Moderator 

Governments should implement the recommendations set forth in the UN Special Rapporteur’s report on migrants’ freedom of association, including:

(a) Recognize in domestic laws migrants’ right to freedom of association and encourage them to self-organize, regardless of their migration status;

(b) Establish laws, policies and practices that are supportive of trade union membership for migrants;

(c) Extend labour protection in national laws to migrant workers, including domestic workers, to ensure equal protection under the law. Migrant workers should enjoy treatment no less favourable than that applicable to nationals, including with regard to freedom of association and assembly;

(d) Take positive measures, including affirmative action, to ensure that migrants with specific vulnerabilities a...

Moderator 

DOMESTICALLY

• make decision-making processes about migration status faster, clearer, inclusive, and sensitive. Don’t keep people in legal and psychological limbo.
• make the investment into protection of migrants’ rights and wellbeing an investment into wellbeing of your communities/country and improvement of your workforce.
• Implement flexible solutions that will enable migrants’ long-term and short-term choices. Some short-term workers will want to stay, others will become circular migrants, others will go back to their countries. Create options and pathways that will be legal, orderly, and inclusive to the changing circumstances of people’s lives. Aim for flexible rights-based national framework with local targeted needs-based solutions.
• consult migrants and host communities/em...

Moderator 

• Through its various migration-related projects around the world, GIZ is committed to creating secure and dignified life prospects for people in partner countries, e.g. through sustainable economic development, employment promotion, and the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. In addition, the GIZ approach to migration also aims at expanding opportunities for safe and regular labour migration.
• Against this backdrop, GIZ contributes extensively towards achieving the GCM objectives under review. Gateways for implementing these goals are, most notably, the BMZ-funded programmes “Migration and Diaspora” (PMD), “Migration for Development” (PME), “Partnership Approaches for Development-Oriented Training and Labor Migration” (PAM), and “Human mobility in the context of climate change”.
• ...

• FAO developed knowledge products to understand better the drivers and patterns of rural migration. Main publications can be consulted here,  https://www.fao.org/publications/highlights-detail/en/c/1365372/
• FAO worked with governments and stakeholders to address the adverse drivers of migration in rural areas at global, regional and country levels. Examples of FAO's work included agribusiness training for prospective migrants, incubation and support to generate decent employment opportunities and set-up micro-small enterprises, and training on climate smart agriculture in countries such as Kenya, Senegal, Nepal, Uganda, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Zimbabwe. Resources from projects can be consulted here, http...

In response to ‘what more can be done to achieve the objectives going forward’ as well as the point raised by Lidia to ‘start implementing responses to mobility in context of climate and environmental challenges’, it is key to support Member States and GCM stakeholders in their voluntary monitoring and reporting efforts under the Regional Reviews as well as the development of the Repository of Practices. 

To this end, the GCM baseline mapping project of the UN Network on Migration’s Thematic Priority 4 on Climate Change and Migration aims to establish a preliminary baseline on relevant policy instruments and practices supporting the implementation of GCM commitments related to addressing human mobility challenges in disaster and climate change contexts. This exercise will establish a preliminary baseline that can serve as a basis for future monitoring and repo...

Much more can be done to educate the public about issues related to human trafficking, human smuggling, and sea slavery. Governments, stakeholders, and the UN itself should do more to engage journalists and work on messaging and education campaigns to engage the public in working together to expose and eradicate these evils.  Journalists can drive the narrative surrounding migration and ensure that it does not slip from the headlines.

More can be done to engage academics worldwide to evaluate the GCM. Thousands of academic articles and dissertation topics can emanate from the GCM if the UNNM would more thoroughly engage with academics.  Academics can also help engage local communities and civil society in the implementation of the GCM.  Academics can help design effective messaging campaigns and other programs to help implement the GCM’s objectives. While th...

Moderator 

Development and protection of migrants’ rights should be a priority implemented with whole-of-government approach. GMC stresses the need to maintain the rule of law, ensure migrants are given access to due process and are not put arbitrarily into detention. Securatization and weaponization of migrants prevent implementation of GMC that aims ‘to generate greater predictability and certainty for States, communities and migrants alike’

• No one is illegal; crossing the border irregularly does not make a person a criminal – detainable, deportable, and dehumanized, denied dignified options and treatment.
   
• Migration is not a warfare. Migrants are not or weapon. We need to distinguish migrants and their rights/needs/obligations from other networks that capitalize on migration....

Moderator 

• Investing in food systems and improving food security and access to healthy diets to address the adverse drivers of rural migration and generate resilient, sustainable and inclusive livelihood opportunities in rural areas, with particular attention to youth and women.
• Identifying alternative livelihood options in rural areas of origin to cope with the continued COVID-19 pandemic situation and mobility restrictions.
  • Providing agri-business training and incubation services to enhance employability and create opportunities in agri-food systems along value chains.
  • Supporting the development of green jobs and green enterprises, and better integrating rural farmers into value chains, to enhance the viability of rural agricultural livelihoods and reduce the need for migration.
  • Supporti...

The Roundtable should discuss minimizing adverse drivers in the context of a situation like the humanitarian crisis that has occurred since the US withdrew from Afghanistan. The US announced its withdrawal in the Spring of 2021, giving the UN and the international community months to prepare for what was sure to be a humanitarian crisis and a wave of internal displacement and forced migration as the government increasingly began to fall to the Taliban. The international community did not act preemptively, and now illegal migration from Afghanistan is a growing humanitarian and security concern.  The international community should consider a mechanism to preemptively respond to large forced migrations that affect international peace and security. Goldenziel (2017) discusses the formation of such a mechanism in the context of people fleeing war and violence.  A similar mechani...

Moderator 

As discussed in the UN Special Rapporteur’s report on migrants and freedom of association (see UN Doc. A/HRC/44/42, para 35) a number of countries have implemented good practices that support migrants’ ability to associate and assembly freely. These examples include a Spanish law that provides that foreign nationals have the right to organize freely or to join an occupational organization and to exercise the right to strike under the same conditions as Spanish workers; a Turkish Act eliminating the citizenship requirement for trade union founders and provided for the possibility for non-Turkish citizens to become founding union members; Korean jurisprudence that opened up the way for the recognition of a migrant workers’ trade union in the country; and a memorandum of understanding between trade unions in Nepal and Jordan that e...

Moderator 

Policies and negotiations about migration should be based on facts, not fears. Only 3.6% of world population are migrants. Together with their families and dependent networks (employers, employees, connected professions) migration affects at least a tenth of world population. Migration and migrants are entangled into a rhizome of social processes at different levels. It is difficult to evaluate to what extent local and national ethnic, political, religious, climate, economic or simply personal or family circumstances play decisive role in migration decisions and actions. Only research can give us a strong ground for evidence-based working solutions.

• use academic knowledge, practitioners’ knowledge, and migrants’ knowledge to make decisions based on long-term observations, comparisons, research; f...

Moderator 

• Looking at GCM objectives 2 and 5, intra-regional migration, especially on the African continent, is one important trend. As highlighted in the World Migration Report 2021, the ongoing restrictions of movements in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic have contributed significantly to an increase of migration within regions of origin. Especially on the African continent, labour migration is largely intra-regional – 80% of labour migrants move within their region or between regions on the continent. The consolidation of safe and regular South-South migration corridors to neighbouring labour markets in the search for a job and better wages is therefore of increasing relevance to achieve the GCM objective 5. In addition, the largest share of international climate-ind...

It would be good to link this discussion to the Regional Joint Programme on ‘Addressing Drivers and Facilitating Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in the Contexts of Disasters and Climate Change in the IGAD Region’, funded under the Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund. Among others, the Joint Programme aims at identifying policies and practices to reduce disaster displacement risk in the IGAD region and on developing risk profiles and a modelling tool to guide policy decision-making in this field. This work will ultimately support one of the main objectives of the Joint Programme, which is to develop innovative solutions to addressing data gaps in the IGAD region. It is also a useful experience to highlight in terms of partnerships, as the work is aligned with similar projects in the region (e.g. with GIZ) for which teams are coordinating their efforts. 

To use les...

The U.S. Government’s May 2021 Call to Action to stimulate economic development in Central America in order to address adverse drivers of migration should be studied closely and perhaps discussed at the Roundtable. The Call to Action has generated $1.2 billion in investment by business and social enterprises to sustainably address the root causes of migration by promoting economic opportunity.  Those organizations involved include major multi-national corporations like Microsoft and Mastercard, Guatemala-based Grupo Mariposa, and also CARE international.  While the U.S. has not signed the GCM, it now supports the approach of the GCM.  This program should be closely watched because it exemplifies the type of program the GCM likses to promote: involving public-private partnerships and NGOs to create innovative solutions to address adverse drivers of migration.  Man...

Interesting to read in the background paper about integration of migration into development plans and other planning processes such as including mobility in climate strategies and emergency response plans. As well as to read examples of review of national policy and practice.  We would welcome more reporting from States and reflection in the background document on the value and benefits of participatory policy development processes. Specifically, how are planning processes and policy development drawing on the expertise and experience of migrants.

The UNNM guidance on GCM implementation emphasises consultative processes (https://migrationnetwork.un.org/core-working-group-22-gcm-national-implementation-plans) 

Our briefing paper contains principles and enabling actions towards meaningful participation by migrants in GCM Implementation at a nation...

En relación al principio general primero que indica que "nadie debe ser obligado a abandonar su país de origen debido a factores ajenos a su control", el rechazo de la condicionalidad de la ayuda en el marco de la cooperación internacional para el desarrollo, de manera que esta quede desvinculada de todas instrumentalización al servicio de las políticas migratorias y/o de refugio de los países donantes o del Norte Global desarrollado; garantizándose una "eficacia de la ayuda" centrada en la lucha contra las causas de la pobreza y el subdesarrollo; cuestión que a su vez impacta positivamente en la reducción de la migración irregular por motivos económicos, así como en la reducción de las causas profundas de la migración forzada.

Es necesario garantizar que los países receptores de la ayuda estén respetando los derechos humanos a la hora de adoptar sus polític...

Moderator 

This roundtable should discuss the importance of promoting and protecting migrants’ civic freedoms, in particular the freedoms of association and assembly, both as a precondition for the successful realization of GCM objectives and because States are bound to implement the GCM in ways that respect human rights (see GCM, paras 2, 15). It would be difficult, for instance, to achieve Objective 6 without the assistance of labor unions representing migrant workers’ collective interests—a fact that is recognized in the GCM itself (see GCM para. 22(i)). Migrants’ inability to organize and speak in their own interests is a major obstacle to decent work and migrant safety, well-being and regularization. As laid out in in a recent report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants: “the inability of migrants to exerci...

Moderator 

• consider migration as part of wider socio-economic processes, hence, the priority would be to increase security and prosperity around the globe to give people a chance not to migrate if they don’t have or don’t want to;
   
• maintain open dialogue about what stops countries and governments from implementing GCM? Does implementing GCM conflate with other competing agendas (climate/COVID/internal issues)? How does GMC ‘fit’ within national priorities currently on the table?
   
• regard migration as part of both short-term and long-term priorities of their countries/regions (labour power, demographics, diversity, peace), reflect on how can migration help or hinder these priorities?
   
• consider how to reframe migration to make it less politically toxic topic?...

Moderator 

The comment above from Lidia is fantastic.

I would say:

- Exploring how demographics, economic growth, and labor shortages are playing a role in how countries expand their immigration policies. Where are innovations taking place, what are we learning from these, and what does the future hold?

- Moving beyond the economic migrant vs refugee dichotomy, to recognize the multiple drivers as to why someone moves, and the fact that their status could change throughout their journey.

- Identifying where countries / regions have attempted to facilitate migration as a climate change adaptation strategy and what lessons can be learned from this in encouraging others to do the same.

- Understanding what people think about refugees and migrants, and attempting to engage with the public on these is...

• With the guiding principle of leaving no one behind in mind, the overarching aim of this roundtable should be to discuss the potential of regular migration for sustainable development, while reducing adverse drivers that force people to leave their home (including those related to climate change) as well as the risks and dangers of migration.
   
• The discussion should focus on a triple win approach to migration, which benefits countries of origin, destination countries and migrants alike. Therefore, the roundtable should adopt a partnership-oriented approach, in which the perspectives of various stakeholders are heard, including from the private sector, diaspora, civil society and academia.
   
• Further key priorities for consideration are the need to come up with regular migra...

Moderator 

• The drivers of migration are often interrelated. To make migration a choice it is key to address the adverse drivers of rural migration in a holistic way, including poverty, food insecurity, inequality, lack of decent employment opportunities, limited infrastructure and access to markets and services. Attention should be paid to territorial development, intermediary cities and resilient, sustainable and inclusive food systems
• Fostering decent work opportunities in the rural economy and in agri-food systems, particularly for rural youth and women, and stimulating diversification is one of the key elements. Large shares of migrants come from rural areas, and many migrate in steps, first to cities and then abroad.
• Addressing the immediate needs and vulnerabilities of rural residents, including households rel...

Here are a few further reflections on this question in addition to the remarks made by colleagues:

There are clearly a range of priority issues that will fall under this roundtable discussion, many of which are interrelated and should be addressed holistically. More specifically:

• Environmental degradation, desertification, drought and disasters linked to the adverse effects of climate change, such as flooding, drought and other extreme weather events or processes, increasingly compel people to move and the risk of being displaced will likely increase in the years to come in the context of the adverse effects of climate change. Particularly Objective 2 (paragraphs 18.h-18.l) and Objective 5 (paragraph 21.g-21.h) include references to these types of movements, making this roundtable a key opportunity to discuss progress on implementing commitments relate...

Creating evidence-based, data-driven policies and effectively measuring the role of the GCM in promoting safe, orderly, and regular migration will be crucial to achieve the GCM’s objectives. Over the last two decades, social scientists have developed increasingly sophisticated methods for evaluating how treaties – especially human rights and humanitarian treaties – impact actual conditions in member states (e.g., Cope et al. 2020; Lupu 2013, Simmons 2009). These studies have contributed to a related line of research that has questioned if, and under what conditions, international institutions truly matter to policy outcomes. This research has also contributed to a new interest among policymakers, civil society, and scholars about how different international institutional design features succeed or fail in affecting state behavior (e.g., Koremenos 2016). Many of the methods used ...

• Regular pathways must be developed hand in hand with regularization of the undocumented, climate change responses, and humanitarian needs. The labor movement is calling for a new approach to migration that centers long-term regular pathways around the human rights of migrants, breaking down the artificial separation between refugee/asylum-seekers on the one hand, and migrants on the other. All people on the move have rights and should have regular pathways, regardless of the incoherent categories created by migration systems. In their efforts to promote regular pathways, states should focus on restoring and e...

Moderator 

It is well documented that with the right enabling conditions – as outlined in the GCM – migration contributes to positive development outcomes in countries of origin, transit, and destination.

COVID-19 has exacerbated inequalities and set us even further back when it comes to our progress towards the achievement of the SDGs. The reduction of regular pathways resulting from the pandemic increases the risks of people moving through irregular and unsafe means, further entrenching inequalities. Safe and regular migration pathways must therefore be considered more clearly as part of the solution to comprehensively addressing the drivers of migration. As climate-related disasters and environmental degradation add to these drivers in new and increasingly complex ways, the need for safe and regular pathway...