'Search for better life triggers migration'

Ambassador Lacy Swing, director general of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) was addressing a global meeting of regional consultative processes on migration at a meeting in Phakalane yesterday. He said that if all the migrants were to join hands and make their own country, they would make the third largest country in the world after China and India. He said migration is here to stay and cannot be avoided.

Swing said that Internet connectivity has also contributed to the large-scale migration taking place worldwide. He said that by 2000, there were about 300 million users while now the figures have shot to two billion people. The director general said one can know via the Internet what is happening anytime anywhere and decide to go there to search for opportunities.