On October 3, 2013, the UN General Assembly convened to discuss international migration for only the second time in its history. As Secretary General Ban Ki-moon opened the meeting that morning, four thousand miles away, in the Mediterranean Sea, rescue crews were recovering the bodies of hundreds of migrants who had drowned the previous night in their desperate attempt to reach Europe. Human smugglers had packed them like lemmings into a rickety boat; more than 350 died. A few days later, another boat capsized; still more children, women, and men perished.

The juxtaposition between the formal setting of the General Assembly and the macabre one on the southern shores of Europe begged an obvious question: What precisely can we do to make it safer for migrants to cross international borders? How can we ensure that their determined, courageous, and often desperate pursuit of a better life pays dividends for them, for their families, and for receiving communities – rather than for those who exploit them?