The COVID 19 pandemic has changed the dynamics of our life in every aspect. It has made us rethink how we lead our own lives, interact with others and empathize with them. Migration has been a reality for our society for a long time now and there is an immediate need to give attention towards our governance structures at a global as well as local level at a time when policies aren’t expected to be inclusive enough for everyone.
The prevailing notion has been that since the migrants are not one of our own, governments can get away without addressing their issues. But there has been an increasing acknowledgement of the fact that the migrants are integral to most societies and that their problems have to be taken seriously in an increasingly interconnected world of finite resources.
The first conversation regarding migration governance at the global level was at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt in 1994. Prior to this there were ILO’s International Legal Framework on Labour Migration, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CRMW) and a whole range of standards for migrants.
Since the 1994 ICPD, we have had the Global Commission on International Migration in 2003 which was the first UN high level dialogue on migration and a whole range of Global Forum on Migration and Displacement (GFMD). Currently, 193 member nations of the UN have adopted The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which is a call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and to ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.
These along with the Global Compact for Migration represent governance on migration at a global level. But what is also important under present circumstances is to ponder upon the possibility of creating similar governance structures at the regional level by including the governments, NGOs and other stakeholders in the issues related to migration.
With this objective in mind, a panel discussion on ‘Global and Regional Migration Governance During COVID 19 Pandemic’ was jointly organized by the Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism (GRFDT), Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA), and Cross Regional Center for Refugees and Migrants (CCRM) on July 7, 2020 which included eminent scholars, policy makers, government officials and experts in the field.
Introduced as “one of those people who has actually supported the conversations to be driven from a Southern perspective” by the moderator Shabari Nair, Pietro Mona is the Ambassador for Development, Forced Displacement and Migration, Government of Switzerland. He has also lead the Swiss delegation for the intergovernmental negotiations of the Global Compact for Migration. His talk mainly focused on governance issues regarding migration at the global level.
Clear lack of political will to implement solutions
Ambassador Pietro Mona began his talk by stressing that COVID 19 “has put a bright light on the vulnerabilities of the migrants but also on the weaknesses of our current system at all levels- local, national, regional and global”. He called out the politicians for a lack of political will to solve issues like labour rights, remittances, protective measures for domestic workers, reintegration and mobility even though solutions are available to them.
He said that an initiative has been launched by the Government of Switzerland together with the Government of UK to ensure the flow of remittances to lessen the negative impact of COVID 19 has had on developing nations. The World Bank has estimated around one hundred and ten billion dollars of remittances not reaching these countries which is about two-thirds of the official development aid worldwide. The measures that have been proposed, for example, using digital measures, ensuring financial literacy and financial inclusion of migrants and their families, reduction of transfer costs, are not new in the sense they have been brought about at various forums including the G20.
According to Ambassador Mona, “this underlines the fact that many of the solutions, many of the instruments are there but it’s a question of using and implementing them”.
Need to look at the broader context
The pandemic has made us realize how much the issues related to migration are interconnected. Ambassador Mona said, “We have seen the impact COVID has had on education for many migrant children, in particular some undocumented migrant children who were not able to go to school anymore. The school was a place where they not only felt safe but where they have interactions with their peers”. Similarly, any discussion about domestic workers will have to be linked with gender issues. He stressed that this is why issues related to migration need to be understood in a broader context in order to find inclusive solutions.
Drawing from his own experiences as a migrant on several occasions when he worked in Nigeria, Armenia and other places, he emphasized a migrant’s fear of feeling segregated and left out from the rest of the society. He warned about any rhetoric that proposes the binary of ‘us’ and ‘them’ as it creates barriers towards effective assimilation of the migrants.
Ambassador Mona said that the pandemic has created an opportunity for us to think in a much more inclusive manner. We have to think of ways to strengthen a health system at the national level for everyone; to work towards gender equality to protect domestic workers who are mostly women; to create better education and financial systems- all these measures in such a way that benefits both the host and the migrant communities.
Suggestions for future governance
Speaking about what all this means for governance in near future, he proposed two approaches to strive towards “to be better apt in responding to the challenges of migration under COVID 19 and also the opportunities that migration in general has for sustainable development and governments and, societies involved”.
Ambassador Mona refers to the first approach as “horizontal expansion” by which he means that all parties have to be brought together for discussions and negotiations. He said, “It’s useless to talk about labour migration without private sector at the table. We are still working on having a sensible and appropriate way to include trade unions.”
“We have now started to learn how important it is to have local authorities at the table. It has been an uphill battle to include civil societies much more in our discussions as governments or between governments in the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD)”.
The second approach that has to be adopted is the “vertical expansion” which is to understand how migration is tied to broader issues like health, education and gender. It is important to comprehend how our thoughts and actions in ensuring access for migrants and refugees to health facilities is connected towards a broader debate on health policies. The pandemic has actually facilitated the process by making us realize how understanding interconnectedness is crucial in formulating policies.
He also suggested the urgent need of embracing multilateralism. “It has been seen that whenever there is a crisis, the governments retreat back behind their borders. We have to do everything to push that back. Multilateralism is a key instrument to overcome these issues”, said Ambassador Mona.
2030 Agenda as a ray of hope
Amidst a climate of indifference and inaction, The 2030 Agenda is what makes Ambassador Mona hopeful about the future. In his words, “the 2030 Agenda is a masterpiece of multilateral negotiations because it carries this image of us in a world with limited resources, one planet, and one humanity.”
It compels us to find solutions together and this entails comprehending migration as a phenomenon which needs to be looked at from a broad and inclusive perspective. We need to think about how we can connect what we are discussing at the global level guided by the 2030 agenda together with the regional level and then the national level.
Report by Subhadip Mukherjee, he is currently pursuing his Master’s degree in English at the University of Delhi. His interest areas include Postcolonial studies, Transnationalism, Cosmopolitanism, Diaspora literature, Literary theory, Indian writing in English and Climate fiction. You can connect with him on his Twitter account @SubhadipMuk.