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SUMMARY REPORT
Migration and Development Series
Briefing on South-South Migration Cooperation
Organized jointly with IOM, UNFPA, and the MacArthur Foundation
29 November 2011
United Nations Headquarters, New York
BACKGROUND
As today more people are on the move than at any other time, there have been many debates on the
impact of migration on development. Despite the importance of migrants for development, there
remains a superficial knowledge gap in regards to South-South migration where a substantial amount of
migration occurs. With the increase of migrants, the nature of migration has been changing. According to
the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), 34% of international migrants
have migrated among developing countries (South-South migration), which equates to the same level of
migration fluxes that has taken place from developing to developed countries (South-North Migration).
Due to the lack of reliable and comparable data on South-South migration and its effects on
development, the omission of migration into development planning of Southern countries limits its
contribution to poverty reduction strategies. Much more needs to be known about this overlooked
phenomenon and many other aspects of South-South migration. The 2010-2020 LDC Programme of
Action adopted in Istanbul also acknowledged migrants as pivotal agents for economic and social
development and reiterated the crucial role that migration represents for the development strategies of
LDCs. The recognition of the importance of South-South migration and the development of cooperative
migration-sensitive policies and partnerships among developing countries will unleash the opportunities
South-South migration can bring.
OBJECTIVES
This one-day expert seminar was organized following the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least
Developed Countries (LDC – IV) which took place in Turkey in May 2011 and aimed at assessing the
results of the new 10-year action plan for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and discussing the
migration strategies to promote sustainable development within LDCs into the next decade.
The briefing is intended to:
 Provide an overview of the existing data on stocks, flows, and trends of South-south migration,
while suggesting what other data and research may be needed;
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Instituto de las Naciones Unidas para Formación Profesional e Investigaciones
 Assess capacity building gaps among developing countries in the migration context;
 Discuss the developmental impacts of South-South migration either through existing bilateral or
regional arrangements;
 Examine existing South-South migration cooperation platforms and suggest ways in which such
cooperation can be further enhanced in order to reap more development rewards.
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION
In the introductory session, Ms. Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri, Deputy Executive Director and Director for
Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships Bureau of UN Women, provided insights on the
nature of South-South migration, including the increasing feminization of the phenomenon.
Ms. Puri emphasized that South-South migration reflects the increasing feminization of migration, with
women, especially young women and women who are heads of households migrating independently in
search of decent work and sustainable employment. Women represent 50.1% of transnational migrants
worldwide and women’s migration is on the rise in the global South, migration becoming a personal and
family survival strategy. Also, the 2009 Human Development Report Working Paper confirmed that, in
Asia, South-South migration is increasing feminized- women migrant workers outnumber men in the
Philippines and Indonesia. In Africa, numbers are also on the rise but at a much slower place, according to
a study by the Southern African Migration Project. The same study found that, in Southern Africa, female
migrants were increasingly younger and single, while male migrants tended to be older and married.
Within the global South, many women migrant workers are concentrated in low-wage, informal jobs in
domestic work, hospitality and entertainment.
In this regard, she underscored that multi-lateral cooperation agreements must harness women migrant
workers’ contributions to development, especially by ensuring woman-friendly remittances transfer
schemes. These must be low-cost, safe, reliable and accessible to women migrant workers. UN Women’s
research on women’s remittances in Lesotho, Senegal and other LDCs confirms that women migrant
workers remit higher proportions of their low incomes to families back home – these incomes are more
likely to be spent on household expenditures like food, medical care and clothing as well as children’s
education.
Mr. Pablo Lattes, Migration Section, Population Division, UN DESA, provided an analysis of migration
trends and a briefing on the statistical characteristics of South-South migration.
According to DESA, ‘South’ refers to the less developed regions of the world which comprise all regions of
Africa, Asia (excluding Japan) and Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Melanesia, Micronesia and
Polynesia, while ‘North’ or more developed regions comprise all regions of Europe plus Northern
America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. From 1960 to 2010, the migrants who moved to more
developed regions were 127.7 million which accounts for 60% of the total migrant population, while 86.2
million migrants moved to less developed regions, accounting for 40%. 73.6 million people (34%) move
within the South, and the migration within the South usually occurs between neighboring countries. One
of the main and more peculiar characteristics of South-South migration is its age distribution that, if
compared to the South-North migration, tends to be characterized by a younger age with its peak (8-10
million individuals) concentrated in the age group 25-35. He highlighted that considering the increasing
number of South-South migrants, South-South migration has become more important for development,
compared to North-South migration.
However, according to Mr. Lattes, migration among developing countries still remains a difficult category
to analyze. Lack of reliable data and contrastive research and data collecting methods impair the ability
of researchers and policy makers to found migration policies on sound migration research.
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Mr. Sandagdorj Erdenebileg, Acting Director of the Office of the High Representative for the Least
Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN OHRLLS),
focused his intervention on the contributions that South-South migration brings to the economic
development of developing countries. As economic and political power has been shifting towards the
South due to high and sustained growth rates in larger developing countries, particularly China, India,
Brazil and South Africa, South-South cooperation has gained in importance. The Istanbul Programme of
Action has also identified the developing countries as a key development partner of LDCs, within the
context of South-South cooperation. South-South migration is significantly larger than migration from the
South to high-income OECD countries. Income difference, proximity, and networks are the major drivers
of migration. Motivation for South-South migration also includes seasonal patterns and flight from
ecological disasters or civil conflict.
The challenges and opportunities for South-South migration are as follows.
 Challenges of South-South migration: lack of general data and research on the impact of SouthSouth migration on development; lack of information as South-South migration often takes place
outside of existing frameworks; high degree of informality in labor markets and lack of creation
of formal employment; limited legal migration opportunities for lower skilled migrant workers,
especially young migrants. Furthermore, restrictions are often imposed by countries of the South
on immigrants, and social systems are often not developed enough and are difficult to access for
migrant workers.
 Opportunities of South-South migration: Intra-regional migration entails less distance and costs.
Less cultural and linguistic differences simplify the integration and potentially reduce
psychosocial effects. South-south cooperation is important because of its well-developed
informal remittance channels. Regional labor markets can offer a new entity of analysis and
cooperation linking demand and supply. The reduction of costs of migration can imply important
poverty reduction gains for larger parts of migrants than those that have the resources to
migrate to developed countries. Finally, Southern growth poles will become more attractive for
potential migrants, and the expansion of their economies may simultaneously allow migrants
already working there to remit greater financial resources.
Mr. Sandagdorj Erdenebileg emphasized that developing countries do not offer consistent legal migration
opportunities for low-skilled migrants, and especially young migrants. In this regard, regional cooperative
agreements among countries with similar educational systems, such as the Caribbean Community, have
proven to be effective. He also noted that, besides remittances, migration can be leveraged through
innovative financing tools such as skill and technology transfers and diaspora investments.
Mr. Cosmas Gitta, Chief, Policy Development and Dialogue, Special Unit for South-South Cooperation in
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), discussed three main elements: the status of
South-South migration, the reasons and opportunities for South-South migration, and South-South
cooperation and the human rights nexus. South-South migration accounts for nearly half (74million) of
total migration flows, and 80% is estimated to take place between countries with contiguous borders.
Further, most appears to occur between countries with relatively small differences in income.
Mr. Gitta underscored that human rights constitute sharable moral claims upon the organization of
society towards the goal of safeguarding a life of justice and dignity, through the protection of the
powerless from the powerful. These principles require laws that make them more enforceable such as
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural
Rights. In this regard, there have been many attempts to regulate migration through regional integration
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agreements. Regional agreements used to promote labor mobility for increased regional economic
development. These agreements include the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, the Right of
Residence and Establishment adopted in 1979 by the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS), and the 1997 Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers
by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). He stressed however, development strategies
often have a national scope and insisted that challenges such as migrants’ vulnerability to human rights
abuses and unequal access to education and health should be dealt with through a multilateral policy
approach, and not just through national strategies.
Mr. Gitta concluded his presentation by making some recommendations: regional agreements for the
protection of migrant rights should be implemented at the national level; integration policies should
translate South-South solidarity into action; and development initiatives to reduce forced migration
should be implemented.
Mr. Michael B. Gerrard, Professor from Columbia Law School, briefed the participants on the role of
migration in the negotiation of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). He
remarked that migration is not explicitly referenced in the UNFCCC or in the Kyoto Protocol. The first time
that migration was formally agreed as relevant for climate change policy strategies was at COP-16 in
Cancun in December 2010 where the Green Climate Fund was put in a more formal agreement. In the
introduction to the decisions containing the Cancun Adaptation Framework, underscored Mr. Gerrard,
the parties determined that “adaptation must be addressed with the same priority as mitigation.”
Despite the development of the migration discourse within the context of the climate change debate,
migration still remains at the margins. In the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC which began
on November 28 in Durban, South Africa, migration was not part of the agenda. The previous allocation
of the Green Climate Fund, a portion of which could be used in support of climate-related migration
activities, remains very much in doubt.
Mr. Gerrard listed a few examples of bilateral agreements that allow migration from countries
threatened by rising sea levels to developed countries. One example is the Compacts of Free Association
between the US and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau.
New Zealand has taken in a very small number of people from Kiribati, Tuvalu and Tonga under
temporary worker programs. Australia recently established a temporary horticultural worker program for
Pacific Islanders. But none of these agreements is expressly about climate change.
According to a forthcoming article by Briana Dema in the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, Finland
and Sweden are currently the only two countries with immigration laws that directly address people who
are unable to return to their home country due to environmental disasters. Finland’s Aliens Act provides
that an alien residing in Finland may be issued a residence permit if “he or she cannot return to his or her
country of origin or country of former habitual residence as a result of an environmental catastrophe.”
Similarly, Sweden’s Aliens Act states that foreign nationals in Sweden who are “unable to return to the
country of origin because of an environmental disaster” may receive a residence permit. While the acts
fail to define “environmental catastrophe” or “environmental disaster,” some experts have asserted that
these laws “may . . . apply to longer term conditions, such as submergence of island states.” He added
that considering recent climate change and the magnitude of migration, the need for a multilateral
framework on South-South migration has persisted as an important strategy.
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