EU Presidency Statement - Migration and Development

Madam Chairperson,

I have the honor to take the floor on behalf of the European Union. [The Candidate Countries Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Croatia, the Countries of the Stabilization and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this statement].

Madam Chairperson,

Since the European Council in 1999, a common European immigration and asylum has had an explicit place on the EU agenda. The Thessaloniki European Council in 2003 added integration policy to this. Yet the policy debate still takes place primarily at the national level and few responsibilities have been tranferred to the European Union.

It is evident however, that EU member states face a number of challenges. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of migrants in the world increased by 14 per cent, and the 175 million migrants in the world are projected to reach 230 million by 2050. More migrants are moving from developing to developed regions with an annual average of 2.4 million migrants moving from the less developed to the more developed areas. Nowadays, migrants represent 3 per cent of the overall population growth of the less developed regions, but 56 per cent of the overall population increase in the more developed regions during the same period. Between 1990 and 2000, net immigrants represented 89 per cent of the population increase in Europe.

Since Cairo, national and international responses to the growing challenges of migration have made important headway. Migration nowadays is more systematically part of development agenda's of international and national actors.

We recognize the positive economic, cultural and social contribution of migrants to their host country as well as their country of origin. In the EU, human rights and dignity are fundamental unconditional universal principles. We would like to reaffirm our strong condemnation of racism, xenophobia, intolerance and discrimination against all individuals, including migrants.

The EU is convinced that migration should be a free choice more than an escape from poverty and oppressive political and social conditions. We therefore would like to reiterate the importance of the December 2003 UNGA Resolution on International Migration and Development, which notes the work undertaken by the International Migration Policy Program (IMP) and collaborating UN and non-UN agencies to strengthen the capacity of governments to manage migration flows at national and regional levels and thus to foster greater cooperation among States towards beneficial and orderly migration. In addition, the EU calls for strengthened international cooperation in order to address the root causes of migration, especially those related to poverty, political instability and human rights abuses, in particular by alleviating poverty in developing countries.

Madam Chairperson,

The EU sees migration, inter alia, as an integral aspect of the global development process. International migration stands now at an all time high with around 3 per cent of the world population living and working outside their country of origin.

Underpinning the notion of a migration-development linkage is the observation that migrants maintain vigorous economic, social and cultural ties to their countries of origin. Emerging empirical evidence suggests that remittances have significant impacts on poverty and potentially also on long-term economic development. Besides these reverse financial flows, there are also significant flows of technological, social and human capital back to their countries of origin. Feedback effects contribute significantly to the development of migrants' home countries. Thus, remittances and know-how transfer have significant impacts on poverty and in a study of 74 low and middle income developing countries, the World Bank has demonstrated a statistically significant correlation between remittances and declines in poverty. Specifically, the study found that a 10 per cent increase in the share of remittances in a country's GDP leads to a 1.2 per cent decline in poverty. And a 10 per cent increase in the number of migrants leaving a sending country will lead to a 1.8 per cent decline in the share of people living on less than 1 USD per day.

On the other hand, the establishment abroad of a highly skilled diaspora may give rise to an increase of human capital flight by constituting a pole of attraction for other highly skilled workers, motivating them also to migrate. Against the background of these different effects of international migration, it should be our objective to seize the opportunities international migration offers and at the same time to improve living conditions and employment opportunities in countries of origin.

Smuggling and trafficking constitute the third largest source of profits for international organized crime, behind drugs and guns. Criminal organizations 'earn' 9.5 billion USD in profits per year from trafficking and smuggling of persons across international borders. According to recent estimates, between 600,000 and 800,000 persons are trafficked across borders annually. The most likely victims of trafficking are women and children. Infectious diseases constitute a growing threat, due to rapid and diverse population movements and the lengthy incubation periods associated with some infectious diseases: for example, according to the World Health Organization, 2003 was marked by the largest number of countries with populations suffering from polio due to importation of the disease, a phenomenon which translated into costs exceeding 20 million USD in "emergency mop-up activities".

The EU is fully committed to continue the fight against criminal groups, exploiting human dignity by smuggling immigrants and trafficking women and children. Appropriate policies should ensure that the migration of women does not result in disempowerment and exploitation of women.

To conclude, the EU would like to welcome the report of the International Migration Policy Programme and underscore the important work of the Global Commission on International Migration, the Commission on Human Rights, the United Nations Population Fund, the International Organisation for Migration, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Labour Organisation and the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs in the area of migration and development. Migration is a complex phenomenon and we fully recognize the need for a better understanding of migration patterns and their impact on development.

Thank you.

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• Conférence des Nations Unies sur le HIV et le SIDA (27/6/2001)
• Report on Migration and Asylum Policy in the EP (20/6/2001)