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NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY
JANICE CHARETTE
DEPUTY MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP
AND IMMIGRATION

AT THE 10th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL
METROPOLIS CONFERENCE

OUR DIVERSE CITIES: MIGRATION,
DIVERSITY AND CHANGE

Plenary Session on
The Report of the Global
Commission on Migration

Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Toronto, Ontario
October 19, 2005

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Good morning.

It is a privilege and an honour to be given the opportunity to moderate this panel on the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM). I’m especially proud to be here with so many of you who have played such a vital role in contributing to the international dialogue on migration. The commissioners we have with us here today as well as many of you have worked tirelessly to help all of us come to grips with the new realities of global migration and start us on the path towards finding common solutions. So welcome, one and all.

Migration today touches more lives than ever before. In the late 20th century many were seeking asylum. Today we’re seeing greater mobility generally. Throughout history people have left their homeland in search of security or a better life. But the phenomenon today is unprecedented in scope and scale. The number of people on the move around the world has increased from 75 million 30 years ago to 200 million today. That means one in 35 people is an international migrant, or 35 percent of the world’s population. Nearly one-half of this number are women. It’s perhaps therefore not surprising that international migration has become a top of mind issue for a majority of developed and developing countries.

The international community is paying more attention to migration than it has in the past. That interest extends across states, multilateral organizations, academics and journalists. It also reaches across migration to touch other policy issues such as trade, health, security and human rights.

Some issues that have occupied us in the past have now begun to occupy the attention of existing political organizations such as the European Union. These include:

• The asylum-migration nexus. This is another name for the abuse of the asylum system for migration purposes;
• The brain drain, including between countries of the West and between countries of the West and the G77;
• Migration and development;
• The return of failed refugee claimants;
• Visas;
• Security and terrorism; and,
• Trafficking and smuggling of human beings.

Today we are here to discuss the work of one of the most recent expressions of this growing interest in international migration, the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM), which just released its’ highly anticipated report on October 5. The GCIM has brought together not only expert Commissioners, but states from the North and South as well as divergent views and ideas.

The GCIM arose from a recommendation in the Doyle Report on international migration which was presented in 2003 to the Secretary General of the UN. The Commission itself is an independent body. It is independent of both the UN and of the 34 states that support its work. The 19 Commissioners, two of whom we will hear from in a few moments, are also independent from their countries of residence. They have been chosen for their expertise alone. Since it began, the GCIM and its Secretariat have organized five regional hearings, launched a research program, and commissioned work by well-known migration experts. They have taken their task seriously since we heard from the co-chairs, Jan Karlsson and Mamphele Ramphele at our conference last year in Geneva.

Canada’s experience as a nation is that of one built by immigration. So the work of the GCIM is of particular interest. Canada is one of the “core group of states” involved with the GCIM. The Hon. Sergio Marchi — who is here with us today as one of the commissioners — is a former Canadian Minister of Immigration. He also opened the very first International Metropolis Conference in Milan in 1996. Also with us today is Dr. Aicha Belarbi, former Secretary of State and former Moroccan Ambassador to the European Union, and Philip Martin from the University of California-Davis, who has been one of the experts supporting the work of the Commission.

I believe that real and sustained regional and international dialogue on migration management issues will continue to be as important as before for Canada, if not more so. It is Canada’s intention to continue to enrich these migration discussions with lessons learned along the way about managing migration, about bringing newcomers to our communities, to our schools and workplaces and to the highest positions in Canada.

All of us here and in the Metropolis constituency today need to understand what is at issue and what may be at stake for our countries and those who migrate as we deliberate on this report. I’m confident that talking about and debating the report is top of mind for many of us here. Many of us will debate how to respond. The work of the GCIM in this light is a useful addition to the numerous discussions that will lead to the High Level Dialogue next year at the UN. It is important that our countries take this report seriously. It’s important that we debate it, challenge it, and learn from it. Expectations are high. Awareness is also growing that the report from the GCIM will the first of what I predict will be a series of multilateral discussions on migration over the next few years.

States have traditionally looked first and foremost at domestic interests when they deal with migration. They have looked at the effects of migration on our economies, on our social well-being, on our security, and on our treasuries. We have all tended to manage migration as a domestic issue; this is perfectly natural and to be expected of sovereign nations.

Where domestic interests converge, as in the world’s regions such as the European Union, or where issues are held in common such as with the IGC, multilateral discussions have taken place.

But where domestic interests do not converge, do not appear to converge or in fact appear to diverge, multilateral discussion have been rare.

Today we may be witnessing a change in this regard. Migration is gradually being regarded as an issue that needs to be addressed not only as a matter of domestic foreign policy but multilaterally across the North-south divide. Both the GCIM and the Berne Initiative, which we have heard about at previous Metropolis conferences, have brought countries of the North and the South together in sometimes difficult conversation about sharply diverging interests, about highly differentiated effects of migration. Whether this impetus will lead to truly global discussions remains to be seen, but the appetite for global discussions is higher now that at any point in my career as a government official.