It is estimated that in 2016 migrants will send a total of 514 billion dollars in earnings back to their home countries. These remittances are a strong economic factor that reveals how migration is, in reality, also a precious development tool and, on the other hand, the diaspora’s potential for influencing policies adopted with regard to their home countries.
An international workshop entitled “Integrating Migration into Development: Diaspora as a Development Enabler”, to be held at the foreign ministry in Rome on 2 and 3 October 2014, is the result of collaboration between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the International Migration Organisation (IMO) under the aegis of the Italian duty Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Attendees will include representatives of European, Middle Eastern and African governments and migration and development experts, including migrant organisations.
The workshop offers to gather contributions within the framework of the European Presidency, highlighting the diaspora as a driver of development in countries of origin and destination.
Secretary-General of the Farnesina Ambassador Michele Valensise will open the sessions, while speakers will include IMO Director William Lacy Swing, UN S-G Special Representative for International Migrations and Development Peter Sutherland and Nichi Vendola of the Committee of the Regions of the European Union and Vice-President of ARLEM (Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly).
Online accreditation system. Journalists, photographers and TV crews interested in following the event should:
– complete the interactive form available athttp://mae.accreditationsystem.info/ITA/Indice.asp
– attach all required documentation (if not already submitted) to the form, in digital format
Required documentation:
– a letter from your media organisation
– for foreign journalists in Italy: a note verbale issued by the Embassy in Rome of your media organisation’s country.
If you are unable to complete the online accreditation procedure, please send your applicationby fax, on your media organisation’s letterhead, to the Foreign Ministry’s Press and Institutional Communication Service (tel. 06/3691.3432-8573-8210).
Accredited members of the press will be admitted at the main entrance to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (left side) beginning at 08:30 on 2 and 3 October.
