To date, the international community’s globalization efforts have been focused on facilitating the movement of capital, goods and services, rather than people. Barriers to human mobility have been identified as a continuing and considerable impediment to economic gains that are expected to outstrip gains from further liberalization in other sectors and that would benefit developing and developed economies alike. Yet the international community has been slow to liberalize the movement of people, not least because, as States seek to regulate and facilitate legitimate entry, they are acutely aware of the need to maintain social cohesion, prevent and reduce irregular migration, and protect themselves from the threats of international terrorism and criminality.

Despite the barriers that exist to the movement of people, human mobility has been and continues to be unavoidably stimulated by the economic and social integration processes of globalization. It remains the sovereign right of each State to determine which non-nationals enter and remain on its territory, for what purpose, and under what conditions. Thus, States need to be able to manage migration effectively in order to maximize the potential benefits flowing from exchanges of skills and talents in a globally interconnected economy. This is equally so for temporary and permanent migration, for low, middle and highly skilled migrants, and at the national, bilateral, regional and global levels. More often than not, migration management involves cooperation with other States and non-State stakeholders for optimal effectiveness. 

Agenda

Tuesday, 27 November 2007 

11:30 - 13:00

International Dialogue on Migration - Migration Management in the Evolving Global Economy

Special Panel: Launching of the World Migration Report 2008: "Managing Labour Mobility in the Evolving Global Economy"

  • Gervais Appave and Ryszard Cholewinski, co-editors World Migration Report 2008, IOM (Presentation | Notes)
15:00 - 18:00

Migration Management in the Evolving Global Economy - High-level plenary presentations and discussion on managing increasing cross-border movements of people as an integral part of globalization

Moderator: Ikram Seghal, Chairman, Pathfinder Group and Member of the Director General's Business Advisory Board

Panellists:

  • Ali Abdullah Al-Ka'abi, Minister for Labour, United Arab Emirates
  • Arturo Cabrera, Subsecretario de Política Migratoria Internacional de la Secretaría Nacional del Migrante, Ecuador (Bio)
  • Maxime Tandonnet, Advisor on Immigration and Integration, Cabinet of the President of the Republic of France (Presentation)
  • Moremi Soyinka-Onijala, Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President, Migration and Humanitarian Affairs, Nigeria (tbc)

Wednesday, 28 November 2007

10:00 - 13:00

International Dialogue on Migration (continued)

Migration Highlights - High-level plenary presentations and discussion of selected recent and forthcoming migration developments

Panellists:

  • Vladimir Naumov, Minister of Internal Affairs, Republic of Belarus, on the opening of the International Training Center on Migration and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings in Minsk (Bio)
  • Mohammed Ameur, Delegate Minister to the Prime Minister, in charge of the Moroccan Community Resident Abroad, Kingdom of Morocco, on the forthcoming launch of the Mediterranean edition of the "Handbook on Establishing Effective Labour Migration Policies" in Rabat (Bio)
  • José Magalhães, Portugal's Deputy Minister of Interior will present the migration priorities of the Portuguese European Union Presidency (Bio | Presentation)
  • Erlinda F. Basilio, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations Office and Other International Organizations in Geneva, on the preparations for the next Global Forum on Migration and Development, Manila (Presentation)
15:00 - 17:45

Migration and the Environment - High-level plenary presentations and discussion

  • Presentation by the Administration (Presentation)
  • High-level presentations and discussion

Moderator: Janos J. Bogardi, Director, Institute for Environment and Human Security, United Nations University (Bio)

Panellists:

  • Qiao Zonghuai, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, People's Republic of China
  • Abdul Bari Khan, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Food and Disaster Management, People's Republic of Bangladesh
  • Theodoros Skylakakis, Secretary General for International Economic Relations and Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Greece (Bio | Presentation)
  • Nguele Dieudonné Tolo, Director General, National Forestry Development Agency (NFDA), the Republic of Cameroon
  • Jaifa Mezher, Director, Programa Colombia Nos Une, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Colombia (Bio | Presentation)

Discussant: Christophe Bouvier, Director, Regional Office for Europe, United Nations Environment Programme (Bio)

17:45 - 18:00 Wrap-up of the International Dialogue on Migration
Event documents