Your Excellencies Mr. Nasser Bourita and Mr. Vusal Huseynov,
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
Esteemed members of panel,
It is an honour to contribute to roundtable 4 of the first International Migration Review Forum. I would like to thank the President of the General Assembly for extending his kind invitation to me.
In the few minutes that I have, allow me to make three overarching points that I hope will inform our deliberations this morning.
First, migration is heavily influenced by global events.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us that global crises can turn the lives of millions of ordinary people upside down. Migrants were among the most affected by the pandemic. Around the globe, Governments closed national borders. International travel was severely disrupted. Millions of people had to cancel or delay plans of moving abroad. Hundreds of thousands of migrants were stranded, unable to return to their countries. Others had to return to their home countries earlier than planned. The pandemic also exacerbated the precarious working conditions faced by many migrants.
As we recover from COVID-19, the world is being hit hard by the effects of the conflict in Ukraine. The conflict has not only displaced millions of Ukrainians, it is also contributing to increased food insecurity throughout the world, affecting the world’s most vulnerable people, countries and economies. Recent advances in sustainable development and in people’s ability to create sustainable livelihoods for themselves in their home countries are at risk of being reversed.
This brings me to my second point: migration and development are inextricably linked.
Migration is both a cause and a consequence of sustainable development. This is why the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is, and I quote, “rooted in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda”.
Consider, for example, the role of remittances. According to the World Bank, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries, excluding China, are expected to surpass the sum of foreign direct investment (FDI) and official development assistance (ODA) in the current year. Remittances have provided a critical lifeline during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing migrant families to maintain access to essential items such as food, health care and education.
The pandemic has also reminded us about the critical contribution of international migrants to economies and societies in countries of destination. Millions of migrants helped to keep our world running smoothly as essential workers, in particular in the health sector and the care economy, and along food supply chains.
But there have also been numerous examples of how the vulnerability of migrants was compounded during the pandemic, including through an elevated risk of exposure to COVID-19, discrimination, job losses, extended family separation and lack of access to vaccines and other basic health-care services.
This brings me to my third point, which is the need for enhanced international cooperation.
Objective 23 of the Global Compact focuses on international cooperation and partnerships. These are truly cross-cutting issues. As we are all aware, no country can address on its own the various challenges posed by international migration. Without cooperation between countries, none of the other 22 objectives of the Global Compact can be achieved.
Allow me to draw on the example of my Department’s work to promote the implementation of Objective 1 of the Global Compact, which is to collect and utilize accurate and disaggregated migration data for evidence-based policies. Such information is useful for many purposes, including for combatting misinformation and negative stereotypes about migrants.
Our work on Objective 1 both promotes and is guided by international cooperation.
As the secretariat for the Expert Group on Migration Statistics, which is convened at the request of the United Nations Statistical Commission, we are supporting the revision of existing global standards and recommendations concerning statistics on international migration. We are also implementing various capacity development activities on migration statistics and on harnessing the contributions of migration for development.
And we are collaborating with the International Organization for Migration and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to organize the third International Forum for Migration Statistics, which will be held in Santiago, Chile, in January 2023.
I look forward to hearing the conclusions of the Policy debate this afternoon and the results of the General Debate tomorrow and on Friday. The outcomes are important for shaping our work.
Likewise, I also look forward to the adoption of an ambitious, action-oriented and forward-looking Progress Declaration on Friday afternoon, as this document will guide our work in this area for years to come.
In closing, I wish you very fruitful deliberations during this roundtable.
Thank you.