The Global Compact for Migration: How Does Development Fit In?

The links between global development and migration run deep, though only in recent years have their connections been a part of the global debate. Development policies that promote good governance, economic opportunities, and health can shape the decisions individuals make about whether to emigrate or remain where they live, and migration has been shown to contribute to the development of countries of origin and destination alike. These policy areas have recently converged around a common goal of facilitating safe, orderly, and regular migration—articulated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and promised for the  Global Compact for Migration to be put forward for UN Member State consideration in 2018.

As negotiations of the global compact get underway, the United Nations and its Member States are presented with an important opportunity to translate previously agreed principles and commitments into action.

This policy brief charts the evolving relationship between development and migration policies at the international level, looking ahead to what form a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration might most fruitfully take. The brief also identifies the challenges that will need to be addressed for the compact to be effective.

Because the compact is likely to cover a range of issues too broad for any state to tackle simultaneously, the most realistic way forward may be “mini-multilateralism”—a series of coalitions among origin, transit, and destination states, along with civil-society and private-sector stakeholders, that work collectively on certain policies and projects within the compact's overarching principles and understandings. For this to happen, the author writes, the compact will need to clarify the institutional framework within the UN system for addressing migration and each coalition will need to adopt metrics to track progress going forward.