The seventh annual Vienna Migration Conference (VMC) on 11-12 October will provide a chance to assess the most crucial drivers of migration, with a host of high-level speakers and experts in attendance: regional instabilities and ongoing conflicts, the instrumentalisation of migration, climate change, and post-pandemic labour market shortages.
War has returned to Europe and showing no sign of a near-term solution, forcing more than seven million Ukrainians to flee the country exile, This unfortunate reality sets the scene for two days of exchanges at Palais Niederösterreich, which will also be streamed online.
A panel featuring Ana Revenco, Minister of Internal Affairs for Moldova, Selmo Cikotic, Minister of Security for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Arnoldas Abramavičius, Vice-Minister of the Interior, Lithuania, Mahmut Özdemir, Parliamentary State Secretary, Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, Germany will discuss the broader ramifications of the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
ICMPD's Director General, Michael Spindelegger, says that: “Today, we experience perhaps the most challenging times since the end of the Second World War, in terms of the geopolitical situation but also in terms of migration, flight, and displacement. Our world faces several crises that interact with increasing velocity and severe impact, a situation that is often described as a state of `global polycrisis´. Regardless of the term, we want to use, we cannot avoid a basic conclusion: The crisis is real, and the challenges are huge.”
Other sessions across the two-day conference will feature discussions around issues that directly impact migratory patterns and flows. The Vienna Migration Conference will retain its core focus: to assess the geopolitics of migration, including major problem areas between key players, dynamics along key migration routes to Europe, new EU policy developments, and sustainable migration partnerships.
Guests who have not been invited to attend the conference in-person must register online to access the live stream of sessions: https://vienna-migration-conference.org/.
For more information, please contact:
Bernhard Schragl
Spokesperson, Communication and Media Coordinator
ICMPD
Tel: +43 1 504 4677 2444
bernhard.schragl@icmpd.org