On the occasion of 2019 International Migrants’ Day, SOLIDAR calls for driving the discourse on migration towards a more humanitarian and human-driven approach. We ask the European Commission to consider migration as a humanitarian matter, more than a security problem.

People migrating to Europe are fleeing conditions that risk their lives. We need to welcome them in our society, considering firstly their fundamental rights and their dignity. Through this statement SOLIDAR network also calls for ending the “securitisation-driven” approach, that has led the European Union to neglect the creation of common integration policies that promote education, employment inclusion and social inclusion: policies based on the principle of fairness and effective both in the short and medium term.

In addition, there is a need to boost social investments (from education to civic engagement, from the recognition of qualifications and skills validation to training courses, from access to labour rights, from healthcare system to housing) showing that social investments can better support the social integration of newcomers, and contribute to building more cohesive societies.