THE tone of last week’s second United Nations International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) in New York was hopeful but clearly absent was the stridency of times past when migration was being discussed — a possible reflection of current realities.

From May 5 to 8, it should be noted, governments from around the world showed up for the review at the UN headquarters, likely because they wanted to hear if there were actual nations that were making progress in handling migration challenges, to see what they could learn.

At the close of the meeting they managed to adopt a Progress Declaration, reaffirming the commitment to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), and to outline priorities for future action.

These include labour rights, legal identity for migrants, strengthening safe and regular migration pathways, saving lives, and working with states and stakeholders along key migration routes.

But it was clear they did not have to look further than their host nation to see the challenges posed by the crackdown on immigration, which has been a core policy of the Donald Trump Administration as well as in Europe where anti-immigration parties seem to be getting traction.

Ambassador Annalena Baerbock, president of the UN General Assembly and who convened the forum, did not point fingers at any one country, but her remarks were unmistakable: “Migration is an inevitable human reality. The question is not whether migration is good or bad. The question is whether we manage it well and manage it together as every country today is either a country of origin, transit, or destination — and most times even all three at once.

“No State can manage migration alone. It requires cooperation, it requires international regulation — and that is precisely the purpose of the Global Compact. This is precisely the purpose of multilateralism,” she said.

Ms Amy Pope, director general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and coordinator of the UN Network on Migration, was equally succinct: “Every sovereign State has the right to set its own migration priorities. Every migrant has the right to be treated with dignity. This forum showed that these two truths are not in tension — and that when countries work together, both can be upheld.”

Generations of Jamaicans well understand what it is to travel in search of opportunity. It is how they have strengthened families economically back home and spread the DNA that built vibrant Jamaican communities across the world. The well known “barrel kids” get their dubious moniker from migration.

The IMRF, which had its first meeting in 2018, was determined to show that migration is as relevant today as it ever was. On the day before the plenary, it staged an informal multi-stakeholder hearing, underscoring the GCM’s whole-of-society approach.

It brought together migrants, civil society, diaspora and faith-based organisations, local authorities, the private sector, trade unions, parliamentarians, national human rights institutions, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, academia and the media, alongside UN partners and member states.

This was followed by four days of round tables, policy discussions, and a general debate on key migration priorities, informed by consultations at local, national and regional levels.

Importantly, governments, UN entities and partners are gradually increasing their financial pledges — including investments — to improve labour conditions, expand digital civil registration, and strengthen support to countries hosting displaced populations.