Partnerships on migration are high on the international development agenda. No single government, international organization or civil society stakeholder can expect to reap migration’s benefits or address its challenges by managing it alone. Given the roles and potential contributions of different actors in migration, partnerships are key to successful migration governance and migration management. States, government departments and agencies, subnational authorities, local communities, migrants and their families, diasporas, employers and unions, among others, can be extremely valuable to “broaden the understanding of migration, and to develop comprehensive and effective approaches” (IOM, 2016a). Partnerships at all levels of governance and among all stakeholders are central to addressing migration challenges and to finding new and creative solutions to them.
The value of partnerships and cooperation on migration has been recognized more and more. This value can be seen in many initiatives and documents, including:
- the Programme of Action Adopted at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, 1994;
- the Report of the United Nations Secretary-General on international migration and development, which includes convening a United Nations conference on international migration and development, 1997;
- the United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/58/208, on international migration and development, 2004;
- the Berne Initiative’s International Agenda for Migration Management, 2005;
- the report Migration in an interconnected world: New directions for action by the Global Commission on International Migration, 2005;
- the Report of the United Nations Secretary-General on migration and international development, 2006;
- United Nations high-level dialogue documents (Report of the United Nations Secretary-General on international migration and development, 2013; Declaration of the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, 2013);
- Goal 17 of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), that is dedicated to partnerships and aims to enhance cooperation to achieve the other 16 goals (Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, 2015);
- the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, 2016a;
- the Report of the United Nations Secretary-General, Making Migration Work for All (United Nations Secretary General, 2017);
- the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (the Global Compact for Migration), which encourages “broad multi-stakeholder partnerships to address migration in all its dimensions”. It also includes the objective: “Strengthen international cooperation and global partnerships for safe, orderly and regular migration”, 2018. (Further details on the Global Compact for Migration in Initiatives and commitments on migration.)
The best results are achieved when coordination and cooperation efforts extend beyond a specific State and when they are not limited to only State actors. Well-managed cooperation and coordination among these actors will greatly facilitate and improve the governance and management of migration.
EXAMPLE
An example of the type of international partnerships and cooperation that engages multiple actors is the proposal for developing global skill partnerships (Clemens, 2015). A skills mobility partnership is a partnership between countries whereby migrants are trained and work in the country of destination in a sector where there is demand before returning to the country of origin with higher qualifications. Such partnerships are not new, and have had positive results (see, for instance, European Training Foundation, 2015). However, there is no single model for how such partnerships work; there has been some opposition to them; and new ways to combine initiatives to manage labour migration while fostering development are also being proposed (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2018). Under the proposed global skill partnerships, governments and private sector organizations in both countries of origin and destination would develop a pre-migration agreement about the training of (potential) migrant workers. Such an agreement would specify the following:
- Sector(s) in which migrants would be trained;
- The financing of such training;
- How the training would be of benefit to both the country of origin and the country of destination;
- How it relates to and enhances the employment opportunities for migrant workers in the country of destination;
- How it relates to and enhances the employment opportunities for migrant workers upon their return to their country of origin.
Source, Clemens, 2015.
In areas where there is no partnership regarding migration, the lack of coordination, coherence and cooperation can create confusion among the different actors as well as competition between them. This can result in unclear objectives, the duplication of activities and efforts, and situations where different actors pursue different strategies and may undermine each other’s efforts and results. To achieve a consistent and harmonized approach, it is crucial to build partnerships in the design and implementation of policies, projects and programmes. It is also necessary to build regular and ongoing consultations between all the actors involved in migration. The next chapter will look at international policy dialogue and consultation processes on migration as a means of cooperation and partnerships on migration management and governance (details on stakeholders and partnerships at the national level in Stage 4: Consultation).
