Welcome
Global Migration Policy Associates (GMPA) is an international association of recognized experts working together to address international migration from a truly global, multidisciplinary and rights-based perspective. Our concept note provides a detailed profile of GMPA; see a short summary "About GMPA" (2-page brief).
This website features documentation produced by GMPA and member Associates to support and improve migration governance, policy, and practice. More than 200 research papers, policy briefs and other documents on main migration topics are posted. More are constantly added. Materials on this site have informed and shaped laws, policies and practices of governments, international organizations, social partners, NGOs and other stakeholders in all world regions. Please contact GMPA if we can be of service!
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NEWS
2024
- NEW! GMPA has joined the Global Coalition for Social Justice! The Coalition, led by the ILO, unites partners from governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, international institutions, enterprises, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions in a transformative initiative. The mission of the Coalition is to foster multilateral cooperation and accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), championing social justice on a global scale. The Coalition leverages a century of ILO experience to generate political commitments, investments, and concrete actions. Together, Coalition partners amplify the scale and impact of initiatives, reinforcing processes dedicated to advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. (As of 9 April, the Coalition unites 213 Partners)
- Newly posted! Publications on migrant associations and home and host country development (see Development page) and Women migrant workers’ labour market situation in West Africa (See Gender page) by GMPA Associate Victoria Castillo Rueda.
- Newly posted! Publications on environmental degradation, land and water grabbing and impacts on populations resulting in internal displacement and cross border movement by GMPA Associate Emel Zerrouk. See Environment and Climate Change page.
- Patrick Taran, GMPA President, spoke at the side-event [to the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council] on: Combating Global Racism: Implementing the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, on 25 March. See speaking text. GMPA was among the co-organisers of the event.
- A GMPA team participated in the Symposium on AI and Citizenship; 25 Years of ICV on 22 March in Geneva. The program featured a Thematic Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Democracy and Citizenship and a Round table: Reflection on AI, Ethics and Human Rights. Patrick Taran, GMPA President, moderated the latter (see photos here and here).
- 12 March: Hiya Sharma, MIR candidate at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations, joined the GMPA secretariat team as Research Associate intern.
- 15 February: two new Research Associate interns joined the GMPA (volunteer) secretariat team: Ms. Gül Eda Düzgün, PhD candidate in Political Science at Hacettepe University, Ankara, Türkiye and Ms Emma Rimonteil, MIR candidate at the University Lumiere Lyon2, France and the University of Melbourne, Australia (exchange program). They join Elisa Allegra Ferrante of Italy who just completed BA studies at the University of Geneva.
- Current Activity January to May: What we’re working on now:
- Doing a comprehensive literature review on Social Justice
- Soliciting articles and editing special issue Social Justice in the Contemporary World of the Ecuadoran RTE -Revista Tecnologica ESPOL academic-scientific journal (forthcoming 30 September 2024)
- Research on Welcoming Cities for migrants and refugees, revision and updating of handbook manuscript
- Interceding at UN Human Rights Council side-events and monitoring sessions
- Preparing inputs for UN Treaty Body and Special Procedures reports
- Updating country national migration profiles: Eurasia, East Europe and Balkan countries
2023:
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We are pleased to share with you the GMPA Quadrennial Report 2019-22 presented to the UN ECOSOC -Economic and Social Council, as required by NGO consultative status regulations, submitted 31 December 2023.
Historic 18th Century Villa Masaryk in which the GMPA office is located, adjacent to the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva. Photo by O.Kadysheva/GMPA, December 2023
- 15 December: Jane Aeberhard-Hodges, GMPA Associate, former ILO Gender Equality Director, spoke on Human rights in the context of the 75th anniversaries of the UDHR and the Freedom of Association as a fundamental human right at CoNGO 75th Anniversary Commemoration in Geneva and the CoNGO Sixth Global Thematic Webinar: CoNGO and UDHR: Celebrating 75 Years. (Geneva, Ecumenical Centre and Online on Zoom). See Speaking text and Concept note.
- We are pleased to announce the Call for Papers for a Special Issue: Social Justice in the Contemporary World of the academic-scientific Journal RTE -Revista Tecnológica ESPOL published by the Escuela Supérior Politécnica del Litoral (Polytechnical University) of Ecuador, co-produced with GMPA. Papers are invited in English and/or Spanish. The full Call for Papers is posted online; See in English; en Español. The Special Issue explores knowledge and understanding of social justice as a major term of reference and concept of our time, encompassing a range of issues, contentions and concerns for societies and governance worldwide. The Scientific Journal Issue is premised on recognizing social justice as both a theoretical concept and a practical ideal—an object of social-scientific and philosophical understanding and debate as well as a real-world goal of social and political mobilization. The submission date is flexible for authors who wish more time. Please contact us soonest to discuss submitting an article! Please share this announcement across your networks; we welcome your suggestions of persons engaged on social justice to also invite to submit a paper.
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- 1 December: on World AIDS Day, we remind of the first, best and only comprehensive global resource on migration, health and HIV & AIDS: the ILO book 'made in GMPA': "Promoting a Rights-based Approach to Migration, Health, and HIV and AIDS: A Framework for Action", containing:
- a comprehensive public health and migration policy and practice framework for addressing HIV and AIDS risks faced by migrants,
- the 'integrated policy agenda'' for action and cooperation enabling all migrants' rights to health and healthy communities everywhere, especially relevant in the ongoing COVID pandemic;
- 'good practices' by communities, governments, NGOs and other actors worldwide on migration, health and HIV&AIDS.
- New status of migrants rights/migration governance conventions: ILO Convention 97: 54 ratifications; ILO Convention 143: 30 ratifications; ICRMW: States Parties: 59 plus 11 signatories pending ratification. 96 States have now ratified or acceded to one or more of these three complementary instruments, in effect half the UN membership. Adding unratified signatories to the ICRMW that have not ratified either of the ILO conventions on migration for employment: 101 States worldwide have formally committed to abide by core international legal standards for protection of rights of migrant workers (in effect virtually all migrants) and for governance of migration. See chart on Ratifications of conventions on migration goverance / migrants rights (ILO C-97 & C-143, ICRMW)
- 22 November. GMPA is pleased to announce the posting on our website of a treasure trove of research articles and policy papers on migration to, within, and from the Middle East including GCC countries, authored by internationally renowned academic-scientific expert Ray Jureidini, member Affiliate of GMPA since 2012. Ray Jureidini is Professor of Migration Ethics and Human Rights at the Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE) in the College of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar since 2014. Prior posts included 6 years at the American University of Beirut 1999-2005 and Director, Migration and Refugee Studies program at the American University in Cairo 2008-11. Fourteen (14) papers, articles, reports and other documents by Dr Jureidini now available on this site. See Regional Dynamics, Issues and Trends page, Middle East & North Africa category. Download list here.
- 21 November. GMPA Member profiles updated. See Who We Are page. GMPA is one of few organizations in the migration field accomplishing both excellency competence across multidisciplinary fields and representivity with diversity across multiple grounds including gender, ethnicity, region, social class, age, and migration experience as well as work/professional experience and local-regional-global levels. The double majority of current Associates and Affiliates --23 of 31-- are or have been international migrants by definition; a majority--19 of 31-- are from and/or based in the Global South; 20 of the 31 Associates and Affiliates are women.
- 9 November. Elisa Ferrante from Italy, graduate student at University of Geneva, joined our office team as Research Associate. See her profile at Who We Are page.
- The Congo (Brazzaville) ratified both ILO Conventions C-97 and C-143 on migration for employment/migrant workers, on 26 October, becoming one of several 'champion countries' to have ratified all 3 migration governance/migrants rights conventions.
- 18 October: Patrick Taran did an invited formal presentation "Combating Discrimination, Achieving Equality of Treatment and Outcomes; Evolving challenges for law, policy and action" to the 21st session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Effective Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. See issue brief - remarks that provides a succinct overview of the challenges of discrimination facing migrants --and descendents of immigrants and others-- manifestly intersecting across multiple prohibited grounds including nationality plus, commonly, gender, ethnicity, color, perceived race, religion, national origin, and/or social/class status, among others of the 17 grounds prohibited in the core UN Human Rights Conventions.
- 10 October. A GMPA team completed research and preparation of a comprehensive regional Practical Manual on Admission and Post-Admission Migration Policies and Tools: Guidance for SADC main Countries of Destination of migrant workers. The 160 page draft was prepared for the joint ILO-IOM SAMM - Southern Africa Migration Management project; it goes now for review and vetting by tripartite constituents –government, employer and union experts-- in SADC (Southern African Development Community) countries concerned: Botswana, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa and others. Piyasiri Wickramasekara was lead researcher-writer with Chandima Arambepola, Patrick Taran and Olga Kadysheva. Publication is anticipated at the end of year.
- Cote d'Ivoire became 59th State Party to the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, acceding to the ICRMW on 26 September 2023. Counting Signatures pending ratification, a total of 70 States have committed to abide by the principles and provisions of the ICRMW.
- 22 September. A GMPA team completed research and preparation of comprehensive national migration profiles for 6 Western Balkan Countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. The profiles have been submitted to ITUC - International Trade Union Confederation for its RecruitAdvisor program and may later be more widely available. Victoria Castillo, GMPA Associate was lead researcher-writer with research assistance by Desiree Mortenson, GMPA Research Associate, and contributions and editing by Patrick Taran.
- Patrick Taran, GMPA President, was featured speaker 14 September at the screening in Geneva of La barque n’est pas pleine –the Boat is Not Full. The film documents Swiss official non-response to Chilean refugees fleeing the brutal military dictatorship in the 1970s, met with a national campaign to host refugees in family homes, in some cases helping persons at risk of repressive imprisonment, torture, forced disappearance or death to flee Chile and enter Switzerland to obtain refugee protection. See advert here. The event was part of a series in Geneva marking the 50th anniversary of the military coup that overthrew the elected popular unity government, assassinated President Allende, killed or disappeared 3-4,000 people and compelled some 200,000 people to leave as refugees or exiles and another 200,000 to emigrate or remain abroad as migrant workers or immigrants elsewhere. Speaking notes posted here.
- Development of the South American Refugee Program. Unpublished ‘untold’ documentary story of organization, operation and success of what began in 1975 as the Chilean Refugee Resettlement Program in Seattle that received and supported inclusion-integration of 200 refugees from Chile and Argentina in the 1970s –at least one member of some 50 families freed from political prisons and torture into exile-- 10% of the total number officially admitted to the USA from South American dictatorships in the ‘70s. The program pioneered a deliberate approach of facilitating prompt inclusion and employment of arriving refugees while supporting maintaining/reconstructing their own national-ethnic-cultural identities, an approach espoused by the European Union 30 years later.
- (August 2023) Patrick Taran, GMPA President, was invited speaker at the University of Chile-FASIC conference Human Rights 50 years since the coup d’etat, Contemporary Perspectives, in Santiago de Chile on 9 August. See Radio Universidad de Chile video-interview; Universidad de Chile Noticias article ; Interview on El Ciudadano (‘the Citizen’) news site.
- (June 2023) The GMPA Assembly of Members 2023 was held in Geneva on 13 June, providing a forum for assessment of key challenges in the world of migration; new members were inducted, prior year activity and financial reports approved, and priorities identified for forthcoming work. See Summary of GMPA Assembly Proceedings.
- (May 2023) Nigeria ratifies ILO Convention 143 on migrant workers & C-181 on private employment agencies; GMPA contribution. 95 States formally ratified or acceded to one or more of the three key "migration governance" conventions --ICRMW, ILO Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97), and ILO Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143).
- Maghreb migration, politiques en manque de boussole. M.Lahlou, mars 2023.
- Maghreb Migration Policies Bereft Compass. M Lahlou, March 2023.
- Annual GMPA Activity Summary Reports are posted on About GMPA page : 2022 GMPA Activity Summary Report
