Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome and thank you all very much for being here today on the occasion of International Migrants Day. In particular, I would  like to thank Mr. Jan Eliasson, United Nations Deputy Secretary General, and Ms. Tererai Trent, Founder and President of the Tinogona Foundation, for being here tonight. Before I give them the floor, allow me to say a few words.

The International Organization for Migration regards International Migrants Day as a critical opportunity to highlight and celebrate migrants and the many positive contributions that migrants bring to societies around the world. The general public’s image and representation of migrants is too often unbalanced and predominantly negative, and all the more so in these trying economic times. It is often based on uniformed assumptions and false and prejudicial stereotypes, as the contributions of migrants to home and host societies remain largely unknown and misrepresented.  

In 2012 alone, migrants remitted more than $400 billion dollars to their families and communities in developing countries, and that amount is expected to increase to the half a trillion mark in just a few years.  Through their hard work, migrants have reduced household poverty levels by in some cases generating a 15-fold increase in household incomes, a 16-fold reduction in child mortality and a doubling of school enrollment rates for their loved ones at home.  Moreover, they have served as dynamic engines for stimulating trade, innovation and entrepreneurship benefitting home and host countries alike.  In the U.S. alone, fully one quarter of patent applications were filed by foreign nationals and an equal percentage of start-up companies were created by them.  

These remarkable contributions of migrants, and their development-driving potential, are seriously hampered by the pervasive failure to adequately protect and respect the human and labour rights of migrants and uphold their human dignity. Our contemporary migration systems are ill-equipped to facilitate needed and human capacity-enhancing mobility in today’s interconnected and mobile world, and to ensure safe, legal and orderly migration processes that protect the rights and well-being of migrants and foster benefits to home and host societies.  

During the recently concluded High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, we were pleased to see that Member States, international organizations, civil society and other stakeholders strongly agreed on the need to improve public perceptions of migrants. Indeed, migrants embody the spirit and essence of diversity and multiculturalism, often with multiple and simultaneous connections to several countries in body, heart and mind. Migrants serve as bridges between countries of origin and countries of destination and as conduits of innovation, information and cultural exchange and enrichment and human and economic development.

IOM has just launched a global campaign that focuses on what migrants bring, not solely on where they are from. The overarching message is that migrants bring new skills, new ideas, and new points of view. What they bring can benefit everyone.

We believe that we must collectively make concerted efforts to acknowledge and celebrate the positive role of migrants in today’s world, which is far too often not the case in present day narratives of migration. We all must also work assiduously to ensure that the rights of all migrants are protected and respected and that they are able to live in dignity.  Acknowledging the contributions of migrants to societies will go a long way toward easing social tensions and make it easier for governments, societies and migrants alike to reap the considerable positive potential of international migration.