27 November 2025
Malta: Migration, Solidarity, and the Mediterranean
On the eve of the Socialist International’s second yearly Council in Malta, we joined the Global Progress Foundation and Fundación Pablo Iglesias to convene a workshop on population movements—bringing experts and party representatives from across the Mediterranean into one room, in the spirit of the SI Mediterranean Committee’s wider programme.
Committee meeting and context
The Mediterranean Committee of the Socialist International held its first in-person meeting in Valletta at the headquarters of Partit Laburista, setting the scene for the Council. SI General Coordinator Chantal Kambiwa welcomed delegates from the three shores of the Mediterranean and outlined the main themes of the Council. Paulina Lampsa, SI Executive Vice President, described how the organisation is working to make its committees more open—through dialogue and cooperation with experts from academia and civil society.
John Grech, Chair of the SI Mediterranean Committee, presented his vision and working plan and invited participants to name the challenges in their national contexts so that thematic priorities could take shape. The exchanges that followed fed directly into the committee’s next steps—and, where migration emerged as a defining regional issue, into the policy declaration later adopted by the Council.
Official coverage and photo galleries are on the Socialist International site: Mediterranean Committee meeting, St Julian’s, Malta (including gallery).
Our workshop: Population movements and progressive responses
Co-organised by the Global Progress Foundation, Left Forward, and Fundación Pablo Iglesias within that Mediterranean Committee framework, the session was titled Population Movements in the Mediterranean: Challenges and Progressive Win-Win Approaches. Introductory remarks were given by Paulina Lampsa on behalf of the Global Progress Foundation.
The panel brought together:
- Frank Sherry (United States)—communication and migration
- Amina Fahmy (Egypt)—political scientist and migration expert
- Maurice Braud (France)—senior expert on international and European policy
- Manos Moschopoulos—moderator; Executive Director of LeftForward and Senior Advisor to the Mediterranean Migration and Asylum Policy Hub
The discussion started from a shared diagnosis: the Mediterranean has been recast from a bridge between cultures into a frontier marked by inequality and human suffering. For progressive parties, that raises both a humanitarian obligation and a political one—to show that humane values can be turned into workable government and community-level solutions: safe and legal channels, serious investment in integration, and fair labour standards.
Participants stressed the need to involve both countries of origin and destination—export and recipient states—in the same conversation if the region is to recover its potential as a space of solidarity, shared responsibility, and hope. After the presentations, an in-depth exchange with delegates from the three shores explored how research findings meet realities on the ground, and how progressive parties can respond when far-right narratives dominate the public debate.
The workshop’s conclusions were taken into account by the Committee Chair and SI representatives in preparing a declaration on migration that was adopted at the Malta Council. The Global Progress Foundation publishes the same background and declaration text on its event page; the Socialist International also documents the workshop here.
Declaration on progressive migration policy
The Declaration on Progressive Migration Policy in the Mediterranean charts a course based on solidarity, evidence, and shared prosperity; treats migration as an opportunity while rejecting externalisation that undermines rights without expanding legal options; and sets out priorities on development, partnership with origin and transit countries, gender and vulnerability, regional cooperation over a “fortress” mentality, and integration anchored in local investment. It situates that agenda against the rise of the far right, the abuse of migration by authoritarian leaders, and escalating climate displacement—while insisting that we already know much of what works.
Photos
Images below are from the public galleries on the Socialist International and Global Progress Foundation event pages (November 2025, Malta).
