Safety. Education. Dignity. Belonging. A voice in our future. These are not just hopes. They are the rights every young migrant deserves.
Across the world, young people on the move live very different lives.
A young person in a small island nation may be forced to leave home as rising sea levels threaten the land and future they have always known. Another may lose their home to a climate crisis and find themselves stranded at a border in a landlocked country, with no safe route forward. Someone else may have grown up undocumented in a city they have called home their entire life, yet still live with uncertainty about whether they truly belong.
Their journeys may look very different. But ask any of them what they hope for and their aspirations start to seem remarkably familiar: safety, an education that opens doors, work that allows them to live with dignity, the freedom to belong, and a meaningful say in the decisions that shape their lives.
Different contexts, common aspirations.
At MYCP, where we engage around 105,000 young migrants and have a global team representing over 30 countries across 6 regions, we see this every time young people from completely different regions come together, whether in the same room, or the same call, and they recognize their shared experience. Someone in North Africa describing what happens at their border, and someone in Southeast Asia nodding because, while the details may differ, the struggle does not.
We build on that recognition by supporting young leaders who are rooted in their own communities, connect them across regions and then carry evidence and their lived experience into the rooms where migration policy is decided. Our stories may differ, but we are united by solidarity, shared challenges, and the innovative ways we work together to overcome them.
This Youth Day, the MYCP reaffirms the importance of creating spaces where these diverse experiences can be heard, connected and transformed into meaningful youth participation across borders, communities, and contexts.
Our journeys may begin in different places, but when young people come together, we can turn shared aspirations into shared action and shared futures.
Safety. Education. Dignity. Belonging. A voice in our future. These are not just hopes. They are the rights every young migrant deserves. We may cross different borders, but we carry the same dreams. It is time the world listens.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
MYCP extends its deepest thanks to the following for taking part in a panel on shaping positive migration narratives with IOM:
Nour Hassan, Director of Advocacy & Campaigns
Luísa Santi, Youth Committee on Migration & Displacement Data,
Roberta Bojang, Gender Thematic Focal Point,
Thea Elisabeth, Deputy Director of Advocacy & Campaigns.
ABOUT MYCP
The Migration Youth and Children Platform (MYCP) is a space for and by young people to impact the highest levels of migration policy-making. From our establishment in 2017 in the context of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) negotiations, we grew from an informal group to a global youth movement. MYCP is now the official migration constituency of the Major Group for Children and Youth (MGCY) – the formal and self-organised space for children and youth (aged below 30) to contribute to and engage in intergovernmental and policy processes at the UN since 1992, mandated by the UN General Assembly under Resolution 67/290 and Agenda 21
MYCP’s constituency is composed of around 10,000 network members, representing over 1.5 million young people from almost every UN Member State.
For further enquiries please contact: migrationgfp@unmgcy.org
