On May 28 the second day of the 2017 Aurora Dialogues took place at the Matenadaran – the Repository of Ancient Manuscripts, in Yerevan, Armenia. Carnegie Corporation President and Aurora Humanitarian Initiative Co-Founder Dr. Vartan Gregorian, said in his introduction, “This is a house of learning, a treasury house of memory.” 

 

“We are meeting in the shadow of Mount Ararat, which is a symbol of Armenian durability because Armenians believe that Noah’s Arc came up on Mount Ararat—the first migratory people came up in Armenia, so Armenia is the first instance of migration...but what is important here is that we’ve chosen to meet in the Matenadaran because of its historical significance,” he continued.

 

The Matenadaran served as the venue for a full-day of discussions around the theme of migration. This is “arguably the most pressing challenge we face today -- the global migratory crisis,” said Ed Williams, CEO of Edelman in the UK and Ireland who chaired the day’s discussions.

 

 

The first panel of the day was invited to respond to the findings of the 2017 Aurora Humanitarian Index and examine the international public’s attitudes towards the refugee crisis, migration, humanitarian intervention, and the responsibility to intervene on behalf of others. Dr. Hayk Gyuzalyan, Methods Director for Kantar Public presented the results of the Aurora Humanitarian Index.  He explained that the Index surveyed 6500 respondents in 12 countries: Britain, U.S., Germany, France, Lebanon and Iran, Argentina, Japan, Turkey, Kenya, Russia and Armenia.

 

The panel was moderated by Gareth Evans, President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group and Former Foreign Minister of Australia, and Aurora Prize Selection Committee Member. Panelists included Dr. Ibrahim Awad, Director for the Center of Refugee and Migration Studies at the American University of Cairo, Sasha Chanoff, Founder and Executive Director of RefugePoint, and Hina Jilani, Former UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders and Aurora Prize Selection Committee Member. 

 

Ibrahim Awad said “I think that there is nothing that is surprising in the data, but some aspects require some explanation. I think what struck my attention is Armenia, Argentina and Kenya, which come out as very receptive, as very open to refugees.”

 

Sasha Chanoff said, “There are very specific, sharp misperceptions, as we’ve seen in this data. One is that refugees are dangerous and terrorists, when in fact, refugees are the first victims of terror.” 

 

Hina Jilani explained that there are two sides to this issue: “One is where the conflict drives people out. And the other is when people reach a certain destination, what are the obligations, and who is supposed to fulfill those obligations?”  

 

 

The day’s second session was organized by two centers of the University of Southern California: the Institute of Armenian Studies and the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration. The panel was introduced by Salpi Ghazarian, director of the Institute of Armenian Studies.  

 

“The Institute is a bridge between the problems and challenges facing Armenians in Armenia and those with the intellectual and the academic skills and passion to tackle them. Migration is a challenge facing Armenians today — out-migration from Armenia, high levels of labor migration, in-migration of refugees from Syria to Armenia,” she said.

 

The moderator of the session was Professor Manuel Pastor, Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change at USC and the director of the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration. The panelists were Dr. Pablo Ceriani Cernadas, Vice President of the UN Committee of Migrant Workers’ Rights; Hovig Etyemezian, Head of the UNHCR Mosul, Iraq, Office and Former Zaatari Camp Manager in Jordan; Sherri Kraham Talabany, President of SEED, based in the Kurdistan region of Iraq;  Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigrant Forum in Washington DC, and Professor Lori Wilkinson from the University of Manitoba and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Migration and Integration.  

 

Manual Pastor led the conversation with the observation that the topic of migration has three arcs: First, the fundamental causes that are causing migration and displacement; second, what are the best practices and things we should know about integration and settlement; and third, what a 21st century system of migration should look like and how such a system can be attained. 

 

 

The day’s final session focused on Migration and the Role of Business. It was moderated by Noubar Afeyan, Co-founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative and CEO of Flagship Pioneering. Panelists included Ludwig Georg Braun, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of B. Braun Melsungen, Paul Polman, Chief Executive Officer of Unilever, Mark Viso, President and CEO of PACT, and Ernesto Zedillo, former president of Mexico, Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, and Aurora Prize Selection Committee Member. 

 

Noubar Afeyan introduced the panelists by saying, “Refugees are kind of extreme immigrants. They’re forced immigrants. And immigrants, in many of the societies they end up in, end up being drivers of change, of creating jobs, and being from the innovation world, I’ve often wondered why that is.” 

 

Ernesto Zedillo said it is important to realize that the problem we face is not mandated by God, or by a natural disaster.  “All of the dramatic issues that we have in front us are really man-made,” he said. Paul Polman directly addressed the responsibility of business. “At the point that we are not addressing some of these challenges, it would incur more cost for businesses.” 

 

Ludwig Georg Braun, head of the German medical and pharmaceutical device company, described his company’s findings in helping refugees. Mark Viso’s company PACT, partnered with Chevron to bring community based health care initiatives for women in Nigeria.