Making the most of human mobility, by António Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and William Lacy Swing, Director General, International Organization for Migration
Human mobility ranks alongside population growth, urbanization, climate change and resource scarcity as one of humankind's megatrends. It is also, and always has been, one of the ways that people in difficulty seek to improve their lives.
International migration - which already stands at well over 200 million people - is likely to increase substantially over the coming years. Throughout the globe, people are being pushed and pulled by events and forces that are largely beyond their control.
Natural disasters, for example, are growing in frequency and intensity. Meanwhile, the nature of conflict is changing. Civilians are increasingly being targeted for attack, often by unruly armed groups and militia forces whose primary objective is to displace people and seize their possessions and land.
An instinctive reaction to migration, particularly when economic times are lean, is to try to block or end it. Rich states formulate policies to make arrival harder while the unscrupulous use anti-foreigner sentiment to stir discontent or win votes. In developing countries, which host four-fifths of the world's refugees and migrants, sympathy gives way to fatigue and resentment against refugees and migrants grows.
For IOM and UNHCR, the organizations we lead, both of which are approaching their 60th anniversaries, the interaction of the megatrends and the evolving nature of conflict and displacement is blurring the traditional distinctions between refugees and migrants and accentuating the importance of our working together in response.
Migrants and refugees are using the same routes and means of transportation to reach the same destinations. Largely because of tighter border controls, people on the move often find themselves in the exploitative hands of human smugglers and traffickers, entering countries without passports or visas and often placing a heavy burden on asylum determination and immigration procedures.
According to international law, everyone is entitled to exercise their fundamental human rights. Refugees, asylum seekers and irregular migrants are no exception to that rule. In reality, however, the rights of migrants and refugees are often violated.
In places throughout the world, they are subjected to arbitrary and discriminatory treatment by the authorities and other members of society. In some of the world's most prosperous states, women and children who have arrived in a country without the required papers can be held in detention for weeks or months on end.
Even the most fundamental human rights principle - that people should not be returned to a country where their life or liberty is at risk - is being tested. A recent rash of involuntary returns in regions across the globe testifies to the vulnerability of even long-established legal norms.
States have every right to control their borders and to safeguard the security of their nationals. But they also have a responsibility to craft constructive responses to the challenges posed by the growing mobility of the world's population.
On one hand, there is a need to ensure that people can move by choice rather than by necessity, and that they have safe, orderly and lawful migratory channels available to them. When this is achieved, the contribution that migrants and refugees make to the global development process is maximized.
On the other hand, it is essential for states to ensure that victims of persecution are effectively protected when they flee their countries. Millions of people throughout the world owe their lives to the fact that they were able to become refugees.
Meeting these twin challenges is key. We must not allow political opportunism and xenophobic sentiments to prevent people like Albert Einstein and Marlene Dietrich from finding the sanctuary they need. We must not allow the rich contributions of refugees and migrants to be obscured.
In a globalized, interconnected and insecure world, people will become increasingly mobile. Our response should not be governed by fear and rejection. Instead, a determined effort is required to protect the interests and rights of all.
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Students can play a vital role in advocating for refugees - UNHCR chief
18 Jun 2019 ... ... Grandi was speaking at the start of a two-day conference on the world’s largest higher education scholarship programme for refugees, called DAFI, the Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee ...... -
UNHCR activities financed by voluntary funds: Northern South America and the Caribbean
18 Jul 1995 ... ... Saharans, 189 Sudanese and 1 refugee from Swaziland -- at tertiary level under the Albert Einstein German Refugee Academic Initiative (DAFI) programme. 3. 1996 Country programmes (a) Objectives ...... -
Student journalists face the challenge of reporting on asylum
27 Dec 2005 ... ... A lot of refugees are people we know like the physicist Albert Einstein and today the singer Katie Melua," said Finglas. UNHCR's Asylum Reporting Competition was originally conceived as a follow-on ...... -
Making the most of human mobility, by António Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and William Lacy Swing, Director General, International Organization for Migration
Apr 2010 ... ... We must not allow political opportunism and xenophobic sentiments to prevent people like Albert Einstein and Marlene Dietrich from finding the sanctuary they need. We must not allow the rich ...... -
Rwandan gets on his bike in Johannesburg to raise funds for education
22 Nov 2011 ... ... But there is fierce annual competition for a limited number of places on the German-funded Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative, or DAFI. "We currently support 43 refugees with ...... -
DAFI Annual Report 2011
5 Jan 2016 ... ... The DAFI programme Since 1992, the Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative Programme ... for many Iraqis. (…)The Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative (DAFI) ...... -
DAFI Annual report, 2011
Sep 2012 ... ... The DAFI programme Since 1992, the Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative Programme ... for many Iraqis. (…)The Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative (DAFI) ...... -
Mother's dedication inspires 20-year-old to academic success in Turkey
4 Oct 2016 ... ... This year, Fatima is one of 70 Syrian refugees in Turkey to win a German-funded and UNHCR-implemented scholarship from the Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative (DAFI), which will provide ...... -
Profiles of panelists: Preparatory Roundtable on Self-reliance
30 Nov 2021 ... ... She is currently based in New York. Speakers Ms. Francesca Alberie Albert Einstein German Academic ... Mr. Peter Barach 4 Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative Mr. Peter Barach is an ......