Global Governance: Migration’s Next Frontier

Abstract

MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME. THIS OFTEN-used French proverb captures well how our world does migration policy today. Ours is an interconnected world, where it is fast becoming the exception--the old way of doing business. Except for the migration world, that is. In this world, going it alone seems to be the golden rule. It is a world where national responses continue to trump globally shared ones. Yet there have been numerous reports and calls over the years urging us to alter our course: the Willy Brandt Commission (1980); the Commission on Global Governance (1993); the launch of the New International Regime for Orderly Movement of People (1997); the Berne Initiative (2001); the Commission on Human Security (2001); the Social Dimension of Globalization (2004); and the Global Commission on International Migration (2005). All of these reports included a convincing case for a more cooperative global approach to the management of international migration. To date, however, they all have had the same regrettable fate. If a report was not going to prove convincing, then one would have thought the historic forces that have shaped our modern times would have pushed us to amend our ways and habits: an ever-shrinking world that has essentially been transformed into one global village; a process of unrelenting globalization that has brought unprecedented change and movement of goods, services, capital, and people to all corners of our planet, at unprecedented speed, thanks largely to the technological revolution; an increasingly integrated and interdependent global economic market place that places an ever-higher premium on labor mobility; a world community where migrants now arrive from, travel to, or transit through every single nation and where migration now touches all lands and all peoples; and where natural and man-made crises and tragedies increase and aggravate the movement of people within and across national borders. These are the times we live in. It is a world ripe with great opportunities, yet one that is also mixed with turbulence. And migration is not about to fade away. On the contrary, it promises to only intensify as a phenomenon, and attract greater attention as a political issue. In tackling international problems, our leaders are increasingly recognizing that they cannot talk about the forces of international trade and investment, or the challenges of world hunger, disease, and terrorism, or the dangers posed by climate change, or indeed about global migration and development--and then proceed to deal with them in an isolated fashion. The need to act in more cooperative, interrelated, and coherent terms has become painfully evident. Indeed, the global response to the recent global financial and economic crisis--including the reinvigoration of the Group of 20 (G-20), and its close engagement with such multilateral bodies as the World Trade Organization (WTO), World Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF)--perhaps best typifies the paradigm shift that is taking place in political governance. Yet on migration policy, we persevere with largely national strategies. As a former minister of citizenship and immigration in Canada, and former commissioner of the Global Commission on International Migration, I do not underestimate for one moment the formidable task that migration policymaking represents. But I do think we should at least find the courage to pose the questions that we know need answering. Why do we persist with national approaches to a phenomenon that is inherently transnational? How can governments and multilateral agencies enhance their collaboration and cooperation in an effort to develop a more globally shared response? How do we begin to construct an internationally integrated framework, and what are its key elements? What kind of global governance do we need, while retaining and respecting national priorities? …