Global Forum on Migration and Development

GFMD - Mexico 2010 Recommendations

RT Session 1.1: Partnerships for more regular and protected migration

1. Create an interactive map on migration to help delegates prepare discussions about migration, as well as create databases about migration flows to provide objective and reliable information, that can be used in the implementation of policies for migration and development.
2. Enforce the respect of relevant international conventions by all countries.
3. Promote programs to provide potential immigrants with relevant information to make well-informed decisions to prevent negative experiences of migration.
4. Brain drain is one of the problems that must be tackled by these partnerships. But brain gain and knowledge transfers also occur as a result of migration, and should be leveraged for development.
5. Promote the creation of job opportunities in the countries of origin to foster circular and return migration.
6. Origin and destination countries should avoid the criminalization of migrants; and in both destination and origin countries, it is important to allow for the dissemination of knowledge at every level in order to fight erroneous or biased perceptions about migration and migrants. At the same time, migrants themselves have to be informed about the challenges of migration.
7. Countries need to have a comprehensive policy and programs for returning migrants, both in the voluntary cases and in the forced cases. In the latter cases, it is especially important for countries of origin and destination to work together.
8. In sum, based on the variety of bilateral and regional partnerships discussed at the roundtable, it is recommended that the Platform for Partnerships should be used as a tool for sharing best practices.

RT Session 1.2: Joint strategies to address irregular migration

1. Governments must continue to discuss the various challenges and aspects of this subject in future discussions at the Forum. It was suggested that irregular migration remains on the agenda of the Global Forum and other upcoming international conferences.
2. Governments could consider circular or temporary migration schemes, provided they are fair in granting access to human rights and provide a means to achieving permanent residence and citizenship.
3. Joint mechanisms for international cooperation at the multi-lateral, regional and bilateral levels should be established to minimize irregular migration. These must be founded on the principle of shared responsibility between countries of origin, transit and destination, and should include inter alia exchanges of information on human trafficking and smuggling.
4. Governments must keep in mind the right to NOT migrate. There is a need for more empirical data and resources to address this right.
5. The respect for human rights of migrants, regardless of their immigration status, is an absolute threshold principle.
6. Governments must also remember that there is a need for national leaders to frame the public debate underlining the positive contribution of regular and irregular migrants to host societies.
7. Governments must prosecute criminal organizations involved in trafficking and smuggling through joint efforts that involve various international and local actors.
8. Governments must close the gaps of coordination and cooperation between countries of origin, transit and destination. We must also search for cooperation in information sharing, internally and internationally.
9. Governments need a greater focus on irregular migration that prioritizes the need for protecting the most vulnerable groups, specifically irregular migrants, victims of human trafficking, women and unaccompanied children.
10. Communication and awareness campaigns must be conducted to foster ways to share information in countries of origin and transit, as well as destination.

RT Session 2.1: Reducing the costs of migration and maximizing human development

1. Examine issues around recruitment and engage recruitment agencies in better preparing and protecting overseas contract workers (UAE will hold a workshop in Dubai early 2011).
2. Promote monitoring and licensing systems for recruiters and other intermediaries. Develop (or implement existing) codes of conduct and registers for recruiters.
3. Explore and evaluate innovative approaches to providing low-cost loans for migrants.
4. Promote cooperation mechanisms between countries of origin and destination for better job matching and skills recognition.
5. Promote portability of pensions and other social rights; explore social security and end-of-contract payment models for temporary labour migrants (e.g. based on the study commissioned by the working group on protecting and empowering migrants for development on this issue).
6. Promote “one-stop-shops” in countries of origin and destination for information on migration and return (also circular migration), to minimize the “information asymmetry” for migrants.
7. Assess cost effective health care models for various types of migration scenarios.
8. Analyze and minimize the costs associated with managed and spontaneous forms of circular migration.

RT Session 2.2: Migration, gender and family

1. Policy makers should take the family into account at all stages of migration policy. In particular, policymakers should consider implementing regularization schemes for irregular migrants with children that by birth are nationals of the country of destination.
2. The GFMD can help adjustment to changes in family structures by making available on its website best practices identified in its meetings, so that countries can learn from each other, and to inform policy responses to the new challenges.
3. Member states should ratify all UN Conventions that refer to the rights of the child, and then promote national implementation.
4. Incorporate migrant women into the agenda of the African Women’s Decade, launched 24/10/10.
5. Establish an ad hoc Working Group on gender within the GFMD (the Mexican Chair of the session recommends the Working Group address both Gender and Family issues).
6. Develop gender-sensitive guidelines on policies, programs and budgets, with appropriate indicators.

Roundtable 3.1: Assessing the impact of migration on the economic and social development and addressing its cause-effect relationship

Interested governments, with the assistance of international organizations and external experts, should:

1. Develop and assess indicators of the impact of migration on development, using rigorous methods of evaluation.
2. Establish a clearing house that would include information on indicators, methods of evaluations and documents of relevant impact assessments of policies, programs and projects linking migration and development.
3. Continue to produce and update migration profiles that use a standardized template but provide flexibility that allows the information to be tailored to the priorities of the countries concerned.
4. Encourage the use of the GMG publication “Mainstreaming migration into development planning: A handbook for policy-makers and practitioners”.
5. Encourage the implementation of the recommendations on improving the collection of data on migrants in census, survey and administrative systems, as described in the “Migrants Count” report.

Roundtable 3.2: Assessing the relevance and impact of climate change on migration and development

1. Expedite data and analysis exchange and sharing of first experiences and best practices, and for this purpose create a Virtual Library that would become a global public good on the available and soon-to-be-available data and analyses on the topic.
2. Strengthen the dialogue at the local, regional and global levels on the interconnections of climate change, migration and development, including exchanges on best practices and critical first experiences of policy intervention that might not be finalized or definitive but might point the way forward for urgent action. Encourage the GFMD to contribute to such dialogue in the future.
3. Recognize the need for all concerned stakeholders to begin discussions on an appropriate legal and institutional framework to address these important issues, including in the context of the UNFCCC.

Roundtable 3.3: How can RCPs and Inter-regional For a best include the migration and development nexus?

1. National leadership in effectively addressing migration issues at a regional level is essential. Participation of governments in RCPs and IRFs also promotes and contributes to greater policy and institutional coherence at the national level - participation in RCPs and IRFs and a whole-of-government approach are thus mutually reinforcing.
2. Each RCP and IRF should freely decide whether their deliberations and outcomes should be of a binding nature or not.
3. Effective data collection at the regional and inter-regional level, including migration profiles and sex-aggregated data to ensure the necessary gender perspective, should be promoted. Information sharing and cross-fertilization among RCPs and IRFs should be strengthened.
4. While it may be premature to institutionalize the linkages between the GFMD and RCPs and IRFs, the Civil Society "Common Space" inaugurated at the Mexico GFMD meeting may be a model for such an interface.
5. The creation of RCPs should be at the initiative of interested governments, to ensure appropriate ownership.