Abstract
This introduction sets the context of the book in the history and evolution of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), with special focus on the Puerto Vallarta meeting in 2010, and the follow-up to many of its outcomes during the GFMD Geneva in 2011. It tracks throughout the chapters some new themes and deeper treatments of the migration-development connections in Puerto Vallarta, ranging from social protection for mobile workforces, gender and transnational families, domestic workers, and climate change to the relations between governments and civil society in the global debate on migration and development. The structure and focus of the book reflect how for the GFMD and the global debate generally, the process is as important as the issues discussed, particularly how governments and nonstate partners interact. The GFMD is influencing policies and institutional behaviors in small, decisive ways, but its greatest contribution may be to have developed new forms of state cooperation and common agendas among international organizations toward some agreed goals, and even some principles for better protecting mobile workers across borders.
This chapter was prepared by Dr. Irena Omelaniuk, Senior adviser to the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), Switzerland, 2011.
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Notes
- 1.
The inaugural GFMD meeting in Brussels in 2007 established a roundtable format for future government meetings, whereby governments form teams to jointly prepare the roundtables around themes discussed and agreed on an annual basis by the GFMD Steering Group (SG) and Friends of the Forum (FOF).
- 2.
The GFMD is not grounded in a constitution, but as an informal process is guided by a loose set of Operating Modalities agreed by governments in Brussels in 2007 (www.gfmd.org/en/process/operating-modalities.html). The Chair-in-Office each year is dependent on governments volunteering to host the Forum and usually alternates between developing and developed countries. The Chair-in-Office is supported by the voluntary supporting entities: the Troika, Steering Group, and Friends of the Forum. (The Troika comprises past, current, and future Chairs. The Steering Group consists of a mix of governments committed to offer sustained political, conceptual, and substantial support to the Forum process. The Friends of the Forum, open to all member states and observers of the United Nations, acts as a sounding board and advises on the agenda, structure, and format of each Forum meeting, including the thematic program for each year.)
- 3.
The Fourth Meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development, was hosted by Mexico in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, from November 8 to 11, 2010. It was attended by 131 countries and 38 international organizations. The overarching theme of the forum was “Partnerships for Migration and Human Development; Shared Prosperity, Shared Responsibility,” which guided both the government and civil society meetings (http://www.gfmd.org/en/gfmd-meetings/mexico-2010.html).
- 4.
The symposium followed the pattern of brainstorming on past and possible future GFMD themes by governments, civil society, and the current organizers of the GFMD, as supported by MacArthur Foundation in 2009 and 2010.
- 5.
The UN High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, UN General Assembly, September14–15, 2006, was the first ever plenary session of the UN General Assembly on migration issues. The focus was on ways to maximize the development benefits of migration and to reduce difficulties. By agreement of the majority of Member States, this launched the Global Forum on Migration and Development as a state-led process. Belgium volunteered to host and organize the first meeting in 2007 (www.un.org/migration/).
- 6.
See Chapter X on International Migration, part A on International Migration and Development, in the ICPD 1994 Programme of Action: http://www.ippf.org/en/About/ICPD±Programme±of±Action.htm.
- 7.
The GCIM comprised 19 commissioners from all walks of life, mandated to formulate a coherent, comprehensive, and global response to the issue of international migration (www.gcim.org/en/).
- 8.
See the Background Paper for Roundtable Session 2.1 on “Inclusion, protection and acceptance of migrants in society – linking human rights and migrant empowerment for development,” GFMD, 2009, Athens.
- 9.
The overarching theme of the Puerto Vallarta Forum was Partnerships for Migration and Human Development: Shared Prosperity – Shared Responsibility. In support of this theme, three roundtables were conducted on (1) the flagship theme (covering regular and irregular forms of migration), (2) Human Mobility and Human Development (covering the protection of labor migrants and gender issues), and (3) Policy and Institutional Coherence to Address the Relationship Between Migration and Development (http://www.gfmd.org/en/documents-library/mexico-2010.html).
- 10.
In 2009, GFMD Member States agreed to the establishment of two ad hoc working groups to assist future Chairs-in-Office in prioritizing and taking forward the outcomes from the annual GFMD meetings: (1) on Protecting and Empowering Migrants for Development (cochairs Philippines and United Arab Emirates) and (2) on Policy Coherence, Data and Research (cochairs Morocco and Switzerland): www.gfmd.org/en/adhoc-wg/protecting-and-empowering.html
- 11.
The study, commissioned by the UAE, cochair of the Working Group on Protecting and Empowering Migrants for Development, examines labor recruitment in Asia (Martin 2009).
- 12.
See a description of the dialogue in the Chap. 13 by Achieng on “Regional and Inter-Regional Processes: Advancing the Discourse and Action on Migration and Development.”
- 13.
See the Summary Report on the Workshop on Recruitment of Workers for Overseas Employment, Dubai, January 18–19, 2011, and the Summary Report on the Workshop on Lowering Migration Costs in Collaboration with, and Developing a Model Bilateral Framework with Receiving Countries, Dhaka, September 21–22, 2011, www.gfmd.org
- 14.
See the definition agreed by participating governments in the first GFMD roundtable debate on this in 2007: “Circular Migration is the fluid movement of people between countries, including temporary or more permanent movement which, when it occurs voluntarily and is linked to the labor needs of countries of origin and destination, can be beneficial to all involved.”
- 15.
At the GFMD meeting in Brussels in 2007 and the follow-up workshop in Mauritius in 2008, governments recognized that permanent residence, citizenship, and dual and multiple citizenship can spur more spontaneous circulation.
- 16.
See Commission of the European Communities (2007).
- 17.
Including 61st World Health Assembly Resolution (WHA 61.17, 2008), which calls upon Member States to promote the “health of migrants.”
- 18.
See the Annex to the Roundtable 2.2 background paper on “Uncovering the Interfaces Between Gender, Family, Migration and Development: The Global Care Economy and Chains,” www.gfmd.org
- 19.
To be considered in conjunction with the General Comment on Migrant Domestic Workers by the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (CMW) 2010 and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) General Recommendation No. 26 on Women Migrant Workers 2008.
- 20.
See Roundtable 1.2 on “Joint Strategies to Address Irregular Migration,” GFMD Puerto Vallarta, November 8–11, 2010.
- 21.
See the definition of “irregular migration” by Castles et al. in the Chap. 9 “Irregular Migration: Causes, Patterns and Strategies.”
- 22.
Martin and Warner point to the UK Government’s “Foresight” project on Global Environmental Migration as demonstrating some important findings and lessons in coherence. The project explores the links between climate change and migration and the challenges over the coming decades using scenario planning and other scientific tools. The purpose is to inform and assist decision makers to understand the future impacts of their decisions today (http://www.bis.gov.uk/foresight/our-work/projects/current-projects/global-migration).
- 23.
See the description and rationale of the working group on the GFMD website: http://www.gfmd.org/en/adhoc-wg/policy-coherence-data-research.html.
- 24.
See the seminar on “Assessing the Impacts of Migration and Development Policies,” Vienna, June 30–July 1, 2010, organized by the GFMD ad hoc Working Group on Policy Coherence, Data and Research (http://www.gfmd.org/en/adhoc-wg/policy-coherence-data-research.html).
- 25.
See the GFMD 2011 thematic meeting in Marseille, “Managing Migration for Development: Policymaking, Assessment and Evaluation,” June 13–15, 2011 (http://www.gfmd.org/en/marseille-workshop.html).
- 26.
This was also discussed at the GFMD 2011 thematic meeting in Marseille.
- 27.
The Global Migration Group (GMG) is an interagency group of UN organizations and commissions, and IOM, “bringing together heads of agencies to promote the wider application of relevant international and regional instruments and norms relating to migration, and to encourage the adoption of more coherent, comprehensive, and better coordinated approaches to the issue of international migration” (http://www.globalmigrationgroup.org/). It was formed in 2006 at the request of the then UN Secretary General, based on a recommendation by the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM). It evolved from the smaller interagency group, the Geneva Migration Group, formed in 2003.
- 28.
Migration Profiles were first proposed by the European Commission in its Communication on Migration and Development in 2005 as a tool to gather data inter alia on labor markets in countries of origin and destination, migration and migrant remittance flows, and other issues relevant to migration, to help identify and develop strategies to address data gaps and produce the evidence required to inform policy [COM (2005) 390, p. 37]. The EC, IOM, and ICMPD have since assisted governments in a large range of countries to develop their migration profiles. The model has shifted and expanded more to become a tool for development planning in the future (http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=41_42).
- 29.
Mercosur (Mercado Común del Sur, or the Common Southern Market) is an economic and political agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, founded in 1991, to promote free trade and the movement of goods, people, and currency (http://www.mercosur.int/).
- 30.
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM), comprising 15 Caribbean nations and dependencies, promotes economic integration and cooperation among its members, inter alia by coordinating economic policies and development planning, and through special projects for the less-developed countries within its jurisdiction, and operating a regional single market for many of its members (www.caricom.org/).
- 31.
See the description and rationale of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue at www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/policy-research/ …/abu-dhabi-dialogue.
- 32.
See also Chap. 2 by Philip Martin and the report on the GFMD 2011 thematic meeting held by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Dubai, January 18–19, 2011, on “Recruitment of Workers for Overseas Employment” (http://www.gfmd.org/en/recruitment-of-workers-for-overseas-employment.html).
- 33.
This information is in part based on two internal surveys in 2009 and 2010 undertaken under the auspices of the Working Group on Policy Coherence, Data and Research but also on the follow-up actions under the Working Group on Protecting and Empowering Migrants for Development.
- 34.
These came to light during the thematic meetings on domestic workers in Kingston and Accra. Refer the respective Summary Reports for those meetings on the GFMD website.
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Omelaniuk, I. (2012). Introduction: Making the Connections Between Migration and Development. In: Omelaniuk, I. (eds) Global Perspectives on Migration and Development. Global Migration Issues, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4110-2_1
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