Summary

  • A day of live BBC coverage examining how the movement of people is changing the world

  • Ex-Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) chief Sir Richard Dearlove warned of a "populist uprising" on the issue.

  • UNHCR special envoy Angelina Jolie Pitt said there was a "race to the bottom" between countries showing how tough they were

  • The BBC is carrying reports from Vietnam, San Francisco, Iraq, Greece and Bangladesh during the day

  • A live radio drama by award-winning playwright James Graham was broadcast

  • Get involved on social media using #WorldOnTheMove

  1. The map Syrian refugees use to get to Europe.published at 09:53 (08:53 Greenwich Mean Time)

    Media caption,

    Professor Marie Gillespie explains how Syrian refugees use a smartphone-friendly map

    A map, or chart, used by refugees from Syria and Iraq to get into and through Europe has been found by researchers from the Open University.

    Refugees interviewed in Paris told the researchers - who were looking into the use of smartphones on the migrant route - that the map was widely shared using apps such as Whatsapp and Facebook.

    The map was revealed as part of an Open University report: Mapping Refugees Media Journeys, external

    The researchers say there is a "huge gap" in the provision of relevant, reliable and timely news and information for refugees. Instead, they are forced to rely on unreliable sources on social media and exposed to greater risks. 

    The report urges the European Commission to fund a partnership between EU states, news organisations, technology companies and NGOs to help come up with a way of providing up-to-date news. 

  2. Facebook live from Vietnampublished at 09:49 (08:49 Greenwich Mean Time)

    Sarah Montague was live, external in Vietnam looking at how first and second generation Vietnamese are being attracted back to the country. She was speaking to Kien Pham who left Vietnam in the 1970s but came back 10 years ago, and Madame Ton Nu Thi Ninh, who used to be Vietnam's Ambassador to a number of European Countries. You can watch it our Facebook page, external.

  3. Rich world has 'conflicted obligations'published at 09:33 (08:33 Greenwich Mean Time)

    A little earlier, David Goodhart, director of the Integration Hub at the Policy Exchange think tank, highlighted the "conflicted obligations" of people in richer parts of the world to migrants.

    "We have an obligation to the desperate of the world but we also have an obligation not to unduly disrupt poor and developing countries by tempting people here, one might say," he told the Today programme.

    Media caption,

    Integration Hub director, at Policy Exchange think tank, on richer countries' obligations.

  4. 'Global displacement involves everybody'published at 09:25 (08:25 Greenwich Mean Time)

    The UN high commissioner for refugees says the migrants crisis is now a global phenomenon and that simply turning them away "won't work".  

    He said the sheer number of refugees globally was now too large for states to simply shut borders and push people away.

    "Global displacement, having reached 60 million people... requires a different kind of investment and therefore it involves everybody. Everybody has an interest to stabilise, to reduce flaws in order to make them more manageable, to address the root causes. It's going to be a very long and difficult discussion, but there can't simply be a reaction whereby states shut down borders and push people away simply because it won't work. Human mobility today is stronger than these controls."

    UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi speaks about the migration crisis during a press meeting at the UNHCR office in Stockholm, Sweden, on April 6, 2016.Image source, AFP
  5. 'We need to defend mobility online'published at 09:12 (08:12 Greenwich Mean Time)

    Yasmin Green, Head of Research & Development at Jigsaw, writes:

    Most people reading this know the internet as a place with relatively few limits.

    But for hundreds of millions of people, the internet isn't so simple.

    Our lives are increasingly lived online, yet so little attention is paid to the invisible borders that prevent people and information from moving freely through the world.

    In Iran, where I was born, being gay is a sin, a crime, and the conservative clerics would have you believe it's also a myth.

    What's so harmful in the case of Iran is the barriers to accessing information — there are gay people in Iran who don't know that being gay is even a concept. 

    You can read more of Yasmin's piece here

    Yasmin Green, head of research and development at JigsawImage source, Jigsaw
    Image caption,

    Yasmin Green, from Jigsaw, fears for digital mobility

  6. Start the weekpublished at 09:04 (08:04 Greenwich Mean Time)

    That's it from our #WorldOnTheMove coverage on the Today programme - but stay with us for more content on Start the Week on BBC Radio 4, and Angelina Jolie Pitt's speech at 12:15 BST. 

    The Today Programme
  7. Fear mongering?published at 09:00 (08:00 Greenwich Mean Time)

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  8. Live from Londonpublished at 08:51 (07:51 Greenwich Mean Time)

    We are broadcasting live from Vietnam and the BBC Radio Theatre in London. Stay with us for more coverage examining how the movement of people is changing the world. 

    Studio audience in London
  9. 'Average length of time as a refugee is 17 years'published at 08:46 (07:46 Greenwich Mean Time)

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  10. Fairness?published at 08:39 (07:39 Greenwich Mean Time)

     Mark Williams writes on Facebook:

    Quote Message

    The story of the lady who left Vietnam as a baby was touching, but from what she said her family were economic migrants not refugees. Your earlier speaker spoke about the difference and that is really important. I want a better future for my family with a house to live in and a half decent school (these don't exist in the part of Britain where I live). What happens if I turn up in Chelsea and expect someone to pay for my housing and education? Or don't these humanitarian basics apply to me - if you prick me do I not bleed too?

  11. Turning migration into dramapublished at 08:32 (07:32 Greenwich Mean Time)

    James Graham, the acclaimed playwright and author of This House, is focusing on domestic UK migration for a special short drama being broadcast on Radio 4 at 14:15 (13:15 GMT). "The movement of people for work is a British invention," he told Today. 

    Mr Graham confessed he still had to finish the script for the drama. 

    "I should really be writing it and not talking about it," he joked. 

    James Graham
    Image caption,

    James Graham won acclaim for his play This House

  12. 'Fear and separation'published at 08:21 (07:21 Greenwich Mean Time)

    UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie Pitt will give a keynote address on the global refugee crisis at 12:15 BST (11:15 GMT).

    She is expected to say: "Fear of uncontrolled migration has eroded public confidence in the ability of governments and international institutions to control the situation. It has given space, and a false air of legitimacy, to those who promote a politics of fear and separation. 

    "This has created the risk of a race to the bottom, with countries competing to be the toughest, in the hope of protecting themselves whatever the cost or challenge to their neighbors, and despite their international responsibilities."

    Angelina Jolie PittImage source, Getty Images
  13. Coming uppublished at 08:11 (07:11 Greenwich Mean Time)

    We will have a range of speakers on programmes across the BBC, including Today, the World at One and PM on BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service Radio, BBC World News and the BBC News Channel. Here is a rundown of events planned for the day.

  14. Is the world on the move?published at 08:01 (07:01 Greenwich Mean Time)

    The world is on the move, and much of it coming to live near you. Or so it might seem if you live in northern Europe just now.

    But what is the big picture of migration, over decades and across the whole world? And how does what we're seeing today compare?

    Michael Blastland, creator of Radio 4's More for Less, looks at the numbers.

    Media caption,

    Examining the statistics of migration.

  15. What is our obligation to poor countries?published at 07:49 (06:49 Greenwich Mean Time)

    Migrants on their way to European Union countries, passing through Belgrade, Serbia, 09 May 2016.Image source, EPA

    David Goodhart, director of the Integration Hub at the Policy Exchange think tank, highlights the conflicted obligations of people in the "rich world". 

    He told the Today programme: "We have an obligation to the desperate of the world but we also have an obligation not to unduly disrupt poor and developing countries by tempting people here, one might say.

    "We don't want to create a wholly unbalanced world in which the most dynamic and best educated people in poor countries find the only way they can have a decent life is by getting themselves into developed European or western countries." 

  16. 'It's about what you do'published at 07:41 (06:41 Greenwich Mean Time)

    Tat Wa Lay has returned to Vietnam after living in the UK, like many of Vietnam's 4 million-strong diaspora. 

    He says: "It’s nothing to be proud of if you’re from a certain country, it’s no achievement. It’s about what you do for a country [that counts]."

    You can read more from Sarah Montague's interview with Tat Wa Lay here

    Skyline of Hoh Chi Minh city
  17. Touching welcomepublished at 07:31 (06:31 Greenwich Mean Time)

    Sarah Montague has been speaking to Tat Wa Lay, who was just a baby when his family fled Vietnam for the UK.  

    His mother had told him about the moment in 1984 when they arrived on a council estate expecting hostility and racism and instead a "young scruffy man" took off his coat and handed it to the freezing cold refugees.

    The gesture was so touching he said that others soon followed. His mother never forgot that moment and he says "my brother still remembers the warmth of that coat and it stays in his heart to this day".

    Tat Wa Lay
  18. Jolie Pitt to warn against 'race to the bottom'published at 07:26 (06:26 Greenwich Mean Time)

    The BBC's Lyse Doucet reports

    A child in Idomeni on the Greek-Macedonian border
    Image caption,

    Save The Children fears children are missing out on education

    More people are now fleeing conflict and hardship than at any other time in recorded history. 

    Many are children and most of them are losing out on their education. Save The Children says only one in four refugee children is now enrolled in secondary school. 

    The charity is calling on governments and aid agencies to adopt a new policy framework which would ensure no refugee child remains out of school for more than a month.

    It's an ambitious target but there is growing concern that this migration is producing a lost generation of children, which means conditions for even greater insecurity and poverty. 

    Today at the BBC, the special envoy for the UN's refugee agency, Angelina Jolie Pitt, will call for strong multi-lateral action to respond to this migration, which she describes as the challenge of our century. 

    She'll say there is now a risk of a race to the bottom, with countries competing to be the toughest, despite their international responsibilities.  

  19. 'Unprecedented mobility'published at 07:15 (06:15 Greenwich Mean Time)

    BBC Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet tweets:

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  20. From Vietnam and Londonpublished at 07:04 (06:04 Greenwich Mean Time)

    The day is starting with a special edition of the Radio 4 Today programme presented by Sarah Montague in Vietnam and Nick Robinson at the Radio Theatre in BBC Broadcasting House in London.

    Mopeds in Vietnam