The death of the Director General of the International Center for Migration Policy Development deprives the world of leadership on global migration issues at a fateful juncture. Mercifully, Jonas patiently nurtured successive generations of scholars and policymakers to follow in his footsteps. His legacy will endure.
Jonas' precocious involvement in high-level government service in Sweden helped make that country a model for emulation in the migration-policy area. It also involved Jonas with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Working Party on Migration and its grouping of immigration experts known by the French acronym SOPEMI. Along with Roger Bohning, Jonas greatly influenced migration policy analysis and development in the OECD area in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1982 to 1987, Jonas served as Sweden's Secretary of State for Immigration and Equality between Women and Men.
After a brief stint with UNHCR, Jonas helped found ICMPD in Vienna in 1993. This enabled Jonas to continue playing his unique role as an authoritative student of international migration and as an advisor to governments. His influence shaped policies in countries around the world, but particularly in the transatlantic area. No other individual exerted comparable influence or commanded so much respect, especially in governmental circles.
Jonas was particularly kind to American students of migration. He spoke frequently at the U.S. Department of State and nurtured American expertise about international migration. His proteges number among the most influential U.S.-based migration scholars. He opened the doors of ICMPD to student interns from colleges and universities like the University of Delaware and transformed undergraduates into diplomats and policymakers.
One of Jonas' proteges, our esteemed colleague Philip L. Martin of the University of California-Davis, spoke eloquently of Jonas' achievements at a retirement dinner for Jonas and his good friends Roger Bohning and Heinz Werner in Vienna in early May. Jonas smiled broadly. His last words to me were that it was important for me to attend his next conference outside of Stockholm in June and yes, he would take yet another intern from Delaware. The two previous ones had become Rhodes Scholars. Jonas died before fulfilling his dream of crafting a global migration regime, but he pointed the way and provided a vision.