PRESS CONFERENCE on 2006 World Population Report

 

At a Headquarters press conference today, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launched its State of World Population Report 2006, which contained a first ever supplement on global youth migration entitled, “Moving Young”.

Omar Gharzeddine of the UNFPA Information Office introduced today’s speakers:  Laura Laski, Senior Technical Adviser, UNFPA; and Khadija al Mourabit, a youth representative.  The Report focused on women and international migration and was being released in more than 120 countries and cities.  The supplementary report contained several stories about young people affected by migration.

There was no better place to launch the Report than New York City, Ms. Laski asserted.  That city was the embodiment of migration, as it had been built on opening its doors to the world.  Its neighbourhoods, as in no other city in the world, reflected the composition of waves of migrants that had landed there.  Migration was more than a passage to a new life; it was the hope of a new and better future.  In New York’s streets, and increasingly worldwide, the faces of young women and men were changing the ethnic composition of communities.  They were the single most visible element of globalization’s human face.

She said that the Report included first-hand accounts of young women and men who had migrated to different parts of the globe.  Last weekend, for example, 1,500 young people arrived at the Canary Islands from Africa in precarious boats.  Indeed, international migration was at the core of public debates every day, every where in the world.  Despite that, women and young people -- the two groups most needing protection -- were absent from those discussions.

Women and youth comprised the majority of migrants, yet they remained largely invisible in immigration policies and debates, she said.  Their movements were everywhere and their labour was embedded into the very fabric of societies.  Often, they maintained a quality of life for people in wealthier countries.  They were the domestic workers, the health-care personnel, construction workers, delivery boys, kitchen and restaurant staff, farmers, and nurses.  They were also refugees and asylum-seekers.  Many worked with their children beside them; others had been forced to leave them behind.  But, all had brought with them great assets, including resilience and perseverance for a better life.

Because of gender and age, women and young people faced multiple challenges, and examples abounded in the new Report, she said.  Once settled in destination countries, many such migrants found themselves caught between two countries, two gender systems.  Some women were placed in arranged marriages.  Individual choices and destinies were sometimes held hostage or served as battlegrounds for perceived cultural clashes and misunderstandings.

She stressed the need for migrant women to be granted independent status.  That issue, known as the “dependency trap” was of particular concern.  Too many such women were caught in abusive marriages or employed by abusive employers, who were often their sponsors.  The “dependency trap” also contributed to slave-like conditions.  Visas were often tied to one employer, and, often, the immigrant’s basic needs, such as housing and food, depended on that employer.  So did their pay, which children and families back home often depended upon.

Migration, overall, however, was a positive force, with social and economic benefits for both sending and receiving countries, she said.  Remittances, for example, contributed to poverty alleviation.  In fact, remittances were the second largest source of funding for developing countries, after foreign direct investment.  The contributions of women and children were highly significant.  The so-called “brain drain” and “youth drain” were also important concerns.  The latter was acutely felt in the fragile health systems of developing countries.  Migration was a heated and complex issue, but its challenges had solutions.

She said that, unless Governments and the international community as a whole discussed managing migration so that the rights of the most disadvantaged migrants were protected, and unless the accumulated experiences of decades of migration were taken into account along with the gender sensitive and multicultural aspects of societies, the migration debate would continue to go around in circles with no way out for countries and cities and people dreaming of better opportunities.  The debate to take place at the United Nations next week was a unique opportunity, during which young people and women deserved to be at the centre.

A second generation Moroccan growing up in the Netherlands, Ms. Mourabit said she was speaking on behalf of the millions of young people with similar aspirations as hers for a better future either in their own countries or elsewhere.  She congratulated the UNFPA for its youth supplement.  It meant a lot to young people, who often had no natural channel for expression.  Her story was one often told in the report.  People her age had seen their families butchered before their eyes, or they, themselves, had been sold as sex slaves by their own relatives.  They had crossed oceans in fragile boats to wherever they could find jobs, raise families and live in peace.

She said that many would love to stay at home if they could.  For her, the Netherlands was home, where more than half the youth population in the major cities were of non-Western descent.  They would soon be in the prime of their lives, and with that came the chance to make great contributions to their countries and to the non-Western countries from which they had come, including by alleviating poverty and raising the living standards.  She was sorry Morocco had not made the finals of the World Cup.  If both Morocco and the Netherlands had made the finals, she would have cheered for two countries because choosing between them would have been akin to choosing between her right leg and her left, between a mother and a father.  That, in essence, reflected her personal story:  a Moroccan berber born in the Netherlands and proud also to be Dutch.

Since “9/11” things had become tenser, with many misunderstandings “on both sides”, she said.  Many preferred to believe in stereotypes or to jump to conclusions because of the latest headline or blog.  She was a Muslim, and if she chose to wear the traditional scarf, people took that to mean that she was narrow-minded, oppressed and in possible danger.  Of course, it meant none of those things.  When she first went to college, classmates seemed pleased to meet a “real, live Muslim girl” and thought she needed to be liberated.  There was a lot of controversy about wearing the scarf, but for her, it was a false controversy to put young women and their bodies in the middle of a cultural battle not of their own making or choosing.

She said she hated when people tried to emancipate her in their own way, seeking her freedom according what they considered to be freedom.  Nobody could tell anybody else how to be free.  People should treat others with respect and let them attain freedom in their own way.  She worked for an organization in Amsterdam that, among other things, worked to combat domestic violence, but she could not tolerate that, in the name of tolerance, people told her how to live.

Asked whether domestic workers in Gulf countries were getting any help, such as from non-governmental organizations, such as initiatives under way in Europe and Asia, Ms. Laski said the report had identified efforts by some countries, although not necessarily non-governmental organizations.  For example, some sending countries, like the Philippines, which sent large numbers of domestic workers to the Gulf countries, were training them about their rights before they left.  So, there were examples of sending countries protecting their own citizens.  She did not have any specific examples of initiatives under way in the Gulf countries, but sending Governments were likely in dialogue with host Governments.

As for the role of the United Nations in migration, she said that the Organization sought to facilitate dialogue among countries so that receiving and sending nations could better manage the migration between them.  The United Nations supported the ideal that people not be forced to migrate because of lack of opportunity in their own countries.

Returning to the issues of overseas domestic workers, she said they were presently organizing, or forming a union, internationally.  That was important to give them a voice, a mechanism through which to express their concerns.  The United Nations supported that initiative.  Clearly, it was important to recognize the rights of domestic workers, regardless of whether they were “regular” or “irregular”, with or without papers; everyone had a right to be protected and not exploited.  Next week’s meeting was a first step in that direction.

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For information media • not an official record