The Philippines has set in place the ‘Developing the Global Filipino Programme’. Under this programme, a Memorandum of Cooperation between the Philippine Commission on Higher Education and the Philippine Embassy in Phnom Penh was executed to pilot an education training programme to equip, capacitate, and enhance the competencies of Filipino teachers in Cambodia to qualify them for better teaching career positions.
Canada’s Economic Mobility Pathways Project (EMPP) empowers regional partners and stakeholders, including local governments and the private sector, to help immigration address regional and local labour, economic and demographic challenges and create complementary pathways for the protection of refugees and durable solutions through labour mobility, family reunification, and education.
In Italy, the System for the Protection of Refugees and Unaccompanied Minors (SIPROMI) is a publicly funded network of local authorities and NGOs, which accommodates unaccompanied children and provides them access to the Italian social protection system, including legal support, legal guardianship, access to health, including psychological counselling, access to Italian language classes and to mainstream education programmes. In some contexts, opportunities for vocational training and job opportunities through partnerships with social cooperatives and the private sector.
International initiatives such as the Call to Action: “Remittances in Crisis: How to Keep Them Flowing”, launched by Switzerland and the United Kingdom in May 2020, have also contributed to leveraging remittances and other migration-related financial flows to assist local COVID-19 response and recovery interventions.
In the context of return migration, Mexico also started to certify labour competencies, such as knowledge, abilities and skills, of Mexican returnees to facilitate their socio-economic reintegration.
Several countries, such as Argentina and Peru, have eased the process of recognition of skills for foreign health workers to broaden the stock of professionals with the relevant skills and help fight the health crisis induced by the pandemic.
As individuals and organizations in localities across the globe mobilize to support those displaced by war, conflict, and climate disasters, meeting immediate needs of migrants and refugees is critical. At the same time, building the infrastructure needed to support and engage migrants and broader communities in the long term is essential to ensure strong life outcomes beyond the initial welcoming period.
Migration is a complex and often divisive issue. Regrettably, negative attitudes towards migrants, coupled with exclusionary practices and xenophobia, have escalated in recent years. The media holds a crucial position in framing these narratives and has the potential to reshape these adverse sentiments.
In 2023, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) and the University of Ibadan (UI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the establishment of the Centre of Excellence for Diaspora Studies. The Centre is to serve as Africa Diaspora Resource Research Centre, and it will be managed by the Diaspora and Transnational Studies Unit of the Institute of African Studies.
In February 2021, the Colombian government launched the Temporary Protection Status (Estatuto Temporal de Protección para Migrantes Venezolanos, or ETPV), a legal mechanism which facilitates the transition of migrants from an emergency migratory regime to a regularization status, granting access to formal employment, education, healthcare, and financial services for almost two million Venezuelan migrants and refugees.