Migration and Sustainable Development: Migration Framing, an Impediment to Wholesome Inclusion to a Sustainable Future

Abstract

The coincidental events of the SDGs 2030 Agenda; a universal action for people, planet, and prosperity, taking place in the same year 2015 of the great migrants’ tsunami may not have favored the conceptualization of immigration in the SDGs 2030 Agenda. Actors comprising politicians, academics, civil societies, and agencies within the framework of the European Union gave their voices, framing the migrant influx. Most voices conceptualized migration as a one-way contributor to development benefitting only source countries. The transformational characteristics of immigrants as influencing development and growth are silent in the SDGs 2030 agenda. This skewed framing is a hindrance to harnessing the opportunities presented by immigration as an active agent of transformation both to receiving and sending countries. Europe in addressing her demographic challenges has moved to the admittance of skilled migrants either for study or work purposes. Through a cluster survey of immigrant students in Hungary conducted for this study, a deduction is made to the effect that migrants are settling in host countries, moving ahead to other destinations, and going back to their origin countries. The sooner the UN can understand this, and partner with the infantry on the move by way of enlightenment, the quicker it can harness the gains of immigration to the 2030 SDGs agenda.