 Your Excellency, Mahamudha Bhavumya, Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, Your Excellency, Perius Somala Chaudhuri, Finnish Ambassador, and Excellency Professor Ernest Arijiti, President of Arua. Distinguished colleagues from all around the world, ladies and gentlemen, a very good morning to everybody, and welcome to this conference. I'm very pleased, on behalf of UNIWIDER, to welcome you all to this international conference on migration and mobility, new frontiers for research and policy organized jointly by UNIWIDER and Arua. Migration and mobility are key facets of our increasingly globalized world. According to recent UNDESA population division projections, international migration is likely to increase in the coming years and has done so for decades. Issues of migration and mobility have also been extremely contentious in recent years, and the refugee crisis sparked not least by the Syrian War has shown that policies governing international migrations are in a tangle. New issues are often bundled together in the public debate, and it can be difficult to disentangle the various elements of the mix. This is not helpful neither from a policy nor from a research perspective. I'm covering some of the key facts on international and internal migrations both voluntary and forced can help us understand the issues currently at hand. What are the frontiers in research on migration in economics and beyond? And how can this inform policy? This is what we will try to consider in this conference. Migration, mobility and development are closely linked. This is one of UNDESA's attempt at addressing migration issues explicitly. And many of the topics that we will be addressing the next two days are basically very closely linked to the five-year UNDESA program on transformation, inclusion and sustainability. Through the course of two keynote addresses and 18 parallel sessions, we will explore diverse perspectives and themes, a long list of the various ways of looking at migration and mobility. And I'm really pleased that we've been able, with your good interaction, your willingness to come and engage with us an exciting program. The volume of south-thousand migration is actually higher than south-north migration, a fact that is often overlooked, at least in Europe. We will therefore focus in this conference on south-thousand migration and the African region, while also drawing on other countries and regional experiences. We will return in the final climate recession to how research meets policy and address what insights research can offer for policy. What questions remain unanswered, and we urge you all to keep these questions in mind over the next two days, such that the final plenary can hopefully come up with some clear and practical guide for the future. I'm especially pleased to host this conference in collaboration with Arua. Arua's mandate to support local research excellence, to find solutions to African Americans' development problems, is one we at UNU-Wider wholeheartedly endorse. Supporting local research capacity is a priority for structural transformation on the continent. As many of you know, Arua's founding Secretary-General Ernest Ariti is also a long-time friend of UNU-Wider and the former head of the Wider Board. He used to be my boss. I'm also pleased to see so many researchers from Arua affiliated institutions and beyond participating in this conference having accepted our invitation. Finally, it's extremely good to be back here in Ghana and at ISSA. For the past several years, UNU-Wider has supported the University of Ghana in offering a PhD program in Development Economics, and you will find some of the information sheets around. Many of the current students in that program are here today, some lending at hand with conference coordination and some serving as discussants in the poster session. I am really happy to see you all here. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, when come all and thank you for joining us. I look forward to our deliberations over the next two days in the usual UNU-Wider way, frank, respectful and informed debate. Thank you very much. I welcome you all.