Eighth Session

The eighth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) was held in Geneva from November 30 to December 4, 1954. With the opening of the session, the Constitution entered into force, the required sixteen ratifications having been deposited by Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, Chile, Denmark, German Federal Republic, Greece, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Paraguay, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States During the session, Costa Rica deposited its instrument of ratification. A final revised budget and plan of operation for 1954 was approved which provided for the overseas migration of 119,261 persons at a total cost of $48,782,776, as compared with $25,855,416 in 1953 to move 143,420 persons. On the recommendation of the Director of ICEM (Gibson) a budget of $46.5 million was approved for a 1955 program to assist the movement of 143,420 persons. Problems of the future budgetary position of ICEM were discussed at the meeting; a member of the United States delegation (Jensen) warned the meeting not to assume “that the Committee may go on indefinitely with a higher budget each year than the year before, unless the Committee can increase each year the proportion of its operations that are on a self-reimbursable basis”. Various proposals to meet the expected budgetary deficit of $1.8 million in 1955 were discussed. The Director proposed that part of this sum could come from token prepayments by emigrants or partial reimbursement after settlements. Other delegations, including the Netherlands, opposed the principle of payment by emigrants and proposed as alternatives either that countries in which ICEM made contributions to the national income through contracts for shipping or other services repay ten percent of these amounts (an estimated $1.5 million in additional income) or that each sending and receiving country pay an additional $10 per migrant moved (an estimated $2.5 million).