Disappointing that Sustainable Development Goals lack migration goal

Migration can contribute positively to economic and human development in poor countries; so can refugee-diaspora activities directed at conflict and fragile state settings when supported in the right way, Ninna Nyberg Sørensen writes in this DIIS Impact.

Building on this knowledge, numerous international players have aimed at including migration in the post-2015 development agenda. The Sustainable Development Goals recognize the human rights and human treatment of migrants regardless of legal status. Attempts to regulate the costs related to remittance transfers are also included.

It is nevertheless disappointing that no specific SDG on migration has made its way to the 17-Goal agenda, and that migration management concerns in the Global North still have priority over Southern development concerns, Ninna Nyberg Sørensen writes.