Consultation on youth migration

In light of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Public Stance on Immigration, we want you to know about this opportunity to influence a migration meeting at the UN in September.

The Global Youth Action Network (GYAN) is organizing a 2-week online consultation on youth migration in preparation for the High-Level Dialogue (HLD) on migration at the UN Headquarters in September. GYAN has been criticized for primarily having contact with youth that have access to the internet and related technologies as well as being in favor of “main-stream” development models that would support the growth of such technology. If Mercy has any way of communicating/facilitating the voices and thoughts of youth who do not have access to technology it would be a great contribution to the overall input being solicited. The HLD’s are being criticized for not including under-resourced people/at risk migrants as participants.

The objectives of the consultation are to create a dialogue on how migration affects the lives of young people, and to develop policy recommendations and partnership proposals that can feed into the HLD’s. The Global Youth Action Network would appreciate your contributions and/or your help in sending this information out to people who might be interested in participating.

Please sign-up by August 20th. The consultation will start on August 21st, and there will be simultaneous English and Spanish consultations. You can subscribe by sending a blank email to youthmigration-subscribe@groups.takingitglobal.org (English) or migracion-subscribe@takingitglobal.org (Spanish). For more information, please visit http://groups.takingitglobal.org/youthmigration or http://groups.takingitglobal.org/migracion.

BACKGROUND

Click http://www.mercyworld.org/projects/mgc/2006/brief-2_060807.asp to read about the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas and Mercy Global Concern involvement with trying to influence the September U.N. High-Level Dialogues to uphold the human rights of migrants and address root causes of international migration such as imbalanced trade agreements.

NB: 30% of migrants are believed to be youth.

“We recognize an urgent duty and challenge to stand in solidarity with immigrants seeking fullness of life.”

Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, Public Stance June 2005

kkelleher@sistersofmercy.org

Institute Justice Team
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas
8380 Colesville Rd, Suite 300
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Ph. 301.587.0423, ext 2249
Fx. 301.587.0533