The world is on the move. In 2015, roughly 3.3% of the world’s population (around 244 million people) were international migrants. That’s a small percentage of the global population overall, but it’s a number that’s growing fast, facilitated as it is by new technology and a more interconnected world.
The issue of global migration is bigger than any one country. The global community recognises that states need to work together in order to guarantee safe, orderly, and regular migration flows, and steps have already been taken in this direction. In 2016, the UN General Assembly committed itself to adopting a “global compact for migration”. The compact is expected to be formally adopted at an intergovernmental conference in Marrakech, Morocco, in December 2018.
The agreement will commit states to bolstering cooperation across the board when it comes to international migration. It seeks to standardise the collection of data, so we have a more accurate picture of global migration flows. It hopes to formalise cooperation between states, but also within states between policymakers, civil society, the private sector, and international organisations such as UN agencies and bodies.
What do our readers think? We had a comment from Anuja who thinks the world’s current approach to migration is failing. She also believes migration flows are going to intensify over the coming years (for example, due to pressures from climate change), so we urgently need to rethink our response (hence the movement towards a global migration compact). Is she right?
To get a response, we put Anuja’s comment to the UN Special Representative for International Migration, Louise Arbour, when we met up with her at the annual State of Europe conference in Brussels held by Friends of Europe. How would she respond?
To get another perspective, we put the same comment to Lloyd Axworthy, Chair of the World Refugee Council and a former Canadian minister of foreign affairs. Did he agree with Anuja’s comment on the need for a global response to migration flows?
Many of our readers are sceptical about the idea of a global response to migration. For example, we had a comment from Paul who argues that drafting a framework for a global response is easy, but making it work in practice is pretty much impossible. He argues that countries don’t all have the same resources, so enforcement will be patchy at best. Is Paul being too pessimistic?
How would Louise Arbour respond to Paul’s comment?
Finally, what would Lloyd Axworthy say to Paul?
Do we need a global response to migration? Is the current approach to migration broken? And how would a global response actually work in practice? Let us know your thoughts and comments in the form below and we’ll take them to policymakers and experts for their reactions!
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Do we need a global response to migration?
Mass migration from the undeveloped world to the West is an orchestrated policy heralded by UN Agenda 21/30. In other words intentional globalist promoted policy. As that is fact and not theory, why would a global response to the problem do anything other than make sure the agenda wasn’t disrupted or disturbed? So, we already have a global response to migration. That of promoting it to its full objective.
https://www.rooshv.com/the-end-goal-of-western-progressivism-is-depopulation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7xM5XgN0oc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eBhIMQo-cA
Sorry no, safe such efforts!
Because each sovereign nation who values its sovereignty and endeavors to protect its citizens from the coming regulated EU & UN chaos have already laws, rules & regulations to deal with wanted and unwanted immigration.
What value can a none binding & unenforceable UN “Marrakesh declaration” add- signed or never signed? Just add more confusion- like the Paris, Dublin +++ accords”!
https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/20180503_declaration-and-action-plan-marrakesh_en.pdf
When the UN (or EU) deliberates about “migration” all they do is to throw a still peaceful, orderly & developed 1st world into turmoil.
The UN, the EU, “Friends” or Foes of Europe can never be trusted to protect the existence of any future European sovereign nation! Let them meddle in Africa:
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12363/europe-africa-immigration
or Arab countries (if they allow them):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Muslim-majority_countries
Why not send UN or EU envoys like “Louise Arbour and Lloyd Axwothy” to do some good Samaritan work in Africa or Arab countries- like those pioneers before them from the well respected “London Missionary Society”- instead scheming from behind safe locations!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Missionary_Society
I would like to join the debate
No! We don’t need response, we need carefully throughout designed plan from tackling the causes to devising the long term solution not only for our states but for the donor states of migration(they would not recover easily even with major investments if most of their university graduates are permanetly settled in EU cause they are migrants and we need them for our economy and demography).
We need closed borders.
It’s called borders
Guys, borders have always been a mere illusion, migration has always occurred. Together we have to eradicate poverty for all the people, that’s how you stop massive migration
Magari scioppi se entri non invitato.
Maybe scioppi if you enter not invited.
That picture says it all. I doubt they have visas or correct identifying documents. People think they can waltz into whatever country they like. I couldn’t do it, I would be deported and there won’t be any leftists wringing their hands because I was an illegal.
The key is balance. We shouldn’t have completly closed borders like in the communist era but neither open border so that everyone could come in without documentation. The problem with the immigrants is not the immigrants themselves, the problem is that they refuse to adapt to the western culture. I will say something very “controversial” right now, at least for the ones on the left: The western culture is morally superior. They come from a backwards country and some try to integrate, but some insist on having the same backwards ideas that brought their original countries to ruin in the first place.
Това са работниците , които берат царевица за варене .
These are the workers who pick corn to boil.
We have no borders and we do not want borders. Confront the causes of migration, not humans.
No, we simply need to police our own borders effectively and ensure that even those who manage to enter irregularly cannot work or rent a place illegally. If existing laws were actually enforced, much of the pull-factor would actually be removed.
We need to stop immigration business.
O dejar de vender armas. Eso estaría bien.
Or stop selling weapons. That would be good.
yes, just finance reconstruction of Syrian cities, and refugee problem is solved, finance economy in north Africa and migration problem is solved
I simply can not follow on reading such innoble commentaries: morally superior, close borders, enforce law… Very few have thought about eliminating the causes of the problem: big corporations corrupting governments in order to expoliate resources, wars promoted to eliminate ‘obstacles’, poverty, maffias…This same morning twenty people drowned near de south beaches of my country, Spain. We mourn for each one of them. We are, all of us, potential migrants.
yes, we need better wall
What would “global response” mean? 🤣
migrating Africa to Europe, because it’s “better” to live there?
Proper border control like we had before the open border and Schengen crap! Sure it’s quicker to enter another country ( oh dear, mind me. Europe doesn’t have countries ) but it’s a heck of a lot safer when everyone is checked! Get the message across that no more migrants are to be accepted!
Yes, the invation must stop.
It’s huge business in which the governments are included. Start from the the top
No. Sovereign nation-stations are more than enough to deal with the issue.
People do not normally want to leave their homeland. We need to solve the problem by exploring the root cause.