Today as always, the Mediterranean is the theatre of historic
encounters between peoples, cultures and systems, where Europe
meets Africa and East meets West. As we proceed into the
twenty-first century, another century of globalization, we see in
the Mediterranean a new encounter, both profound and dramatic, in
the form of people on the move.



The causes of the new migration are many -- economic, social,
political, developmental, commercial, personal, technological and
more. The outcomes of a migration decision are often positive but
too frequently disturbing and sometimes tragic. Collectively, our
societies have not put in place the tools and mechanisms needed to
deal effectively with the complexities of Mediterranean migration
flows and a sense of drift and helplessness too frequently
surrounds the public debate.



From Sub-Saharan Africa, Northern Africa and Southern Europe, we
have come together in this beautiful and symbolic place to see how
together we can build better approaches through common
understandings and common effort. The international legal
instruments and policy tools are already in place, as the
International Agenda for Migration Management shows. Today, we are
here to move beyond principle to action.



Let me offer a few simple thoughts and observations, along with
practical illustrations of the kinds of activity we can take.

• The prime motivation for migration is a better life. Desperate
  people are willing to sacrifice much to that goal, sometimes the
  human dignity that is a theme of our gathering, sometimes their
  lives.
• Dignity is the touchstone of IOM programmes with Morocco and
  Mauritania for the voluntary return of stranded migrants. It
  similarly guides our growing collaboration with Libya to reduce
  irregular migration and trafficking in human beings.
• Irregular flows are today seen as a problem not just by
  industrialized countries. Nations impacted by transit flows find
  themselves in an increasingly awkward position in terms of their
  own economic management and development.
• Working together, in countries of origin, transit and
  destination, we can do much to put the smugglers and traffickers
  out of business and discourage individual adventures. We all have a
  stake in assisting those states which need and desire the capacity
  to manage migration humanely and effectively. We are grateful to
  the EU for its commitment to investing in these efforts.
• Smuggling migrants in small boats is a particularly
  unscrupulous practice that must and can cease, provided we all work
  together. IOM and other partners have opened an office in Lampedusa
  to work with Italy on this scourge. Let us look forward to the day
  soon when no more desperate migrants risk their lives in the
  Mediterranean.
• In a more profound and broader context than our cooperation to
  reduce irregular migration, we need policies that aim at
  encouraging broad economic progress through migration and enable
  individuals to achieve their personal goals through safe and legal
  means. Well managed migration can enhance development and progress
  in ways that profit both origin and destination lands as well as
  individual migrants and their families.
• In richer countries, the service sectors at all levels of skill
  and income offer win-win opportunities for foreigners and local
  economies. We need to organize better the international labour
  market across the Mediterranean. Several Western European countries
  are moving strongly in this direction.
• The Italian policy of entry quotas for migrant workers is an
  important step in the right direction, and one which IOM supports
  directly in policy and practice. Temporary and cyclical patterns of
  migration for work need further study in the Mediterranean as well.
  We can and must do much more here.
• Providing access to labour markets is an effective antidote to
  underground arrivals and residence as well as an essential element
  in putting dignity back into the migration experience. Cooperative
  efforts between states hold the promise of ensuring that the needs
  of home and host country are both met, as in the case of the
  bilateral agreement between Italy and Sri Lanka facilitated by
  IOM.
• Overseas communities can be a source of knowledge, a pool of
  investment financing and an entry point into the global economy for
  their societies of origin. We need to encourage better diaspora
  management through good policies and workable incentive schemes. An
  IOM project funded by Italy mobilizes the contributions of the
  Moroccan diaspora in Italy through remittances and returns,
  including temporary and virtual.
• There is a strong role for the private sector in shaping
  economic migration flows, but coordination with public policy is
  rare. We need a better integrated public-private effort.
  IOM’s newly constituted Business Advisory Board and rapidly
  growing collaboration with the private sector in mobility
  programmes provide useful models for how to achieve this needed
  integration.
• Migration is clearly not a panacea to the demographic that
  Europe and the majority of other industrialized countries are
  facing, nor is it the sole solution to the growth and development
  challenges of developing countries, but coherent migration
  management can help address pressing challenges in both the
  developed and developing worlds.
• The Mediterranean is a major fault line in the intersection of
  two great civilizations, Muslim and Christian. As we learned in
  Rabat in December at the Conference on Migration and Religion,
  jointly organized by the Government of Morocco and IOM, migrants
  take their cultures with them and want respect and understanding
  for the practices they hold dear. This too is dignity.
• The foundations for broad intergovernmental cooperation exist
  already in the various regional consultation mechanisms on
  migration. In many regions, the good will and shared understandings
  engendered by these efforts have led to concrete, practical
  cooperation. In the Mediterranean 5+5 we now detect a strong desire
  to work together where only a few years ago confrontation was the
  rule.
• The Austrian Presidency of the European Union is placing
  special emphasis on international cooperation in the European
  neighbourhood. Migration is a key component and will feature
  prominently in the foreign relations of the EU from now on, as
  likewise in development planning at national and international
  levels.
• IOM has worked for several years with the African Union to
  incorporate migration tools in the development plans of the African
  states. We are making steady progress in this effort with our
  growing community of African friends. On their behalf we are
  engaging in a major effort at capacity-building for twenty-first
  century technologies, including the biometric revolution that needs
  to join the world together, not divide it.

I cannot close without saluting our Italian hosts for the strong
and progressive role they continue to play in migration management.
Italy has imaginative programmes for overseas recruitment, for
population stabilization, for capacity building and for measures
against smuggling and irregular flows.



In conclusion, let us welcome the Italian initiative to bring us
together in Pozzallo and thank our hosts for their superb
hospitality. Let us also determine to produce ideas that will help
us to cope more effectively and more productively with this
increasingly central phenomenon.



Migration with dignity is not a mere slogan. It is a constituent
element of the future in which we all shall live.