At the World Urban Forum in Baku, a clear message emerged from international experts: migration is not a temporary disruption but a permanent reality that cities must integrate into their long-term planning. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned that governments treating migration as an emergency will fail to build functional urban environments.
“Migration is now shaping cities,” said Ugochi Daniels, IOM Deputy Director General, in an interview with Euronews. “Migration, when it is well managed, is part of the solution.” She stressed that displaced people and migrants should not be viewed as a burden. “There are lots of migrants who can contribute to recovery and to the growth and economic prosperity of cities,” Daniels added.
The forum’s fifth day featured a panel moderated by Euronews, bringing together UN-Habitat, UNHCR, the World Bank, and officials from Azerbaijan, Syria, and Ukraine. The discussion focused on reconstruction after conflict, a theme that resonates across Europe as cities from Kyiv to Sarajevo grapple with rebuilding.
Housing as the Foundation of Recovery
Emin Huseynov, the Azerbaijani president’s special representative in the Aghdam, Fuzuli, and Khojavand districts, emphasized that housing must come first. “Housing restores dignity, stability, and trust,” he said. Aydin Karimov, the president’s special representative in Shusha, highlighted the city’s green transformation: public transport is now fully electric, and the waste management system was built from scratch. “We were the first city where we introduced 100% electrical public transport,” Karimov noted. “Our public buses are 100% electrical, they don’t use fuel.”
Dr Lucy Earle of the International Institute for Environment and Development warned against the trap of temporary shelter. “We have to get out of this temporary mindset,” she said, urging planners to think beyond short-term fixes.
The question of financing reconstruction sparked sharp debate. Anacláudia Rossbach, UN-Habitat Executive Director, told delegates that no country has sustainably addressed housing with international finance alone. “It requires domestic finance,” she said. “I’m sure that $1 billion can become many billions if we are able to establish this social contract.” Uruguay’s Housing Minister Tamara Paseyro put it plainly: “Building houses also means building a habitat,” referring to the roads, services, and social infrastructure that turn housing into communities.
Azerbaijan used the forum to showcase its Karabakh reconstruction as a replicable model. President Ilham Aliyev, in an exclusive interview with Euronews, described “a unique experience of how to build cities and villages from scratch,” with 85,000 people already returned to post-conflict areas. He cited 307 megawatts of commissioned electricity, 435 of 500 bridges completed, and 70 kilometres of tunnels in service. Swiss urban planning firm SA Partners, involved in the effort, said the approach combined vision, zoning, detailed planning, and architectural delivery in a single integrated process—a model it believes other countries rebuilding from conflict can follow.
For European cities, the lessons from Baku are directly relevant. As migration continues to reshape urban demographics from Berlin to Barcelona, planners must move beyond crisis management. The forum’s emphasis on domestic finance and integrated planning echoes debates across the EU, where housing affordability and infrastructure strain are pressing issues. The global housing divide demands cross-border solutions, but as Rossbach noted, sustainable change starts with national commitment.
The call to treat migration as a permanent feature of urban life is not new, but the Baku forum gave it renewed urgency. With conflict and climate change driving displacement, cities that fail to plan for migration risk deepening inequality and instability. As Daniels put it, migration is part of the solution—if governments have the foresight to see it that way.
