Migration Policy Practice is a bimonthly journal published jointly by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Eurasylum Ltd. It contains articles from, and is overseen by, senior officials in government, the European Union and international organizations, as well as civil society worldwide, working in the field of migration policy.

This new issue of Migration Policy Practice reviews a range of policy areas, including migration and development, migration and climate change, assisted voluntary return and issues of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Haiti.

The first two articles, by Ambassador Eva Åkerman Börje and by Anna Knoll and Niels Keijzer, discuss a number of current issues in migration and development policy. Ambassador Eva Åkerman Börje, Chair of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), outlines Sweden’s priorities and proposals for the coming 18 months of the GFMD Chairmanship. Anna Knoll and Niels Keijzer discuss the current deliberations on a possible post-2015 global development framework, and explore the question of how migration could feature in such a framework.

The third article, by Daria Mokhnacheva, Sieun Lee and Dina Ionesco, provides an overview of the role of migration policy in the context of climate change negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) framework for climate change adaptation. 

It also examines developments at the eighteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 18), held in Doha in 2012, in relation to ‘loss and damage’ issues; and explains how the inclusion of migration matters in loss and damage raises challenges to and creates opportunities for advancing migration on the overall international climate change agenda.

The fourth article, by Liam Coakley, explores how asylum-seekers currently registered in Ireland’s ‘direct provision’ system feel about the prospect of assisted voluntary return to their country of origin. One of the article’s recommendations is that organizations active in the field of voluntary return should invest more time in trying to understand how asylum-seekers remember and imagine their ‘home’; how migrants construct allegiances while in their host country; and the importance of community-based allegiances with fellow migrants.

The last article, by Amy Rhoades and Leonard Doyle, discusses the outcomes of Project 16 Neighbourhoods/6 Camps in Haiti. This project, which began in October 2011 and is being implemented by IOM, the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Office for Project Services and the United Nations Development Programme, under the guidance of the Government of Haiti, is a pilot scheme focused on giving rental subsidies to IDP families to facilitate the voluntary emptying of six large tent camps in Port-au-Prince and the return of IDPs to their 16 neighbourhoods of origin.

Should you wish to contribute an article for a future issue of this journal, please contact Solon Ardittis (sardittis@eurasylum.org) and Frank Laczko (flaczko@iom.int).