Confab on mainstreaming migration

Following the launch of the Sri Lanka Migration Profile earlier this year, an international conference 'Mainstreaming Migration to the Development Agenda: the South Asian Experience' was organised by the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) to mainstream migration policies into the broader development agendas of the region.

Delegates and migration experts from South Asia were present at the two-day conference.

Ambassador for Germany in Sri Lanka, Dr. Jürgen Morhard said that the creation of a South Asian road map to better deal with migration is essential for the future.

The chief guest, Senior Minister for International Monetary Cooperation and Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. Sarath Amunugama said, "a balanced review of migration was essential if we are to improve upon the quantities and quality of workers going overseas for employment."

Vice President of the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI), and guest of honour, Dr. Humayun Kabir said that in the light of the Millennium Development Goals and activities surrounding the post-2015 development agendas in South Asia, discussions regarding the marrying of migration policy with that of development couldn't have come at a more opportune moment. He said that Bangladesh has included migration to its post-2015 development agenda.

Executive Director of the IPS, Dr. Saman Kelegama, said that as a major labour exporting region, South Asia is guilty of having addressed the linkage between migration and development in piecemeal actions rather than as part of a broader strategy.

He said that this has in the past, been fuelled by a lack of data regarding migration and because the management of migration was fragmented across various ministries and authorities.

Kelegama said this international conference was a step towards the integration of migration and development, and as a way forward for the region to capitalise on the benefits while mitigating the negative impacts of migration.

Ambassador Nihal Rodrigo, a former SAARC Secretary-General, called upon the participants to consider the human aspect of migration, one that sees many fragmented families, exploitation and abuse.

"A proper regulatory framework that looks at migration and development from a wider perspective is essential if we are to prevent the social fall-out of increased out-migration," he said.

Presentations of country studies from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Afghanistan and the overall South Asian situation, was made at the conference.

The South Asian region is one of the major labour exporting regions of the world. In Sri Lanka alone, 1.7 million people are employed abroad and contributed close to $ 6 billion to the economy in remittances in 2012.

The region has over 22 million people working overseas, and has a remittance flow of around $ 75 billion per annum. While the impact of migration on the socio-economic landscape of the region and individual countries is implicit, there has been a lack of interplay between 'development agendas' and 'migration policies.'