3 MIGRATION, REFUGEES AND BORDER SECURITY
G7 performance on migration and refugees
G 7 leaders have addressed migration with increasing frequency in recent years. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 caused a significant rise in displacement and forced migration, prompting G7 leaders to increase their attention to this topic. Italy has included migration and refugees in the priorities for the Apulia Summit, and its focus on Ukraine underscores the crucial importance of a timely, effective and ambitious approach to tackle the related challenges. CONCLUSIONS From the first G7 summit in 1975 to the 2023 Hiroshima Summit, leaders produced 8,379 words on migration and refugees in their communiqués, averaging 171 words, or 2%, per summit. The highest total was at the 2016 Ise-Shima Summit with 2,581 words (20%), following the refugee crisis resulting from the Syrian civil war. Attention to migration and refugees then gradually decreased, with the 2020 and 2021 summits producing no words on the subject. It picked up again following the full-scale war in Ukraine that started in February 2022. The 2022 Elmau and 2023
As host of this year’s G7 summit, Italy will ensure that great attention is paid to migration, noting that the topic is closely linked to other areas such as climate change and food insecurity – and there are several ways in which the G7 can improve its performance in this area
By Maria Zelenova, senior researcher, G7 Research Group
Hiroshima summits dedicated 113 (1%) and 665 (2%) words, respectively. COMMITMENTS G7 leaders have produced 75 commitments on migration and refugees since 1975. They have done so sporadically, with three at the 1979 Tokyo Summit, for 5% of the total. They made commitments at only seven of the 18 summits between 1980 and 1997: fewer than three per summit and ranging between 1% and 5% of the total. At Birmingham in 1998, they made four commitments on migration and refugees, then one (1%) in 2002, before leaping to eight (3%) in 2004, but dropping back to the norm of between zero and three (1% or lower) between 2005 and 2014. A relatively more consistent period of higher decision making on migration and refugees started in 2015 with seven (2%) commitments, followed by a new peak of 11 (3%) in 2016, sustained at eight (4%) in 2017 when Italy last hosted. A four-year dip followed, with just two (1%) made in 2018 and a complete absence from 2019 to 2021. This rebounded in 2022 with eight commitments (1%) and in 2023 with nine (1%). COMPLIANCE Of these 75 commitments, 16 were assessed for compliance by the G7 Research Group, which found an average 77% compliance, on par with the average 77% across all subjects. The first assessed commitments were made at 1998 Birmingham, with 67% compliance. This rose to 84% for 2004 Sea Island. The highest compliance was achieved for 2014, with a near perfect 97%. High compliance
MARIA ZELENOVA Maria Zelenova is a senior researcher with the G7 and G20 Research Groups. Based in Paris, she holds a BA in political science and history from the University of Toronto and an MA in international security from Sciences Po Paris.
Twitter @maria__zelenova www.g7.utoronto.ca
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G7 ITALY: THE APULIA SUMMIT — 2024
globalgovernanceproject.org
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