One in every 122 people in the world today are on the move, escaping poverty or fleeing conflict in what has become one of our biggest global challenges, on a par with climate change and pandemics. There is no global governance in this area, just dithering nation states trying to tackle the challenge. We need an avant-garde public policy approach that moves beyond the debate about whether migration is a good or a bad thing, and introduce a new narrative about how much migration and how can we manage it collectively.

Paul McMahon is a high school administrator and former history teacher in Dubai.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx