German G20 Presidency – MEDAM Researchers Participating in the T20 Process

MEDAM researchers will participate in the T20 Process accompanying the German G20 Presidency.

One of several task forces, the T20 Task Force on Forced Migration (TFFM) brings together Think Tank scholars from a diverse range of countries and disciplines striving to equip G20 leaders with innovative and implementable policy options.

Co-chaired by the Kiel Institute, TFFM aims at stimulating debate and providing dispassionate, evidence-based policy advice to the G20 Leaders and other global and national decision makers on how to empower forced migrants, who often spend many years in their country of asylum, to lead productive lives until they eventually return home or remain abroad for good.

Much of the debate and media attention in the EU as well as existing international processes and global concerted efforts have focused on humanitarian questions, the nexus between migration and development policies, and challenges related to European host and transit countries. Less attention has been paid to the economic dimensions of the presence of a large number of refugees in a few host countries. Only recently has the focus shifted to host countries outside the EU and to developing and emerging countries in particular.

The task force will listen to voices from countries – whether in the G20 or not – that host large numbers of refugees, and seek to complement and build on existing international efforts related to forcibly displaced persons, such as the UN Summit, the Global Migration Group, the Global Forum on Migration and Development, the World Bank’s response and other relevant processes.

The political and economic challenges related to forcibly displaced persons, in particular in the context of the Syrian crisis, are high on the agenda in countries of first asylum, transit, and final destination alike.