Cairo, 23 November 2016  - IOM has launched a social media campaign, ‘A Day Without Migrants,’ in partnership with the Egyptian award-winning click-funding innovators Bassita, to highlight the real and positive impacts that migrants have on the communities that host them.

The campaign, launched yesterday (21/11), seeks to start dialogue about the impact of migration that is centered on evidence and facts rather than propaganda. It also aims to highlight the importance of migration equally for the benefit of the migrants, the countries of origin and the countries of destination.

The campaign is part of IOM’s global ‘I am a migrant’ campaign that aims to fight anti-migrant xenophobia by challenging anti-migrant stereotypes and hate speech in politics and society.

“While the rhetoric about migrants in the West has been increasingly negative in recent years, in reality there is overwhelming evidence that migrants are crucial to the fabric of modern society and make valuable contributions to their host countries,” said IOM Egypt Head of Office Amr Taha.

Between 2010 and 2100 Europe’s population is projected to decline by a little more than 100 million (13.7 percent), 31 million in the first 40 years (4.2 percent) and 70 million between 2050 and 2100, according to UNDESA.

The European Union (EU), whose population represents more than two thirds of the total population of Europe, faces a demographic time bomb, which will significantly impact its labour market, as well as its overall economic growth.

According to unpublished IOM research, over the next 15 years, the EU will need around two million migrants per year. At the same time Middle East and North African (MENA) countries, notably Egypt, will experience a structural excess of labour, as economic growth rates are unable to generate sufficient demand to absorb new labour market entrants. This will limit economic growth on both sides of the Mediterranean, risking increased poverty and social unrest in the southern Mediterranean countries.

The “A Day without Migrants” campaign is part of the “Developing Capacities for Forecasting and Planning Migration across the Mediterranean” project funded by IOM’s Development Fund and implemented by IOM Egypt. The project aims to support Egypt to better plan for and maximise the potential of demand-driven migration.

Currently, IOM Egypt is supporting the country’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics to forecast labour market shortages and surpluses in Egypt, and as well as other potential destination countries, to support the government in its implementation of evidence-based migration policies promoting the mobility of its citizens.

For further information, please contact Teuta Grazhdani at IOM Egypt. Tel: +202-27365140, Email: iomegypt@iom.int