Migration Policy

IOM is the leading inter-governmental organization working with migrants and governments to respond to contemporary migration challenges.  Having more than 50 years of worldwide operational experience, IOM is uniquely positioned to build on its grassroots experience and provide guidance on migration policy.  IOM provides information, advice and support to further the efforts of its stakeholders to develop effective national, regional and global migration management policies and strategies.

One of IOM’s strategic priorities in the area of migration policy is to contribute to increased dialogue between migration stakeholders at bilateral, regional and global levels.

International Dialogue on Migration

At the global level, IOM organizes the International Dialogue on Migration (IDM), initiated at the 50th anniversary session of the IOM Council in 2001.  The IDM provides a forum to States, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations to discuss migration policy issues, in order to explore and study policy issues of common interest and cooperate in addressing them, as foreseen in IOM’s Constitution.


Berne Initiative

IOM served as the Secretariat for the Berne Initiative, a States-owned consultative process with the goal of obtaining better management of migration at the national, regional and global level through enhanced cooperation between States. As a process, the Berne Initiative enabled governments from all world regions to share their different policy priorities and, together with relevant stakeholders, identify a common orientation to migration management, based on notions of co-operation, partnership, comprehensiveness, balance and predictability.  The most important outcome of the Berne Initiative process is the International Agenda for Migration Management (IAMM), a reference system and non-binding policy framework aimed at facilitating cooperation between States in planning and managing the movement of people in a humane and orderly way.  The IAMM is currently used by governments at the national, regional and global levels - for instance, with IOM’s support, Regional Consultative Processes on Migration (RCPs) have used the IAMM as the basis for capacity building workshops.


Regional Consultative Processes on Migration

IOM also actively supports and participates in Regional Consultative Processes on Migration (RCPs).  RCPs are informal groups made up of representatives of States in a given region, or like-minded States in one or more regions with common migration interests; international organizations; and in some cases, non-governmental organizations (NGOs).  These groups come together for informal and non-binding dialogue and information exchange on migration-related issues of common interest and concern.


Policy Advice

Upon request, IOM provides ad hoc policy advice to migration practitioners and policy makers from governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, private experts and the media on diverse migration management issues.  IOM also assists partner institutions and organizations in their efforts to further develop their approaches to migration issues.

One of IOM’s priority policy areas is migration and development.   The close relationship between migration and development was underlined in IOM’s 1951 founding document.