Ideally, a coherent migration strategy is the perfect starting point for addressing the opportunities and challenges posed by migration while implementing the Global Compact for Migration and target 10.7 of the 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) (read more in Global Initiatives addressing migration).
High-level frameworks for policy such as national migration strategies can arise from a politically initiated review, a scoping or a mapping exercise. However, such a comprehensive, up-front approach is relatively rare. Most migration policies evolve as separate elements, incrementally and organically, in a fragmented way by policymakers across multiple ministries, often at short notice and in response to need. These policies are then adjusted and built upon to respond to new and changing circumstances. As a result, policies can end up unsupported, opaque for users and even contradictory. Sometimes, they can run counter to the objectives they seek.
There is rarely a blank canvas or a complete absence of migration policy. Sometimes, however, a policy reset or overhaul is called for, possibly triggered by a change in political leadership or fresh impetus arising from international developments such as the inclusion of migration in the SDGs or the Global Compact for Migration, or a State’s accession to a relevant international treaty. Formulating an overarching and comprehensive national migration strategy, based on evidence, can:
- help create coherence, both among migration policies as well as between migration policies and other key national policies and programmes;
- encourage engagement with the opportunities and challenges that migration will bring;
- better integrate subnational levels of government into policymaking efforts;
- highlight institutional issues and the need for legal, administrative and financial resources to develop and deliver on policy objectives;
- provide the broader rationale for migration policies to secure public confidence;
- ensure that policies developed are informed by international obligations and standards as well as bilateral and regional relationships;
- articulate the objectives against which individual policies and programmes can be evaluated.
A caveat though, that without resources and action, a strategy can just look like political rhetoric. To be credible, an accompanying plan of action is needed, as well as a commitment of resources to implement change. The plan of action could identify individual policy areas that require priority focus as well as a plan for new data and research strategies. It could also include a plan for ensuring that the required institutional resources are secured, including adequate staffing but also skills or capabilities needed to deliver on the strategy.
