International Catholic Migration Commission

The International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) is an international organization that serves and protects uprooted people, including migrants, refugees, and internally displaced people, regardless of faith, race, ethnicity or nationality. With staff and programs in over 40 countries, ICMC advocates for sustainable solutions^[buzzword] and rights-based policies directly and through a worldwide network of 132 member organizations.

ICMC's expertise and core programming consists of refugee resettlement, humanitarian assistance and prevention (shelter, health, non-food items, cash assistance, disaster risk reduction, assistance and prevention for victims of sexual and gender-based violence, anti-trafficking), advocacy on migration and development.

ICMC has ECOSOC consultative status since 1952 and was granted public juridical status by the Holy See in 2008. In 2011, ICMC has been selected as the coordinator of the Civil Society network of the Global Forum on Development and Migration, which in 2015 brought together over 500 government delegates from more than 140 countries, 300 leaders of civil society worldwide and high-level delegates from UN and international agencies to discuss the relation between migration and development, share experiences and forge practical cooperation.

The founding of ICMC followed the end of the Second World War and the great displacement of peoples caused by the international conflict. By 1949, in Eastern Europe thousands were forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in the Western countries: it soon became clear to the Holy See in Rome that a systematic effort was needed on the part of Catholic organizations to respond to the needs of these migrants.

In 1951, German, Italian, and American laity and clergy – most notably Pope Pius XII, the Secretary of State Archbishop Giovanni Battista Montini (the future Pope Paul VI), Mr. James J. Norris and Cardinal Josef Frings – initiated the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC). The following year, Pope Pius XII formally established ICMC through a papal letter, Exsul Familia, which brought worldwide attention towards the needs of migrants and invoked the support of the Catholics to welcome and assist foreign nationals fleeing their home countries.

In its early years, the work of ICMC focused on the administration of migrant travel loan funds. ICMC soon gained comprehensive expertise in assisting the migrants and increased its network of member organizations and local partners, thus becoming a worldwide movement.

ICMC kept growing in the 1960s, expanding its activities through offices in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina and Chile. By the early 1970s, the migration phenomenon had become more complex and international: the end of the war in Vietnam, the attempted genocide in Cambodia and violent events elsewhere caused massive and unprecedented migration flows. ICMC continued to assist European refugees relocate in new countries, while also starting new programs in South and Southeast Asia, the Near East, Africa and Latin America.

In 1979, while thousands of "boat people" fleeing Vietnam were perishing at sea, ICMC played a key role in the UNHCR Orderly Departure Program (ODP), while also providing legal and safe means of emigration for those Vietnamese migrants (mainly through resettlement in the United States).