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UN DESA’s Assistant-Secretary-General Thomas Gass called today for strengthening migration data to better understand migrants’ contribution to social and economic development.

“Only by placing a high priority on improving migration data will countries be able to develop evidence?based policies (…) and to shift the current toxic narrative on international migration,” said Gass at a meeting that is laying the foundations for .

The vast and diverse contributions that migrants and diaspora make to sustainable development are in the spotlight at this week’s thematic consultations of the General Assembly.

According to UN DESA’s 2017 Revision of the World Population Prospects, launched last month, there was an average net inflow of 3.2 million migrants per year to high-income countries between 2010?and?2015.

In 2015 alone, migrants from developing countries sent $432 billion back home – more than three times the amount that rich countries disbursed as official development assistance in that year.

These remittances help the families of migrants to send children to school, pay for medical care, save for the future and launch new business initiatives.

Developed countries also reap enormous benefits from people on the move. In 2015, there – persons living in countries other than where they were born – nearly three quarters of them were of working age (177 million). Migrants contribute their skills and knowledge to fill gaps in the labour markets of developed countries with ageing populations.

In addition to boosting the economy, migrants also help create a more dynamic and innovative society in their host countries. In the US, for example, of employees in the science, technology, engineering and math sector are foreign-born.

However, data showing the contributions of migrants to host countries are sorely lacking, making it difficult in many countries to cite examples such as these. The resulting lack of awareness allows xenophobic and racist narratives to take hold.

“This [lack of knowledge] must be reversed so that policy is evidence-based and not perception-driven. Policies responding to false perceptions reinforce the apparent validity of these erroneous stereotypes and make recourse to proper policies that much harder,” said Louise Arbour, UN Special Representative for International Migration.

One of the best ways of fighting the false statements and accusations is to provide better proof of immigrants’ positive contributions to host economies and societies.

“To seize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity presented by the global compact, the outcome document should include a ?Global Action Plan for Migration Data?,” said Thomas Gass in his statement.

The consultation on migrants’ contributions to sustainable development, which is the fourth in a series of six thematic consultations held by the General Assembly this year, will run through Tuesday. On Wednesday 26 July, the President of the General Assembly will convene the first multi-stakeholder hearing on the migration compact with civil society, the private sector and academia.

You?can follow these events live at and join the conversation by using #ForMigration.