New York. The Intergovernmental Conference held in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, from 4 to 6 December in preparation to the Global Compact (migrant agreement signed at the UN in September 2016) opened with a video message from Pope Francis. The Holy Father asked everyone “to welcome, protect, promote and integrate” migrants and refugees by means of a common and global response, taking into account the complexity of the migration phenomena. In particular, with reference to the Global Compact, he asked all the people working for it to be inspired by “compassion, foresight and courage”. The video clip will be made known in a few days; it is Pope Francis’ contribution to the work on migrants carried out by the United Nations. The Mexican conference was actually meant to gather the results of the consultations taking place in all the States adopting the so called “New York Declaration”. Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations for International Migration Louise Arbor pointed out that global cooperation would produce benefits from international migration; with regard to demographic and environmental changes, poverty and conflicts, human mobility may give us huge benefits, such as the promise of a more sustainable development, in harmony with the needs of the international labour market, and work standard improvement”. The goal of the Global Compact is actually safe, orderly and regular migration, taking into consideration mixed flows as well, “including migrants unsuitable for humanitarian protection, however requiring long-term assistance strategies”. It is not easy to make negotiations for adopting a common migration policy. That was also confirmed by President of the General Meeting Miroslav Lajčák, relying on “common, strong positions” such as admitting that the current response to international migration is not sustainable, and that “the UN is the only place where this new response may be formulated without affecting states’ sovereignty. In any case, the State will determine its migration policies “. In January 2018, the Secretary General for Migration is presenting his first report, to be followed by months of negotiations before the final adoption of the agreement, probably in Morocco, at the end of the next year.