1 International Initiatives in Migration Dr. Joseph A. Yaro Centre for Migration Studies University of Ghana, Legon Introduction In an era of rapid globalization, human migration has evolved into a dynamic phenomenon with respect to the multitude of factors contributing to the migration of unparalleled numbers of migrants across immense geographical trajectories (AU 2006). Through migration, the world is closer now than before with multiculturalism on the ascendancy in all the continents. Europe and North America are the major centres of interaction for the rest of the world. Though migration is of great importance in the development of nations, the process in the last fifty years has been characterised by attempts to regulate movement especially between countries and between regions in a country. This has led to increasing illegal migrations of unwanted categories of labour especially from poorer countries to richer ones. Consequently, migration can lead to social threats in host communities that need careful management. The threat of foreigners taking-over jobs and introducing new cultural trends is beginning to provoke xenophobic feelings all around the world. Irregular migration occurring from Western Africa to North Africa and Europe has increasingly been defined as a security problem (Lutterbeck 2006) associated with international crime. the perceived