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New Directions in the International Organization on Migration

Tue. December 22nd, 1998

December 22, 1998

Speaker: The Honorable Brunson McKinley, Director General of the IOM

On December 22, 1998, the Carnegie Endowment’s International Migration Policy Program hosted a breakfast briefing on the future of the International Organization for Migration. This Geneva-based multilateral organization was established outside of the United Nations system in the aftermath of World War II to help resolve the problems of displaced persons in Europe. Since then, IOM has expanded its programs substantively and geographically to assist its 67 member states in both understanding and coping with migratory movements. Brunson McKinley assumed the office of Director-General of the IOM in October. In his first few months in office, he has stressed the flexibility of his organization's mandate and its ability to deliver services to intending migrants, their countries of origin and countries of destination. His presentation at this meeting attracted representatives from government, area universities, nongovernmental organizations and research institutions. This report summarizes the remarks of Ambassador McKinley and moderator Kathleen Newland, as well as some members of the audience.

Kathleen Newland, Senior Associate and Co-Director, International Migration Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment

Summing up the challenges faced by McKinley in his new office, Kathleen Newland said in her introductory remarks, "The international community has not shown great collective resolution in dealing with migration issues, preferring to keep them firmly within the ambit of sovereign or regional decision-making. Thus, international cooperation remains weakly institutionalized, and there is not a strong consensus of how or who should deal with migration problems."

McKinley’s election last Spring to the position of Director-General of the IOM follows his long and distinguished career in the United States Foreign Service. He served as Ambassador to Haiti before becoming the principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for what is now the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. Most recently, McKinley followed naturally upon his role as one of the principal drafters of the refugee annex of the Dayton Peace Accord in 1995 to work as the U.S. government’s Humanitarian Coordinator for Bosnia.

The Hon. Brunson McKinley, Director-General of the International Organization for Migration

"Although it is true that the migration issue is gaining in profile and interest, it still has not gelled," McKinley said as he began his remarks.

Agreeing with Newland’s introduction, McKinley said that the IOM is determined to play a leadership role in migration issues, but faces great challenges due to the lack of consensus among governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and international organizations. Solutions remain unclear despite efforts at cooperation "because the subject is so multifaceted," he said.

A key element to international cooperation, according to McKinley, is "the breakdown of the old idea that individual national governments can simply take care of business as a sovereign. Even the strongest governments have reached the conclusion that they can’t handle migration problems by themselves."

McKinley said he hopes the IOM can help facilitate cooperation among actors in the international community. He outlined two approaches for IOM’s future goals.

First, McKinley said he intends to use a "back-to-basics approach" in his leadership of the IOM by focusing on services. "In response to fundamental questions like, ‘What do you people do?’ my answer is, ‘We provide services to migrants, governments, other international organizations, NGOs and other civil society institutions,’" McKinley said.

He listed six services on which IOM will focus:

  1. Movements, including the third-country refugee resettlement function;
  2. Medical screening: concern for communicable disease again dominates medical discourse on migration. Recalling that Ellis Island was used as a quarantine for immigrants with tuberculosis, McKinley noted that the new issue of IOM’s house journal features migration and the spread of HIV/AIDS;
  3. Returns and reintegration;
  4. Technical cooperation and capacity building for migration management, especially in the Western hemisphere and former Soviet Union;
  5. Public information campaigns on migration rules and conditions; and
  6. Counter-trafficking measures (for which the main instrument is public information campaigns).

McKinley said that for each of these services, IOM has identified a focal point responsible for assembling expertise. Since much of this expertise is involved out in the field, making the IOM a very decentralized agency, McKinley said he is trying to use information technology to connect services and expertise throughout the organization.

McKinley’s second focus for the IOM is on regional approaches. "The individual country approach is outmoded. The global approach is not achievable at this time. Therefore, a regional approach is a pragmatic and constructive compromise," he said.

The Puebla process in North and Central America is one regional approach that "faces a big test as well as an opportunity for new resources, political will and inspiration" as a result of Hurricane Mitch, according to McKinley. The natural disaster created an enormous potential for migration. "We will have to see how much international cooperation among regional governments can do to mend the situation," he said.

McKinley identified other regions where migration issues are prominent and where he hopes to increase IOM activities. In the Mediterranean region, the "fault line" between Europe and Africa is a flaw in the migration programs of governments and international organizations (including the IOM). "Southern Africa is another region where migration activity is very important and has taken on a political dimension," he said. McKinley also briefly discussed migration issues in Southeast Asia, the Baltics and Central Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe. These regions are where practice determines need.

On the topic of returns, the IOM has developed what it calls the "Southern Strategy" by which it creates a package of measures for migration within a particular region. The strategy’s name derives from countries of origin (which are mainly in the south) and aims to debunk the attitude that return is usually a hostile move. By putting together a package of migration measures with a "return loop" that benefits the country of origin, the Southern Strategy seeks to portray returning migrants as a resource for their country in practical terms (using professional skills to help communities or training unskilled migrants to start new industries, such as computer programming). The same package will be attractive to countries of destination that want to send migrants back "because it is bound to be less expensive than current deportation procedures," said McKinley. He noted that this strategy "will never assume large dimensions – it is only an effort to bleed off political pressure. It will not be a complete revolving system until there is equalization along economic and social dividing lines."

There is potential to test this strategy with a new member, Morocco. As the IOM’s first Maghreb member, Morocco is extremely significant in terms of its relations with the European Union. McKinley said his organization asks: "What would make a package of migration measures acceptable to Morocco? Then we take it to Bonn, Bern, etc."

Finally, McKinley discussed the IOM’s public image and relations. He said the organization will attempt to be more visible, not simply through work on publications and conferencing, but also by trying to improve public debate about migration. The IOM is working hard at building contacts with states that are less active participants or non-members, such as Mexico and Spain. McKinley intends to modernize the organization by making it more transparent, flexible and responsive. The IOM also must improve relations with NGOs. The IOM is a relatively small organization (about 1200 people) that operates under strict spending limits. "Its surge in capacity will not come from hiring but from implementing partnerships with international NGOs and civil society," McKinley said.

Discussion

Andy Schoenholtz of the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University asked if McKinley saw Hurricane Mitch as an opportunity to bring the Caribbean into the Puebla process, rather than treating it as a separate region.

In response, McKinley said he did not know if the Caribbean could be incorporated into the Puebla process, since he is just starting work on the Caribbean. Logistically speaking, it would be difficult to negotiate the distance between regional offices in San Jose and Nassau. Also, the Caribbean is oriented more toward the U.S. than Central and South America. "In practical terms, it is better to start separately, then maybe hook up eventually," said McKinley.

Astri Suhrke of the Carnegie Endowment asked about IOM’s institutional philosophy. "You spoke of IOM as a management broker," she said. "Do you see your organization primarily as a controller of migration, facilitator, or in a function beyond that of mutual broker?"

McKinley replied that the IOM’s "constitutional documents say the organization believes migration is a good thing. We are not solely a control device, but more probably all three: a facilitator, broker and controller." McKinley qualified this control function, saying it is "not in the sense of barbed wire on borders, but in the sense of placing limits, such as whether to place quotas on temporary work visas or how to channel flows of remittances." In its advocacy role, IOM’s effectiveness is greater when advocating management mechanisms than advocating migration alone, McKinley said.

Charles Keely, also of the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, made two suggestions. "First," he said, "on the return loop, one question has always concerned the commercial banking system. Second, the regional approach is well developed, but we must also look systematically at the criteria that define a region in order to find the proper package."

McKinley agreed with Keely’s comments, adding that "another criterion for defining a region is the self-consciousness of those in the region. By this criterion, Central and Eastern Europe is one of the more self-conscious regions (as opposed to being an area of transit), especially compared to Southeast Asia."

Kathleen Newland said that the question of defining regions may find relevant information in current work on cross-border relationships and border management, citing the International Migration Policy Program’s new project, "Self-Governance at the Border," which examines Eastern Europe as one of its sites. She then asked McKinley to expand on his description of the IOM’s counter-trafficking campaign.

McKinley said that counter-trafficking is one of IOM’s newer services whose main niche is public information. "It is designed to be a prevention measure by using the media in countries of origin to put out the message of the danger of trafficking" for those who put themselves into the hand of traffickers, he said. "The campaign has been particularly successful in Ukraine, and has had a special focus on Eastern Europe as a main source for trafficking in women in prostitution." The IOM also has a small program to deal with the victims of trafficking, who "usually get dumped with no money left at all, are treated as illegal immigrants, and can be thoroughly stranded," according to McKinley. IOM’s programs help these victims to return home. McKinley pointed out that trafficking is an international and human rights problem, too, which makes international conventions important. He reminded the audience that "the human rights movement started as an anti-slavery movement – against trafficking in human beings."

Click here to visit the International Organization for Migration's website.

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
event speakers

Kathleen Newland

Senior Associate