It's easy for migrants to be victimised or used as scapegoats during economic crises
GENEVA (AlertNet) - Migration is one of the defining features of today's world, yet it is still one of the most misunderstood issues of our time, the International Organization of Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.
The organisation called for a fundamental change in the way migration is discussed, saying the current biased and polarized debate fuels negative stereotypes of migrants and racist attitudes towards them.
The problem has been exacerbated during the current global economic crisis, with migrants often blamed for a lack of jobs in host countries. Discrimination and xenophobia have recently resurfaced in many parts of the world, IOM said.
"There is a fair amount of ambivalence about migrants especially in time of economic distress," Gervais Appave, special policy adviser to IOM's director general, said.
"It is easy for migrants to be victimised or used as scapegoats," he told a news briefing in Geneva.
According to IOM's World Migration Report, people in host countries tend to overestimate the real scale of migration.
For example, migrants in Italy made up about 7 percent of the total population last year, yet polls showed the public believed the number to be around 25 percent.
In 2010, polls in the United States showed the public thought the number of migrants in the population was 39 percent, when the actual number was 14 percent.
Appave said public opinion and perceptions about migration varied significantly between countries and within countries.
"Perceptions, attitudes are very much influenced by the status of the migrant, whether he is undocumented or documented, regular or irregular. They are also heavily influenced by economic and labour conditions and the level of unemployment," he said.
"Even in countries of origin, attitudes are mixed."
The report highlighted the importance of interacting with migrants to dispel some of the negative perceptions of them.
A 2009 survey in Germany showed 65 percent of its young people had more positive attitudes towards migration because they regularly interact with them.
"Whilst honest and balanced media reporting is paramount to foster a more enlightened debate on migration, migrants must find their voices to tell their own stories," IOM Director General William Lacy Swing said in a statement.
"All too often perceived as passive, helpless and marginalized individuals, migrants would be seen for what they are: shapers of their own destiny."
(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva)
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