STWR - Share The World's Resources

Members of the U.S. Congress spent the summer touring the United States in what they said was an effort to find common ground on the difficult choices involved in fixing America's broken immigration system. Talking to Americans might help legislators take the temperature of voters on a tough and divisive election issue. But it adds little to Congress's understanding, or the American public's, of the larger forces driving contemporary migration - and of the debates and lessons learned from around the world.

The news media hasn't been of much help either in lifting the level of debate. A review of 150 newspaper editorials from the first eight months of 2006 on the subject of immigration reform revealed that only nine gave serious consideration to the multiple economic and social factors at work in migration today. And only four called for increased efforts by the United States to work more closely with its neighbors to the south to foster economic and social development in the region.

Yet most experts and most Americans agree that increased cooperation makes more political and economic sense over the long term than spending billions on a "security" wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to control the flow of people seeking jobs.

In the months leading up to November's midterm elections, will U.S. political leaders, the media and the American public continue an inward-looking debate on immigration reform? Or will they instead begin to recognize the increased movement of people across national borders as part of the larger challenge of development in an interconnected world?

This week, the United States and other countries have an opportunity to examine the migration challenge through a global lens. For the first time, the United Nations will hold a special session on international migration and development. It will consider recommendations put forward last year by the Global Commission on International Migration and in a recent report by the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan.

The reality is that Americans won't effectively address migration in the coming decades without active dialogue and cooperation with other countries. Coordinated efforts and a greater sense of shared responsibility are needed to address the push and pull factors causing people to make the difficult decision to leave their homes in search of a better life.

This understanding is beginning to take hold among European leaders. After years of opposing a common migration policy, and months of growing concern about the rising number of Africans seeking to enter European countries to escape poverty and conflict at home, a Euro-African ministerial conference on migration and development in Rabat, Morocco, in July began to address migration in a coherent and coordinated manner.

The meeting marked the first time the European Union had collectively discussed migration and related issues with West and Central African governments. Participating governments agreed to strengthen cooperation in managing legal economic migration; facilitate temporary-worker movement; promote African development; and coordinate national border control and assistance to victims of trafficking. While it is too early to know whether one meeting will lead to real results, it is clear that European political leaders increasingly feel the status quo is untenable.

The time has come for the U.S. government to lead a similar initiative with its neighbors in the Americas - an initiative that recognizes that migration is linked to development and to realizing fundamental human rights.

The United States won't be starting from scratch. President George W. Bush can begin by reviving the broad-based cooperation with Mexico that he pledged before the terrible events of 9/11 shifted the focus of U.S. foreign policy to fighting terrorism.

An offer of such regional dialogue is already in place, thanks to a recent meeting organized by the Mexican government in cooperation with the Helsinki Process on Globalization and Democracy. Government representatives from Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic joined European and African counterparts in Mexico City to explore how new bilateral and regional partnerships could benefit countries and migrants alike. Unfortunately, the U.S. government did not even send representatives to the conference.

This week's UN meeting may not produce anything more than a general statement of support for increased action to address migration and development in a more coherent fashion. But it does offer the United States and other leading nations an opportunity to begin talking about the reality of migration: as a regional and global phenomenon; as a challenge of shared responsibility and common interests between governments of the global north and south; and as a vital component in addressing human security, human development and human rights in the 21st century.

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