"International Migrations: a Global Issue" Catherine de Wenden, CNRS research director: CERI - Sciences Po. -International migration governance is an issue for today and for the future as international migration governance would require experimenting with a multilateral process of international management involving very diverse actors with equally diverse interests regarding migrations. It would aim at defining a correct mobility based on rules and standards imposed on the states regarding their migration policies since it was observed that negative effects arose from the various migration policies led throughout the world. The idea came from major international organizations based in Geneva, such as the High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migrations, the Red Cross, the ICMC, the International Catholic Migration Commission, the International Labor Organization and a few others. They started meeting up and these gatherings formed what was called the Berne Initiative in 2001. Kofi Annan, who was a great supporter of multilateralism as a way of managing international issues, became interested in this initiative and turned the Geneva Migration Group, since the organizations were based in Geneva, into the Global Migration Group. He also created a Global Forum on Migration and Development to try and show that we cannot separate migration and development. First, he created the forum in 2004, and instituted fourteen international organizations which instigated the forum. Then he created a High-level Dialogue to follow through on the process, parallel to the major UN conferences, in 2006 and a second one in 2013. Two High-level Dialogues have taken place. The aim was to turn the issue of migration into a fully international issue even though it was only alluded to during the first international UN Conference on Population in Cairo and during the Conference on Women which took place in China. The subject was also broached during the Durban UN World Conference against Discrimination. The aim would be to successfully hold an international UN conference on migration, which has not happened yet. Migrations are not even discussed during the G8 or G20. It was mentioned for the first time during the G7 summit in Ankara, since it took place at the heart of the Syrian crisis. However today the issue of migration is still somewhat illegitimate in international relations. The forums met every year to take stock of the most crucial issues related to migrations in connection with the regions where the forums were taking place. Who takes part in these forums? Host states and departure states sit together at the table, on the one hand and on the other hand, a civil society forum gathers international organizations, NGOs, associations promoting migrants' rights, human rights, development, as well as unions, employers' organizations, churches, lobbies promoting the rights of refugees or undocumented migrants. The civil society represents a lot of people with opposite interests, but with a common goal: to define and support mobility so that it becomes a global public good which does not harm anyone. It also aims for a triple win, for migrants, for the host countries and for the departure countries. The first forum took place in Brussels in 2007. The main goal was to avoid a hierarchy of rights between migrants and ensure the equality of rights, especially in Europe, between Europeans and non Europeans, regarding social rights and the right to work. During the Manila forum the following year, the notion of decent work was discussed in connection to women. Then the following year, in Athens, migrations were discussed with a Southern Mediterranean perspective. Then in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico, the subject was partnerships for development in connection with fund transfers since Mexicans are the nationality who sends the most money back to their home country. Fund transfers represents 420 billion dollars sent every year by migrants to their home country, this is the figure for 2015, three times the amount of official development assistance. Another, smaller forum took place the following year in Geneva. In Mauritius, the main topic was African issues, especially transmigrations, mixed flows, etc. In Stockholm, European issues were tackled again. The latest Global Forum on Migration and Development took place during the fall of 2015 in Istanbul, where the topic was the Syrian crisis. After this forum, the G7 discussed migration issues for the first time in Ankara in the following months. So the aim of this Global Forum is really to put multilateralism in place as an operating rule, with a sort of migration Bretton Woods system being imposed on the states.