 Welcome again to A World on the Move, the program where we enter into the important issues of refugees and migrants. The UN summit has been looking at these really important issues for the first time. So the issue of migration is now center stage before the international community. And today, again, we have refugees and migrants from around the world, really interesting characters. And we have a great pleasure to have with me the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Jan Ellison. We're going to look today at the issues of what it's like to be a refugee or a migrant in another country. What are the issues of integration that are important? And why is xenophobia and the politics of identity so colouring our contemporary politics? Over to you. Thank you very much. I'm glad to join you. This is a very important meeting that we finally put migration and refugee flows on the top of the UN agenda with a quarter of a billion people, our international migrants, living and working in places where they are not born. And I think if we don't have a global outlook on this and find the work, base our work both on efficiency and solidarity, I think we will be in deep trouble. And I really enjoy this being with you and having the human perspective on migration and migrants' lives. So this is an important occasion for us to also bring out the message to the world that the UN cares about migration and refugee flows. So let's at this stage, maybe we'll turn to Afsun who has a really interesting profile because she's of Iranian origin and left the country as a three-year-old smuggled in the back of a car into Pakistan. But now you live and work in Canada, which is a particularly interesting place when it comes to integration because as we know we've accepted a vast number of refugees this year and the country is particularly open to creating opportunities for migrants. Perhaps you could talk to us Afsun a little bit about your personal experience. Yes, thank you for having me. I just on a personal note, Mr. Elias, and I want to say what an honor it is for me to speak with you because as Leonard mentioned, I was born in Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war and that war and the revolution that preceded it have defined the course of my life from the very day that I was born when my mother risked not having access to a hospital because of the strikes. And I know that at that same time, you and your team were working very hard to end the war and for that I want to thank you. Thank you very much. My comments today, I have reflected a great deal on what has caused my experience to be a positive and empowering one and it has to do with the role of citizens in the receiving population I'll give you an example of when I was five years old, a moment I will never forget I was told we're going to a church and someone called St. Nicholas is going to be there and I remember sitting in something like the 10th row and watching the kids in front of me and this man in a red suit coming out on stage and calling out the names of the kids and giving them gifts and I sat there horrified and so sad because I thought St. Nicholas doesn't know me, he doesn't know I'm here, he doesn't know my name I'm not going to get a gift and all the other kids were so happy and I was just sitting there like practically in tears and then all of a sudden I hear, Afsoon, and you cannot believe I mean I will never forget this moment and I just jumped up and ran to the stage and got the pencil crayons and ran back to my parents and who was sitting next to them, my parents' English teacher and later I realized my parents' English teacher had sat down and explained this is Christmas and we're going to go to church and we're going to say prayers and this is St. Nicholas and then three months later when it was no ruse then we invited her to our house and said this is our half scene and we eat rice with fish and these are our customs and that exchange and the friendship that formed is pivotal because it had a profound effect on both sides it had an effect on the people that surrounded us because they saw us as people who could make a contribution to their community and so they told their friends about it and their friends told their friends about it and this is how a positive story, a positive narrative was born and so I know that you've talked about the need for funding to meet the needs of newcomers and you've talked about the beauty of diversity and the need to promote an understanding of it it's not only that, that direct contact also helps people learn the language organically it helps people make connections that are essential for employment it helps create mentorship that people need for educational opportunities Thank you very much, it's remarkable to sit here in 2016 and see you being a child when I was mediating in the war between Iran and Iraq and we had this conversation I think it's very important that we recognize that in today's world the world exists in our own countries and our nation states are also part of the world I spoke at the National Day in Sweden, my home country, 2014 and I said, remember, the world is, Sweden is in the world and I was reminding of names like Doug Hammerscheld former Secretary General Daul of Palma, the champion for peace and also mediator in Iran and Iraq and then I said, remember also, that the world is in Sweden Sweden is the world, but the world is in Sweden in today's world we have also the world inside our countries and my view is that those countries who recognize that will be the stronger countries in the longer run and that means that we have to work on attitudes and look at the mutual benefit of having this conversation I don't say that it's an easy process that would be wrong because a country that is well organized and suddenly you have an influx of great numbers or if it is not easy, but we should understand that as a challenge not as a problem in Paris, there is enormous potential and promise in this bringing the world into our own countries so I think we are at a historic stage where we must have a concept of this nature that I just described but also put it on the human level and make sure that you have this exchange between people like we just heard from your wonderful experience in Canada and by the way, I am personally going to be Santa Claus in Sweden on the 24th of December that's one of the main reasons that I will have to leave before the end of my term So I was born in Liberia but I grew up in Guinea Liberia and Sierra Leone as a child escaping different conflicts actually in 1992 my parents had the opportunity for us to come to the UK but we chose to go back and help with rescuing people who had been stuck in different countries during the conflict help them go back into education, help them secure employment and help them to raise their aspirations with the right investment and support they would be able to make better contributions to their communities I think with migration I split my time between Sierra Leone and the UK where I work in both places and sometimes in Sierra Leone the way I say things, the way I hear people think I have become too British and sometimes they want to be in the UK and I interact with people my African and Sierra Leone side still comes up but there are things from both cultures that I learn that I bring together and that enables me to be able to contribute to life and community in the UK and in Sierra Leone Well thank you very much I think first of all it's great that you work with schools that you work with education the best investment in the future I saw the statistics coming out of Syria before the war 94% of the children went to school now during the conflict it's gone down to 60 and I think that's even a little bit higher than the realities on the ground and the conditions under which they work and then secondly I was thinking when you spoke about your being seen as British when you were in Sierra Leone that I think we should get used to looking at the word identity and come to the realization that that is a much better word in plural we have several identities you should not lose your roots in Liberia but now you have been educated in UK you are a bridge between two countries two cultures, two traditions and I would say that you who represent that bridge actually have a bit of a richer background than many of us and I think that is so important now that we use the power of the diaspora people who have moved into our countries with sometimes extremely high difficulties and then succeeded that they should be also the bridge to their original countries I think there is a tremendous dynamics in this and you can be also playing a similar role back in the UK bringing your experience from Liberia to the UK so I just say that this dynamics that is coming from the migration hasn't quite been discovered and detected we need to do that in today's world where there is so much manipulation of fear and the outside and those who come in and it's used in this strategy of fear which is coming from extremist groups and we have now to mobilize the good forces we have to mobilize the good forces and the good forces are those who deal with the outside world as a reality how we are all enriched by diversity I was a 12-year-old boy when the military coup came in Chile and arrested my father and I was a displaced child at that time what I'm listening to you what I hear is that the possibilities of migration what motivates migrants to improve their life one of them is the aspiration to continue dreaming in 2013 half of the new patents registered in the US were registered by migrants or refugees to the United States that shows an incredibly amount of driving force motivation, inspiration by migrants we have the will we have survived something we have changed something to contribute in these new societies Well I think you made some very important points to be really global citizens need to take in the world and see this as a resource and not as a burden as many unfortunately political forces now try to do so I'm just the first one to agree with you fully and I know also I can't refrain from saying how much I have enjoyed my Chilean friends in Sweden those whom we helped out in 1973 thanks to our great ambassador Edelstam in Chile but also with Prime Minister Palma and us who were really working on the barricades and these conversations I've had with you have been truly enriching and inspired me for the meeting and its continuation above all and confirmed that we are on the right track with this work both on migration refugees and fighting xenophobia so thank you to all of you So it's been a great pleasure to have you with us today and let me also say how happy I am to see IOM becoming part of the UN family it's about time and I think also it sends the message that migration indeed is truly a central part of the new global landscape