ICMPD-Review-2015
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<strong>ICMPD</strong> Annual Report <strong>2015</strong><br />
46<br />
Capacity Building<br />
Legal Migration<br />
and Integration:<br />
Laying the<br />
Foundations<br />
The main aim of our work is laying the founda -<br />
tions for functioning migration governance, labour<br />
migration, and integration policies. In <strong>2015</strong>, we<br />
focused on EU mobility partnerships and global<br />
standards for immigrant integration.<br />
The support of countries that have concluded mobility<br />
partnerships or a visa liberalisation action plan<br />
with the EU has developed into one of our main areas<br />
of expertise and activity. In Georgia, we con tinued<br />
to support their efforts to fulfil the related requirements<br />
concerning migration, strengthen their migration<br />
management and information systems, and write<br />
new migration policy. In March 2016, the European<br />
Commission (EC) proposed to lift visa requirements<br />
for the citizens of Georgia, confirming that Georgia<br />
successfully met all benchmarks under the Visa<br />
Liberalisation Action Plan. Thus, the EC recognised<br />
the efforts of Georgian authorities who carried out<br />
far-reaching and difficult reforms, which had at<br />
least partly been conducted with the help of <strong>ICMPD</strong><br />
and European experts. A similar initiative has been<br />
developed for Azerbaijan, where we will support<br />
the implementation of the EU Mobility Partnership.<br />
Priorities will include well-managed labour migration<br />
and trade-related mobility, public awareness on<br />
migration, migration analysis, document security,<br />
asylum policy, and sustainable reintegration.<br />
We believe that labour migration is best supported<br />
by an honest dialogue between sending and<br />
receiv ing countries and pragmatic approaches<br />
that are based on all sides´ interests and priorities.<br />
This con vic tion found its expression in <strong>ICMPD</strong>´s<br />
internal cooperation on migration in the Euro-<br />
Mediterranean area.<br />
Working for the benefit of migrants<br />
Our activities want to focus on the migrants themselves whenever possible.<br />
In Tunisia, where we contributed to the strengthening of migration governance in a<br />
postrevolu tion ary country, we tried to go beyond traditional capacity building by<br />
including components for the actual benefit of returnees and prospective migrants.<br />
Concretely, a number of young Tunisians were supported in setting up small busi -<br />
nesses based on their own plans and ideas. All of them were still operating one year<br />
after funding had come to an end and many felt the need to expand their activities<br />
(some had even recruited additional employees in order to do so). This positive<br />
experience is intended to enrich our future activities and projects.
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