"Social dialogue and a rights-based framework at the heart of migration policy"

Addressing labour migration has undoubtedly become a pressing issue not
only for governments, but also for a broad range of societal actors in the north as
well as the south: private sector entities, trade unions, migrant and diaspora
associations, and intergovernmental bodies. It is clearly one of the global issues of
our time. The weakening of labour markets of the south with the onset of
globalization and rising unemployment are important push factors fuelling both
north/south and south/south migration. Ageing and declining populations and the
need to fill labour market shortages in various sectors constitute some of the pull
factors in receiving countries. While in 1970 there were 82 million international
migrants (counting people who had lived outside of their country of origin for
more than one year), this figure rose to 175 million in 2000; and currently, there
are close to 200 million migrants in the world. Almost half of these migrants are
women, and Europe, Asia and North America are the most popular destinations
for migrants...

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