June 17, 2021
This report provides a detailed account of the Convocation Ceremony of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) certificate programme held on 29th April 2021. Total 91 student from nearly 50 countries were awarded certificate for their successful completion of the course.
The online convocation ceremony made it easy for the participant to join from their native places. Paddy Siyanga Knudsen started the programme by introducing participants and guest speakers. She described how four major organisations, that are – Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA), the Cross Regional Center For Refugees and Migrants, the Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism (GRFDT) and the Civil Society Action Committee (CSAC), have been running a certificate program since September 2020 and that is how the official journey for GCM certificate programme began. The next speaker – William Gois, the regional coordinator for the Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) gave students welcoming remarks. In his conversation, William Gois tried to explain the idea of the evolution of the programme and the aim of launching such a programme. He also thanked the students as they have put in many efforts in trying to understand – what this concept of migration is all about, and how it is affecting our lives and our communities, and student’s participation gave the organisation an indicator that, this is an important process which helped in renewing their commitment towards migration issues.
After William Gois’ speech, Paddy Siyanga Knudsen, the host, continued her speech on how GCM was particularly born out of the collaborations that William had as he was at the forefront as the initial member around the Global Forum on Migration and Development. She then introduced the students to the speaker- Dr Raj Bardouille, a senior economist in international organisations such as the United Nations Department Programme (UNDP) and other parts of the United Nations System. As an economist, Dr Raj Bardouille focuses on the Caribbean and African Development issues. She has worked on migration and development, and currently, she’s an internationalindependent consultant based in Dominica. Dr. Raj Bardouille began her speechby congratulating the students first of all, and then provided some useful insights on migration by saying – that after students graduate this programme they can opt for higher studies on migration. She emphasised that the students should focus on why they chose this programme; what they have they learned from this programme; what will they get out of it and how they can make an impact at a smaller level and at a bigger level on migration policies in this world. She also highlighted that it’s a cooperative and collective effort when one opens up and that there is a big lesson here for migration. As countries receiving migrants have to open up because there are benefits, we each have something to offer. And as human beings, we cannot have a closed society and hopes that there will be a day, maybe some time in future, when we will have a borderless world, a capital that is borderless and technology that is borderless. But at present, we as humans are not going borderless. Still, somehow as a society, we are going borderless from the labour point of view, so this is an area which is hopefully one of these days when we will experience.
Dr.Raj Bardouille is followed by the message from Guest of Honour – Ambassador William Lacy Swing. Ambassador William Lacy Swing has been a diplomat for the United Nations, and the United States of America, for over half a century. He has been a six-time ambassador and has served4 of the 10 US presidents during his tenure; he has been a special representative to two of the United Nations Secretary General as well as the Chief of UN Peacekeeping Mission. He has been ambassador to countries such as South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Liberia, Haiti and was also named ambassador to Nelson Mandela shortly after Nelson Mandela was released from prison. Apart from that, he also worked as the Director General for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which became a United Nations agency under his leadership in 2016.
Ambassador Lacy Swing began his speech by congratulating all the successful candidates for completing their course. He continued his speech by highlighting that migration is a megatrend and elaborated on the 3 kind of worlds created by human being, 2 of the worlds in which we live. And the 3rdworld, is which we have to together try to establish for the migration population. Our 1stand 2ndworld is a world on the move. More people are migrating today, moving across borders or moving within countries that at any other time in recorded history. There are about 300 million international migrants, of which at least 750,000,000 are domestic migrantsin the world. So, the international migrants since the 1960s only constitute 3% of the world’s population. And if these 300 million international migrants constituted themselves as a country, then they would be about number six or seven in the world. They would have a population larger than that of Brazil and slightly smaller than Malaysia or Indonesia. The remittances or money that they send home grows every year, so according to his statistic, it is probably about 600 billion dollars a year which is twice the amount of all international economic assistance. It is equal to all direct foreign investment, and it is roughly the equivalent of the gross domestic product of a smaller member state in the European Union. And empirical evidence tells that 50% of the CEOs, that is heads corporations in the United States, about half of them are either migrants or the offspring of migrants. Then driving factors for migration, global migration pattern reveals that – Global North needs workers at all skill levels and we as citizens have a largely unemployed youthful population expanding in the global South with very little job creation. So, the factor is that, in case of demand for labour, there are labour shortages in the North and persons looking for work in the South, so there is economic and social disparities between north and south. Secondly, there is a degradation of the environment; thirdly, there is climate change; fourthly, there is distance shrinking technology through which everybody knows immediately where the jobs are and how to get there and fifthly, there is desperation- a driving force for survival migration for people. Like in many cases of sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Venezuela, Central America, Myanmar etc. people have either given up on the economy, are the victims of gang warfare, or just do not see any future see opportunities abroad. Sixthly, disasters are another factor, in case of both natural and man-made disasters, then stretching from the western bulge of Africa to Southeast Asia. There is no prospect insight of a short to medium solution to any of these conflicts. And migration is going to inexorably lead to a more integrated world, where the world is going to become much more multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual. It will be not so much a problem or a crisis to be solved, but it is a reality, a human reality, that we as humans have to learn to manage. He also emphasised that we human beings are living in a “stormy” world that propagates harmful misleading pronouncements and actions by national leaders that perpetuate harmful stereotypes.Due to these stereotypes,many countries in the world are building walls rather than bridges for migrants. So now to build the 3rd world, that is safer and happier place for migrants we have to destroy the societal stereotypes,that have been formed in the public mind, that put these migrants in danger. The very first stereotype is – migrants are not needed. As we can do it on our own, but no, that’s not true because we see the declining populations the demographics in countries like US and in Europe and in places like Japan and other countries here in Asia. Second stereotype is – migrants steal our jobs, but no they don’t as they take the jobs that our people don’t want to do what’s called the “Dirty, Difficult and Dangerous” jobs or the “3D” jobs, the ones that our citizens are too proud to accept, in addition to that migrants also create many other jobs. Third stereotype is–migrants bring a criminal element into our communities. But the truth is the opposite as migrants commit fewer crimes than people who were born in the country to which they have immigrated because the last thing that migrants want to do is to face a police officer or a police station or a judicial court, they want to avoid any conflict they are there to make money send home to the family who eventually can join them. Fourth stereotype is -saying that they exploit our welfare system. According to, the World Bank and theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF), in their recent studies, showed that migrants contribute more to taxes than they take and then they consume in social services. So, the sooner a migrant can have a job, the sooner they will pay tax, the sooner they become a citizen and the sooner they’ll be able to vote, so political parties ought to be interested in the migrants because maybe they will vote for the party, but people don’t see it that way. Fifth stereotype is – that migrants pose as security threat. But there is absolutely no evidence that any of the 3.5million refugees that UNHCR and IOMhave brought to the United States since 1980 have ever committed a terrorist act. Most terrorist attacks in the United States over the past several years are what’s called homegrown attacks that nationals American nationals committed San Bernardino, California, Orlando, Florida and in Europe, Paris, Nice, Barcelona, Brussels etc. So, in the case of the large majority of all migrants, their migration should occur regularly, voluntarily and safely. Lastly, Ambassador William Lacy Swing concluded his speech by going back to his original thesis that migration and migrants are not so much a problem or a crisis to be solved but rather a human reality to be managed. As it’s as old as humankind and it is as young as today, and it is a human reality to be managed as it’s part of our DNA and he hopes that we will treat migrants by adding to our DNA – as “DNH”, which stands for “Do No Harm” which should be the main thing.
After the Guest of Honour speech, the students introduced themselves and expressed what they had learned from this programme through short videos. The videos were about the introduction and their takeaways from the course. Through the short videos, the students explained about their experiences regarding the study. The videos also depicted the gratitude of the students towards the organizers for organizing such an informative course. As the speakers (ranging from representatives from UN bodies, NGOs, civil society organisations, the IOM and even the migrants themselves) who volunteered to give the students the benefit of their expertise, have helped shape student achievement’s perspective. Thirdly, students also spoke about they would try to understand of immigration in their home countries and implement effective strategies to minimise the adverse drivers and structural factors that compelled people to leave their country of origin. Fourthly, one of the key takeaways from this programme, for the students,is the emphasis on the coordination between domestic and international actors in policy, making efforts global achievements in migration regulation practises. Fifthly, some students found the overall experiences as extremely rewarding and enriching and sixthly, many students said they would join hands/collaborate with the organisations after they have graduated.
After the short video, the host, Paddy Siyanga Knudsen, announced the students’ name as the certificates were presented virtually. After distributing certificates, there were other speakers onboard such as –Dr Sadananda Sahoo and Mr Shabari Nair who gave congratulatory speeches and re-iterated the points highlighted by Ambassador William Lacy Swing and with these speeches the ceremony was concluded.
Richa Kundu is an avid reader, fond of history, gender, feminism, mythology and religion. She is a demographer and gerontologist by training. Currently, she is pursuing her law degree at Oxford Brookes University and at the same time she is also interning with GRFDT in the forum of “The Migration news” and working as a Demographer/Migration scholar under Migration Health South Asia (MiHSA), Global Policy Institute, Queens Mary University of London and wishes to make a future as a barrister and demographer.