Migrants, Migration and Integral Human Development in the new MDGs
Johan Ketelers, Secretary General of ICMC
26 February 2014 

Allow me a rather self evident and simple starting point to introduce some of the thinking: if we seek to define sustainable development goals for the post 2015 agenda, there is a need to agree on what is really pursued. It is a simple but challenging starting point, and may well require leaving behind some of the logics of the existing Millenium Development Goals (MDG’s).

Development is generally pictured in terms of economic processes and economic growth. Economic growth tends to be explained and monitored through figures and statistics which may indeed allow for comparisons between e.g. Gross National Product levels of different nations and over time. It also introduces the ‘1.5 dollar a day’ poverty definition but we will all agree that this is about monitoring growth with numbers almost alone: a limited and rather materialistic approach which has not proved to be satisfactory to fully measure development and which certainly is not conclusive to properly define ‘poverty’.

Poverty -as much as development- is a multidimensional reality; neither poverty nor development can be measured in terms of income only. Both need to be understood following many other criteria and including many other benchmarks and parameters, such as lack of access (to services and basic requirements), levels of dependence, community relations etc.

What we need today is an updated understanding of development much more to be found in human relations, in community-linked realities which include concepts such as social cohesion, solidarity and shared responsibility.

1. Five important building blocks in this process

1. As a first matter it should be understood that development is a process, NOT a goal. Development is not about the kind of growth we may have focused on for years (in fact economic growth has also produced higher levels of inequity) but about a process marked by the continuous creation and organization of opportunities for society and for individuals. These efforts require a certain balance, higher levels of equity and shared responsibility. “Human, integral development” requires realizing rights that expand choices and opportunities for people and societies as opposed to building walls and closing doors.

2. Authentic development thrives on the principle of unity (as opposed to division) and is therefore essentially a community-building process as opposed to the ‘every man for himself’ or more individualistic oriented principles very much part of the sociology in the North these days. Working in Africa for many years, I often heard and came to appreciate the great value that many African cultures give to community relations. They will make clear that human development disconnected from a community or society building context is not only hard to monitor and to value, but that it is like trying to understand a forest through the count of every leaf on every tree. The ‘common good’ is a term closely related to development but likewise commonly misunderstood: while it is often explained as the sum of natural resources in the world (minerals etc) to be shared, we tend to forget that the most important ‘natural’ resource is the human being.

The common good is therefore much better to be defined as “the sum of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily ” This is about relations characterized by appropriately shared responsibility, both expressing integral human development.

Community-building is in essence about human relations which develop according to and along the opportunities that are created and offered. Such an approach includes the 232 million counted international migrants, plus close family members that remain behind and plus the other directly affected by the presence of the 232 million: so more like at least 3 or more x 232 million. This approach also includes the US$ 600 billion that migrants send home each year (counting only recorded remittances) which is 3 times as high as the official development assistance and greatly contributes to local economies and well-being. And yet, to be clear it is not the quantity that should be measured but the effect and impact on families and communities.)

3. There is general understanding and agreement that governance of any kind (including community governance) is to be organized in terms of law, rights and obligations. How the world considers migration is then about how we translate the centrality of the human person in terms of rights, equity, social justice and obligations. History shows us that multicultural societies with better integration patterns reveal at times to become stronger democracies. Yet history also teaches that many of these laws create exactly the opposite and confirm divisions (e.g. between north and south, and within our societies between nationals and foreigners). We therefore want to suggest paying more attention to a perhaps difficult but fundamental extra dimension of the core set of governance tools, and that is the moral approach. Because human solidarity is not only about law, rights and obligations; it is also and maybe more essentially about social cohesion, community and even global fraternity. It is this moral approach that has greatly emphasized and contributed to social cohesion and community-building - even if at times things have not always moved in the right direction- but that is precisely why there is a need for the combination of these dynamics: law, rights and obligations, anchored in a moral understanding of human solidarity and fraternity.

4. Then there are the essential factors of the unprecedented change and imbalance in the world: demography and alarming xenophobia. With an increasing global population, an aging demography in Europe and virtually all countries of the global ‘North’ and young populations in many African, Asian and Latin-American countries, increased human mobility is an unavoidable and very logical consequence. (Not only because people want or need to move, but also because they are needed to make the broader economic and social security processes sustainable.) Yet, calls and votes, recently also in Switzerland to do exactly the opposite are on the increase: the walls are growing higher and the gaps are widening, which is the exact opposite of development. It is ironic to understand that in fact the higher the wall, the smaller the chances to maintain existing social and economic structures and models. Evidence is manifest that protection of current societal models cannot happen without the just inclusion of migrants. Taking things to confrontational positions may in the short term appear to advance societies’ self defense but in the longer run this position reduces growth and affects processes of development.

2. All this brings us to integrate Migrants and Migration in the Post 2015 agenda

It is very often said that “Migration is development”. It may be better to say that Migration is about development, (1) that migration brings about different levels of development (2) and that it functions as an indicator in the development process (3), that it is a tool to measure development.

Migration in the post 2015 development agenda is centrally about migrants and diaspora, and the actual role and place of migrants and diaspora in development from the moment they consider migrating or re-migrating.

So any agenda on migration (or migrants) and development must consider the ‘before’, ‘during’ and ‘after’ migration:

a. “before” migration: Human development requires decent work in countries of origin so that people are not compelled to migrate or re-migrate.

b. “during” migration: Human development requires human mobility to be safe, ordered and regular, providing protection to the most vulnerable and those hurt along the way (e.g., refugees, children, women, and victims of torture, trafficking, trauma and violence)

c. “after” migration: Human development for whole societies is best promoted when all of its members are integrated in full respect of their dignity and in equity. Migration is part of the development way forward: Migrants cannot be solely looked upon as the objects of policies but need to be fully considered as the subjects of the shared future.

3. Civil society goals, targets and indicators

Global civil society has been working since late last year on a clear set of goals, targets and indicators; first; to advocate for inclusion in the post-2015 agenda (the new “Sustainable Development Goals”; second, to help fix existing patterns and systems through engaging in all discussion and decision-making processes regarding migrants and development, whether internationally, regionally or at national and local levels.

Working with civil society networks and partners worldwide, ICMC has been leading the drafting process of these goals, targets and indicators and we are now in a global editing stage.

Let me point at just two highlights of the current draft of goals, targets and indicators, clearly showing how much we want to look at substance, at practical possibilities and shared responsibility, with measurable indicators for each target.

A. Migration is included as a “stand-alone goal “in civil society’s current draft: “To improve the organization and developmental effects of human mobility across borders.” i.e. cooperation and mechanisms of human mobility, full-planet: north and south, involving countries of origin and destination. Under this stand alone goal, the draft proposes three related targets:

Target 1: “Prevent and address international human trafficking and violence against migrants, including women and children”, e.g., with indicators on the number of companies screening their supply chains, the number of prosecutions of human traffickers, and number of countries with protection for such migrant victims in such circumstances

Target 2: “Improve systemic responses to forced migration”, e.g., with indicators on framework responses to migrants in crisis and refugees

Target 3: “Reduce the number of international migrants lacking authorization to reside and work in their countries of residence”, e.g. with indicators on mobility agreements, regular channels for migration and mechanisms to ensure migrants are afforded appropriate regular status.

B. Aligned under other goals as framed by Ban Ki-moon’s Eminent Persons Panel last year, civil society’s draft defines 11 targets (and related indicators)

Four examples:
• under the Panel’s goal to “End poverty”: reduce the cost of sending remittances
• under the Panel’s goal to “Provide quality education and lifelong learning”: ensure cross-border portability of skills and recognition of education and credentials
• under the Panel’s goal to “Ensure healthy lives”: ensure migrants regardless of immigration status have access to health services
• under the Panel’s goal to “Create jobs, sustainable livelihoods and equitable growth”: create and preserve decent work opportunities in countries of origin which make migration and re-migration an option instead of a necessity, and reduce costs of migration, including recruitment costs

5. Invitation and close

It has often been said and too easily been repeated that civil society is “on the other side” of what governments want. I would again want to highlight how much this has changed, how much global civil society has come to strong convergence on so many of these matters and how much it understands the need to consult, cooperate and work with governments and international agencies on these matters.

ICMC has been working and developing along these lines both in its own name and as a coordinator for civil society in the Global Forum on Migration and Development and the UN High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development. This is about building responsibilities that are shared; this is about collaboration and movement as opposed to rigid positioning. A five year plan which civil society put on the table at the High Level Dialogue has been appreciated and welcomed. In precisely that spirit, we today invite all to consider these goals, targets and indicators to contribute to a human integral process called ‘development’.

Thank you.