Germany becomes the 18th Member State of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
The number of ICMPD Member States has increased by one: Germany has just become the 18th member to join ICMPD, an international organisation working to find innovative solutions to regional migration challenges.
ICMPD and Germany already enjoy rich cooperation in several operational projects, for example in the fields of return and reintegration, border management, media training as well as awareness raising on migration in countries of origin. Germany also participates in several Migration Dialogues supported by ICMPD notably the Budapest Process, the Prague Process, the Khartoum Process and the Rabat Process. The accession of Germany to ICMPD is therefore an important step, not only for the organisation but also for European cooperation on migration issues in general.
“We want to effectively manage, regulate and control migration. To do so, we must cooperate with our partners. With its innovative concepts, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development helps to enable governments and institutions to work on viable solutions. We are pleased that we can now take an active part in shaping this task within this framework as well.” said Stephan Mayer, Parliamentary State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry of the Interior.
“We are very pleased to have gained yet another important Member State. Germany has a key role for European and global migration, not only as a main destination country for migration, but also as a strong driver for international migration cooperation and for the development of functioning migration policies. The membership will strengthen our possibilities to respond jointly to migration challenges and work towards functioning migration systems at the regional level,” said ICMPD Director General Michael Spindelegger, “Germany also has a central position in the reform process for a stronger European migration and asylum system – a priority shared with ICMPD´s Member States. Our members form a unique group of countries with high migration relevance – Germany is an essential part of this group. The membership will further strengthen the strategic dimension of the organisation.”
ICMPD was founded in 1993, on the initiative of Austria and Switzerland, at a time when the migration reality in Europe saw dramatic changes following the political changes in Eastern Europe and the Balkan conflicts. The ranks of its Member States saw their first growth in the 1990s with the addition of Hungary (in 1995) and Slovenia (in 1998). The Czech Republic then followed (in 2001), as did Sweden, Poland and Bulgaria (in 2003), Portugal and Croatia (in 2004) as well as Slovakia (in 2006). Romania and Serbia were the next to join (in 2011) followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina (in 2012) and North Macedonia (in 2015). Malta and Turkey both joined in 2018.