The Foreign Service Journal, June 2019

24 JUNE 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL More Front Office Attention Is Required Visa adjudication is migration’s human face. Anyone who has worked a visa line knows about compelling ties, reciproc- ity, asylum-seeking and family unification. Migration policy, however, is the multilateral big picture. In Washington, we work an interagency process grounded in national interest and domestic politics but constrained by treaties and histori- cal practice. Critical multilateral discussions on migration policy in Geneva all too often pass under the State Depart- ment’s seventh-floor radar. This needs to change. Given the importance of migration to America, the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration needs more positive attention from the Secretary of State. Foreign Service personnel need more migration policy training from A-100 through the Senior Executive Threshold Seminar. In 27 years as an FSO, I found migration policy train- ing grossly inadequate. Migration should not remain just an expert’s issue for a functional bureau, although that functional bureau’s expertise is critical. That said, every FSO should recognize migration’s centrality to what we diplomats do. Mis- sions should elevate migration issues in reporting plans. We need to get more aggressive at promoting refugee resettlement in nontraditional destination countries. Programs should assist regional refugee integration. We need robust dialogue in Geneva on all elements of migration and refugee policy. Nothing should be off the table as long as we remain committed to the principle that legiti- mate asylum-seekers fleeing state persecution shall not be turned away. This is a difficult challenge. As diplomats, we can keep the discussion disciplined by identifying and promoting responsible dissemination of best practices, while remaining sharply observant about systemic problems. This is a policy issue best informed by good data. Information matters. As ever more people move from one place to another, it behooves us to monitor, manage and ameliorate the condi- tions of planetary migration. n In the face of historically unprecedented levels of immigration, Europe is testing the frontiers of multiculturalism.