Coming Together or Coming Apart? A New Phase of International Cooperation on Migration

Three years after the adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM) in December 2018, this statement by the Transatlantic Council on Migration explores the rationale for deeper cooperation on migration, obstacles impeding it, and the way forward on the Compact’s continued implementation. The GCM provides a framework designed to help sending, transit, and destination nations cooperate in governing migration. The authors highlight four models of GCM implementation that have emerged so far, and discuss three areas in which the Global Compact’s contributions have been most keenly felt. Nevertheless, the authors note that finding the political will to cooperate—in the midst of a pandemic and a succession of new migration crises—has not been easy. Difficult challenges to implementation remain, including the need to agree on the division of international responsibility for large-scale, spontaneous movements of people who do not fit the traditional refugee definition. The authors assert that making the case for international cooperation on migration will require persuading publics of the long-term benefits of well-managed migration. They conclude by listing the principles that countries should observe to avoid backsliding on the cooperation they have achieved so far. (Maurice Belanger, Maurice Belanger Associates)

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