The policy brief was drafted within the project “Faces of Migration, SDGs and Migration – Multipliers and Journalists Addressing Decision Makers and Citizens”. The project aims at raising awareness on the Sustainable Development Goals, migration and their interconnectedness.

The project is funded by the European Commission’ Development Education and Awareness Raising (DEAR) programme. The content reflects solely the views of the authors and not the official views of the funder.

Introduction

While freedom to move is a fundamental human right, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 13), current migration flows in Europe are often contested in present day discourse. Nevertheless, “mobility is a universal feature of humanity. People have been mobile and migrating since the beginning of time, and will not stop doing so.”¹

Despite migration being a phenomenon linked with human history, higher number of arrivals of migrants and refugees to Europe has exposed many issues related to migration and integration policies, but also development cooperation policies, since political discourse on migration has often emphasized the need to “address root causes of migration”. This policy paper explores interlinkages of European Union (EU) and its Member States’ commitments in the field of migration and development policies.

1^ Source: CONCORD Europe, 10 myths about migration and development, available at: https://concordeurope.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/10myths_migration_development_EN_newversion.pdf.