 Words are the most precious things we have. We've been using them pretty appallingly of late, creating a world in which people are testigated merely for trying to get their families out of the way of falling bombs. Where chasing your dream has become a nightmarish navigation of insults and abuse. Attempts to ameliorate, placate, and find a more inclusive, tolerant world are met with disdain and distrust. The message to migrants is clear. You are not welcome. Does it have to be thus? My long career has taught me that iconic moments like the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of apartheid, peace in the Balkans, are slow and incremental in coming. They may appear to race up to us and be a moment in history, but in actual fact, they were years in the making. That is my hope for the high-level meeting on refugees and migrants on 19 September. The head of this meeting comes the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit to be held in Istanbul in two weeks' time, where there will be a special focus on migration. I don't believe there will be an epic outcome in Istanbul, but I do know that the millions of words that are spoken there, the dialogue we create and sustain, can open new avenues, change our direction, or keep us on steady courses. We must hold firm to what is working. We must also find new ways to remedy what is not working, that put millions on journeys that are not of their own making. Migrants are the most determined and driven people you will ever meet. Migrants stimulate demand. They bring new skills and services. Yes, migrants actually create jobs. Remittances from migrants total much more than all overseas development assistance combined. One in seven of us is a migrant. So we need to keep talking about migrants and two migrants face-to-face. We have the tools now to investigate, to analyze, and to predict as never before. Migration isn't a problem. It may be a challenge, it may be the biggest challenge we face as a human race, but it's also in itself a solution. Migration is humanity's oldest and time-trusted coping strategy. I'm William Lacey Swing, Director General of the International Organization for Migration, IOM.