The President of the Government, Carlos César, will preside over the Opening Session of the 16th International Metropolis Conference, which will be held tomorrow at the Teatro Micaelense in Ponta Delgada.

The Metropolis Conference, the most important event in the area of migrations, “was created to discuss and bring together research, policies and practices on migration and diversity. This event, which takes place until September 15, will be attended by over 600 experts from 80 countries, placing the Azores and the city of Ponta Delgada in the epicentre of the debate and reflection on the future of migrations at an international level. 

For the Regional Secretary of the Presidency, this International Conference “is the result of a successful effort undertaken by the Government since there is no tradition of organising this event outside of the major European and world capitals, which has taken places in cities like Washington, Berlin or The Hague.”

André Bradford stressed that “The Government of the Azores has developed an intensive work among the organisation of Metropolis to demonstrate and convince that the Azores were able to organise an event of great relevance,” adding that, “our Region provides an essential contribute, not only for its geostrategic location, but also in the area of migration as the Azores have a tradition of public policies whose importance should be addressed in this type of conferences.”

The government official highlighted the “peculiarity of migratory traditions” that historically, as he said, characterise the Azorean people “as a people who migrated in successive waves, for various reasons, to the American continent, particularly to the USA and Canada.”

André Bradford demonstrates the fact that emigration traditions “are deeply embedded in the essence of being Azorean and this has helped the organising committee deciding that the Azores was the ideal place for hosting the 16th International Metropolis Conference.”

According to André Bradford, the Azores will participate in the works of Metropolis, stressing two main aspects: “to show, on the one hand, what we have done for decades in terms of migration policies, particularly with regard to emigrants,” adding that we “have good examples” in this area, such as the: “the network of Houses of the Azores, which is something I think that does not exist in other parts of the world, and the way we have provided our responses to the multiplicity of challenges posed by the problem of emigration.”

On the other hand, the second aspect highlighted by André Bradford concerns the Azores’ interest to discuss “the new challenges for decision-makers and for those who have to scientifically analyse these questions in order to help deciding the relation of new technologies with migrations; the issues related to new forms of mobility and migration process,” concluded the Regional Secretary.

The Conference will be held under the theme 2the Future of Migrations: Perspectives on global changes.” This forum will primarily address how the countries of origin envisage the emigration of its population and the practical steps, often remarkable, taken to maintain the unity of its people and their culture at far distances.

During this week, the 40 experts who will participate in the forum as speakers, including the General-Director of the International Migration Organisation, Ambassador William Lacy Swing, the Director of the United Nations Population Division, Hania Zlotnik, and the Prime Minister of Cape Verde, José Maria das Neves, will address several topics at the Teatro Micaelense from 9 AM to 1 PM. The 75 workshops developed under this initiative will be held at the University of the Azores on between September 13 and 15 from 2:30 PM to 6 PM.

Before the opening session, participants will have the opportunity to participate in various field trips related to migration, with special emphasis on the Azores, through the work developed in the area of emigration, immigration and returns, whether voluntary or compulsive.

The 16th International Metropolis Conference is an event organised by the Azorean Government in partnership with the University of the Azores and the University of Lisbon.