Top United Nations Leader Reveals Plan to Promote Global Mass Migration
On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres urged governments to reconsider its outlook on migration as part of an ambitious promotion of a crisis whose effects can be felt worldwide.
The call was part of a larger argument that migration — as seen throughout history — has the possibility of benefitting multiple countries socially and economically, according to The Guardian.
Guterres urged leaders to promote and safeguard foreign labor, as well as open up more routes for those migrants who often face danger during their travels — particularly women and children.
The report itself titled “Making Migration Work for All” comes ahead of migration negotiations which are to be made later this year by the U.N. general assembly, and focuses on steps to be taken in order to emphasize its link to the recently adopted 2030 “Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
Among other steps to curb the stigma and fear against migrants, the report itself highlights how the member states can not only help promote regular migration, but also help migrants fulfill both economic and social potential.
The report also explores the different ways mixed movements of migrants and refugees can cause challenges or setbacks, and how to possibly overcome them — an audacious plan overall in order that an action-oriented global compact might be instituted.
Yet, though in September of 2016 nearly 193 members of the assembly adopted the political agreement which declared the human right of refugees and migrants be recognized, the announcement on behalf of Guterres might be easier said than done.
According to The Guardian, migration is one of the most profound challenges of the modern day.
Though it can often drive economic growth and create diverse societies, migration is often a large source of tension both politically and socially, potentially causing troublesome effects on those seeking asylum.
The real scandal, the report suggests, is that too many migrants suffer the same troubling fate each year — jobs border on slavery, as videos and images suggest.
The outcome is arguably the result of government influence being absent from managing the crisis that comes with large-scale migration — a situation many have argued has caused even more controversy when it comes to migrants.
And it seems the lack of regulation has both harrowing effects both on migrants and on the citizens of the host country.
A recent report from the U.K. Daily Express suggested that as the population of migrants rose and the number of laws regulating them dropped or weren’t enforced at all, nearly 900 no-go zones have been established throughout Europe due to extremism within migrant communities.
Yet, many highlight the difference between extremists and those simply seeking a better life, and Guterres insists that the international agreement — the first of its kind — is a step in the right direction in initiating “unprecedented opportunity for leaders to counter the pernicious myths surrounding” the latter.
“The best way to end the stigma of illegality and abuse around migrants is, in fact, for governments to put in place more legal pathways for migration, removing the incentives for individuals to break the rules, while better meeting the needs of their labour markets for foreign labour,” said Guterres.
The contribution, the report suggests, stresses that when migrants are hired legally and can contribute to society by fair laws and jobs, they contribute financially by paying taxes and injecting nearly 85% of their earnings into that same economy.
The remaining percent is usually sent back home. And Guterres, among other international leaders, see the need for change based on the positive that can come from diversifying societies, rather than remaining closed-off.
“You will learn to love those people that are willing to do that work,” Guterres added. “So let’s plan for that day instead of focusing on the fact that they speak a different language.”
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