The conference was held 9 December 2020.

Of special concern for this webinar is the New Pact of Migration and Asylum (external website)’s aim to give renewed impetus to the external dimension of the EU’s migration policy by further strengthening its cooperation and work with partners. The EU can best tackle the challenges arising from migration and forced displacement by fostering tailor-made and balanced partnerships with countries of origin, transit and destination.

The EMN is committed to help address the challenges of sustainability in today’s asylum and migration system, by bringing together EU and third country experts and leaders and stimulating discussion and debate. Professors Alexander Betts and Paul Collier have contributed significantly to EMN’s earlier roundtables on sustainable migration – see their paper ‘Sustainable Migration Framework for responding to movements from poor to rich countries’. They are key note speakers in this concluding Roundtable of the sustainable migration series, hosted by EMN Norway and the Commission.

The aim of the Roundtable is to highlight the situation in countries of origin - specifically African countries - in the context of the whole of the migration ‘chain’ from countries of origin to countries of destination. By bringing together policymakers, researchers and practitioners, representing different sectors and perspectives, we wish to contribute to a better understanding for what sustainable migration means and and thus deliver food for thought on how to design sustainable migration policies which work both in a European but also a third country context.

Practical information

The roundtable was held under Chatham House Rules and was open to policymakers, researchers and practitioners with a direct experience in this topic. 

Agenda (pdf, 740 kB)

Short background (pdf, 119 kB)

Practical information for attendees (pdf, 92 kB)

Chatman House Rule (pdf, 54 kB)

Briefing paper (external website)