Potential and value of diasporas extolled at conference

Diasporas have the potential to "do so much more" if the "right conditions are put in place to make that possible", Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid and Diaspora Colm Brophy has said.

Mr Brophy was speaking as a two-day global ministerial summit began in Dublin Castle on Monday, the first major international conference to take place in Ireland since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Global Diaspora Summit of the International Organisation for Migration is the first summit of member states since 2013. The IOM is the UN body with responsibility for international migration policy and is based in Geneva. Ministers and ambassadors from 12 countries are in Dublin to oversee the proceedings, with a further 100 delegations contributing online.

Global policy

The summit is in preparation for the International Migration Review Forum, a major review of global migration policy being organised by the United Nations in New York in May.

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In his opening speech, Mr Brophy noted that Sunday was census night in Ireland, which would have recorded “the thousands of recently arrived Ukranians forced to flee their homes for our shores”.

“These, our most recent migrants are, like many before them, the victims of an unjustifiable conflict and of immoral political choices made elsewhere,” he said.

“I want to commend the Ukrainian diaspora who have reached out to provide humanitarian assistance and shelter to their fellow countrymen and women and to reiterate the full support of the Irish people at home and abroad for their efforts.

Migrants’ remittances

“This census will show that we stand where we have always stood, between the future and the past and while we cannot change what has been, we can learn to change what will be.”

Mr Brophy said it was estimated that over 280 million migrants, about 3.6 per cent of the world’s population, currently live outside their countries of birth and that diasporas make a “very significant impact internationally”.

“The remittances they send to lower and middle-income families come to 3½ times the total global ODA [official development assistance]. They invest in business, in infrastructure in their countries of origin. They engage actively in the transfer of skills and knowledge and they make connections, they open doors,” he added.

“They do so much and they have the potential to so much more if the right conditions are put in place to make that possible.”