U.N. hearings focus on "International Migration and Development" (09/03/06)

U.N. hearings focus on "International Migration and Development"

by Nadia Shmigel

UNITED NATIONS - On July 12 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), civil society and public sector participated with over 100 permanent government missions to the U.N. in the Informal Interactive Civil Society Hearings in preparation for the High-Level Dialogue of the General Assembly, to be held on September 14-15 in New York.

The framework for the hearings was based on Secretary-General Kofi Annan's report, "International Migration and Development."

The population division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs published the following statistics: During the period 2000-2005 the more developed regions of the world gained an estimated 2.6 million migrants annually from the less developed regions, or 13.1 million over the whole period. North America gained the most from net migration: 1.4 million migrants annually. It was followed by Europe with an annual net gain of 1.1 million.

Ukraine with a population over 46 million has an average annual net outmigration of 140,000. The remittances sent home to Ukraine by migrants for 2004 amounted to $411 million, which represented 0.6 percent of the GDP. The secretary general's report takes a positive view of migration, seeing migration and remittances sent to migrants' countries of origin as signs of economic development.

Civil society and NGOs welcomed the effort of the U.N. secretary general and the General Assembly to highlight the issue of migration and bring it to the forefront of discussions by the international community. Migrants Rights International (MRI) in its comments on the secretary general's report wrote: "We welcome the emphasis made in the report on the need to protect human rights of migrants and the reference made to the U.N. international human rights instruments and conventions of the International Labor Organization as constituting the core of the international normative framework on international migration."

In his report the Secretary General refers to the 1990 U.N. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families as the "most comprehensive international treaty dealing with rights of migrant workers."

So far, only 34 out of 191 member countries of the U.N. have ratified the convention. NGO participants of the hearings were encouraged to lobby their governments to ratify the Convention and to implement the commitments made. Migration includes legal, illegal and forced migration as result of conflicts and war. Migration can be seen both as a positive tool of development in terms of the remittances sent to the countries of origin, but it also can lead to the worst violations of human rights, such as trafficking of human beings for purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor. The "brain drain" - when countries lose their well-educated people due to migration, disruption of family life, feminization of migration, and a lack of basic health care services for immigrants are other negatives of this phenomenon.

On the recommendation of the World Federation of Ukrainian Women's Organizations, Olesya Kotsyumbas, regional coordinator of the Open Society Institute/Higher Education Support Program (OSI/HESP) academic fellowship program at the International Center for Policy Studies in Kyiv, was invited as a spokesperson at the Civil Society Hearings on Migration and Development. Ms. Kotsyumbas spoke in the fourth segment of the hearings, "Policy responses: Promoting the building of partnerships and capacity-building and the sharing of best practices at all levels, including the bilateral and regional levels, for the benefit of countries and migrants alike."

In her presentation Ms. Kotsyumbas pointed out that the organization she works for sees a great potential in international migration for the democratic development of post-totalitarian societies. The academic fellowship program aims at reforming the higher education system of Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries by supporting promising Western-educated scholars, who return to their countries of origin.

For the last 10 to 15 years, due to demographic reasons and labor migration to the West, Ukraine lost nearly 6 million of its population. Many migrants from post-Soviet countries were highly educated people. After the political events of 2004 that spurred democratic changes, Ukraine and its investment climate are improving, many of those who left Ukraine are returning to take the lead and support the country with their international experience, education and professionalism.

According to Ms. Kotsyumbas, in order to ensure a long-lasting positive change in Ukraine with the help of highly skilled returning migrants and to make the best use of their knowledge and competencies, there should be a cooperative effort of civil society organizations, the private sector and the government. It was suggested that representatives of newly independent states should develop concrete mechanisms for involvement of highly skilled migrants on all levels of public service and the society life for the benefit of the countries and migrants alike for the High Level Dialogue in September.

Migration presents a challenge in the world of globalization and NGOs uniformly stress that immigration policy must be developed through a human rights perspective. Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, among them, eradication of poverty and achievement of gender equality, are essential. Migration as a human right should be based on free choice and not forced by poverty, lack of adequate employment opportunities in countries of origin, war and internal conflict.

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