At the 30th session of the Commission on Population and Development during February 24-28, 1997, international migration was the main topic, with special linkages between migration and development and on gender issues and the family. New and emerging issues were also considered. Members stressed the need for more reliable data on migration, the direction of migrants flows, and the characteristics of migrants. The Commission requested a task force on basic social services to hold a technical symposium of experts on international migration in 1998. Its chair, Dr. Nafis Sadik, said that migration issues should based on the reality of choice not on coercive measures or quotas. Almost half of the migrants globally are women. The Commission was given a new impetus by the International Conference on Population and Development held at Cairo in 1994. Migration pressures intensified in the second half of the 1980s and in the early 1990s, creating areas of concern: the negative impact of short-term migration on working conditions in host countries; migration pressures emanating from climatic change; the protection of migrant women and their children; the right of receiving countries to regulate access to their territory; the adverse consequences of forced migration; the situation of persons whose asylum claims have been rejected; the trafficking in women and children, prostitution and coercive adoption; and the sudden and massive arrival of refugees in need of international protection. The 1998 session of the Commission will feature the theme of health and mortality, with special emphasis on the linkages between health and development and on gender and age.

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economics population social policy demography Population Dynamics policy organization human rights Travel And Tourism Behavior Article Conferences And Congresses Congresses migration international migration Demographic Factors Emigration and Immigration Economic Factors public policy Macroeconomic Factors Migration Policy Population Policy