating better data on irregular 
migration and labour markets, combating migrant smuggling and human 
trafficking and improving the ability of transit countries to assist 
irregular migrants.

The World Migration Report 2010 calls for the rigorous analysis of core 
capacities of countries to manage migration in order to assess their 
effectiveness and to identify gaps and priorities for the future.

“There is no need to reinvent the wheel on migration or to break the 
bank in terms of financial investment. Humane and effective solutions to 
migration issues are within reach. It’s just a question of partnership 
and of allocating resources more effectively with an eye to addressing 
the future and to determine well-thought out long-term policies based on 
facts and not short-term political opportunism,” concludes Swing.

Roberto Pitea
Regional Research Officer

International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Regional Office for the Middle East - Egypt
Tel: +20 223580011 (Ext. 202) · Mobile: +20 123125886
Web: http://www.egypt.iom.int/publications.htm

-- 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Note: The material contained in this communication comes to you from the 
Forced Migration Discussion List which is moderated by Forced Migration 
Online, Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), Oxford Department of International 
Development, University of Oxford. It does not necessarily reflect the 
views of the RSC or the University. If you re-print, copy, archive or 
re-post this message please retain this disclaimer. Quotations or 
extracts should include attribution to the original sources.

E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Posting guidelines: http://www.forcedmigration.org/discussion/guidelines
Subscribe/unsubscribe: http://tinyurl.com/fmlist-join-leave
List Archives: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/forced-migration.html
RSS: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?RSS&L=forced-migration
Twitter: http://twitter.com/forcedmigration