UN Migration Agency Seeks $7.9B to Help 140M People

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The Spin

Narrative A

The UN's migration agency must be well-funded to protect millions of displaced people who take dangerous journeys to reach greater freedom yet contribute to global prosperity and progress by generating nearly 10% of the world's economic output. Ignoring migrants' plight comes at a greater cost — not just in terms of money but in more significant danger to the international community through human trafficking and smuggling.

Narrative B

Migrants will keep coming to the US and Europe because they flee en masse from disorder toward more stable locations. A coherent international policy is required to deal with the systemic macroeconomic issues that cause an arc of human misery and uprooting, such as poverty, conflict, and climate change — simply increasing funding to "fix" the reality will not solve the growing problem and subsequent economic burden of population displacement.

Metaculus Prediction

There's a 50% chance that at least 176K refugees will be admitted to the US from 2021 to 2024, according to the Metaculus prediction community.


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