New York City, US launched a municipal program in 2019 to expand universal health care so that regardless of insurance, ability to pay, or immigration status all residents can seek services without fear of discrimination. Having established this program prior to COVID-19 was critical to the city’s ability to respond rapidly and inclusively when the pandemic hit
International initiatives such as the Call to Action: “Remittances in Crisis: How to Keep Them Flowing”, launched by Switzerland and the United Kingdom in May 2020, have also contributed to leveraging remittances and other migration-related financial flows to assist local COVID-19 response and recovery interventions.
Municipalities across the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina hired migrants from Venezuela with professional medical degrees that had not yet been revalidated by the national government. Some 4,500 doctors, nurses, and other health professionals were hired.
The City of Milan adopted a two-pronged approach to tackle the needs of their residents resulting from the health, economic, and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. They worked to ensure equal access to services for all, including migrants and refugees, while also providing complementary services to address the needs of particular communities.
The city of Milan partnered with a non-profit agency, EMERGENCY to provide COVID-19 health monitoring in shelters for homeless people and unaccompanied migrant youth.
The Municipality of Lampedusa and Linosa in Italy provided Quarantine Ships for the migrants arriving in Lampedusa during the pandemic and activated a COVID-19 area in the reception center to ensure access to testing and health services to migrants upon arrival.
The Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees (GCF) responds to the unmet needs of cities as they support migrants, refugees, and internally displaced people in the face of pressing challenges, from global pandemics to the climate crisis. By directly funding cities to implement inclusive programs of their own design, the GCF:
In accordance with the local development plan, in 2020, the city government of Barranquilla (Colombia) created the Local Integration Centre for Migrants (CILM, for its Spanish acronym), which provides orientation, referrals, and support to Venezuelan refugees and migrants, as well as Colombian returnees from Venezuela, to grant them access to procedures and services.
The main objectives are three:
This project intended to experiment and test the Global Skills Partnership (GSP) model between Morocco and Belgium, and thereby facilitate the cooperation between the two countries in the management of regular migration.
The U.S. government is committed to ensuring high labor standards, bringing workers' voices to the decision-making table, and enforcing rules against unfair labor practices – not just at home, but around the world. That is why President Biden launched the Presidential Memorandum on Advancing Worker Empowerment, Rights, and High Labor Standards Globally, the first whole-of-government approach to advance workers’ rights by directing departments and agencies to elevate labor rights in their work abroad.
The Presidential Memorandum on Global Labor Rights helps to:
The Global Programme “Shaping development-oriented migration” (MEG) assists partner countries in leveraging the benefits of regular migration and engaging diaspora for sustainable development.
Working on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the MEG is active in up to 15 partner countries around the globe. It contributes towards implementing the GCM and is part of a comprehensive approach to migration and development. The MEG contributes to the following objectives: