https://www.iom.int/international-migrants-day-2025
This year’s theme, “My Great Story: Cultures and Development,” highlights how human mobility drives growth, enriches societies, and helps communities connect, adapt, and support one another. In 2025, this message is more urgent than ever as migration continues to shape economies, communities, and global development.
Migration is a defining force of our century. Remittances to low- and middle-income countries are projected to reach a record USD 685 billion, and migrants are central to addressing labour shortages, driving innovation, and supporting demographic stability. Yet these contributions can only be maximized when migration is safe, orderly, and responsibly governed.
Well-managed migration is a strategic asset: it strengthens resilience, fuels prosperity, and supports social cohesion. From documentation and skills recognition to integration and dignified return, effective systems ensure migrants can find stability, support their families, and build new futures, while helping communities adapt and thrive.
On this IMD, IOM calls for smarter policies, stronger cooperation, and a renewed commitment to making migration work for all. Because every migrant’s journey is a story of resilience and possibility, and because when migration is managed well, each personal story becomes part of a larger one that enriches cultures, strengthens development, and benefits us all. This is the idea at the heart of the 2025 theme: “My Great Story” is not only a migrant’s story, it is our shared story of how mobility can shape a fairer and more sustainable future.
