Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration

The Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration was established during the fourth session of the Provisional Intergovernmental Committee for the Movement of Migrants from Europe which met in Geneva from October 13 to 21, 1952. Twenty member governments sent official delegations to this session, which had been called to discuss the need for the continuing existence of the migration committee beyond the twelve month period ending December 1952 and to decide whether the experimental plan of attack on Europe's chronic surplus population problem during the previous year should be broadened or abandoned. Count Justo Giusti del Giaro (Italy) was unanimously elected as chairman and A. L. Nutt (Australia), N. Hadji Vassiliou (Greece) and Fernando Donoso (Chile) as first and second vice chairmen and rapporteur, respectively. During the nine-day conference, the committee voted to change its name to Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM); to continue the activities of the committee in Geneva through, 1953 and to make plans during the coming year for the future; to set themselves the 1953 target of moving 120,000 of western Europe's surplus to new homes overseas; to authorize the committee to attempt to improve the selection and settlement services involved in the movement of migrants in the expectation that this would substantially speed up and increase movement;, to establish a $2,147,000 administrative and a $34,608,475 operational budget to effect the 1953 movements; and to continue investigations and discussions on the possibilities of securing outside financial and technical assistance for the establishment of land settlement projects in immigration countries.