Global Issues: Migration

Introduction

Humanity has been on the move ever since the beginning of time. Some people relocate to join family, pursue educational chances, or find employment or economic opportunities. Others relocate in order to flee hostilities, persecution, terrorism, or human rights abuses. Others relocate in reaction to the unfavorable consequences of environmental variables like natural catastrophes or climate change.

More people than ever before are living outside of their nation of birth nowadays. The IOM World Migration Report 2020 estimates that there were about 272 million migrants worldwide as of June 2019, an increase of 51 million from 2010. Labor migrants made up over two thirds. 3.5% of the world's population was made up of immigrants in 2019. This is in contrast to 2.8% in 2000 and 2.3% in 1980.

While many people travel voluntarily, many more do so because they must. At the end of 2019, 79.5 million people were forcibly displaced globally, according to UNHCR. 26 million of them (including 20.4 million under the UNHCR's mandate and 5.6 million under UNRWA's for Palestine) were refugees. There were 45.7 million internal migrants, 4.2 million asylum seekers, and 3.6 million Venezuelans who had to flee their country.

Who is a migrant?

A migrant is anyone who is moving or has moved across an international border or within a State away from his or her habitual place of residence, according to the UN Migration Agency (IOM), regardless of

The person's legal status,
Whether the movement is voluntary or involuntary,
What the causes of the movement are, or
The length of the stay.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Migrants

For the first time, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development acknowledges migration's contribution to sustainable development. Out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 11 of them have indicators and targets related to movement. "Leave no one behind," including migrants, is the fundamental tenet of the Agenda.

Target 10.7, which aims to "enable orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, particularly via the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies," is the SDG that most directly addresses migration. The mention of trafficking, remittances, international student mobility, and other issues is included among the other migration-related targets. Additionally, migration is indirectly related to numerous additional cross-cutting objectives.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM)

IOM, which was founded in 1951, is the top intergovernmental agency in the field of migration. IOM works to promote international cooperation on migration issues, to help in the search for workable solutions to migration problems, and to provide humanitarian aid to migrants in need, including refugees and internally displaced people. It also works to ensure the orderly and humane management of migration. In 2016, IOM and the UN signed into a contract, making IOM one of the UN's specialized agencies (A/70/976).

IOM created the I am a migrant" portal, which includes first-person accounts from individuals, to encourage diversity and inclusion of migrants in society. This platform offers insights into the experiences of migrants of different origins and throughout their migratory journeys.

The number of international migrants worldwide reached almost 272 million In 2019.

People who live in a country other than their country of birth are referred to as international migrants, and their number reached about 272 million in 2019. (from 258 million in 2017). International migrants made up 48% of the population. There were reportedly 38 million migrant children, and three out of every four foreign migrants were of working age, or between the ages of 20 and 64. There were 164 million migratory laborers. Overseas migrants made up about 31% of the population, with 30% living in Europe, 26% in the Americas, 10% in Africa, and 3% in Oceania. Global Migration Data Portal is the source.

Making sense of the migration data that is now available can be difficult because it is frequently dispersed among numerous organizations and agencies and difficult to compare. The Global Migration Data Portal, which is administered by IOM's Global Migration Data Analysis Center, provides a singular entry point to current, thorough migration statistics and trustworthy information regarding migration data globally. The website provides migration data from many sources in an effort to aid journalists, national statistical officers, policymakers, and the general public with an interest in migration in navigating the ever-evolving world of migration data.

Large-scale movements of refugees and migrants affect all UN Member States

All UN Member States are impacted by large-scale movements of refugees and migrants, which calls for closer cooperation and responsibility sharing. A high-level plenary conference on tackling massive movements of refugees and migrants was held by the UN General Assembly in 2016. With suggestions on the subject, the UN Secretary-General wrote the report "In Safety and Dignity: Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants" (A/70/59)

In the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (A/RES/71/1), which was endorsed by UN Member States, they acknowledged the necessity for an all-encompassing strategy to migration. The New York Declaration pledges to safeguard the safety, dignity, and fundamental freedoms of all migrants, regardless of their status as migrants, and recognizes the beneficial contribution of migrants to inclusive and sustainable development.

To oversee the follow-up to the migration-related components of the High-Level Summit, the UN Secretary-General named Louise Arbour of Canada as his Special Representative for International Migration in March 2017.

Following the adoption of the New York Declaration at an intergovernmental meeting on international migration in December 2018 in Morocco, UN Member States committed to cooperating to create the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration. The GCM addresses a wide range of topics, including advancing migrant workers' labor rights, enhancing migration statistics as a foundation for evidence-based policies, saving lives and launching global initiatives on migrants who have gone missing, among many other things. The GCM's adoption will mark a development in the regulation of migration, increasing its advantages for people, communities, and nations while lowering its hazards for everyone.

International Migrants Day

The General Assembly declared December 18th, 2000, International Migrants Day (A/RES/55/93). The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families was approved by the Assembly on that day in 1990 (A/RES/45/158).