Obama plans to convene global migrant summit in 2016

President Obama meets with a soon-to-be U.S. refugee from Myanmar

(Image credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

Next year, during the United Nations General Assembly in September, President Obama will host a summit on the massive migration wave of 2015, according to America's UN ambassador, Samantha Powers. Most of the attention in recent months has been on the huge outflow of refugees from Syria, but that's just part of "a larger global population of displaced that is larger now than 60 million," she told reporters on Monday. Obama's "vigorous, sustained effort" on the migration front, Powers said, will include months of outreach to the private sector and other countries to help resettle, educate, and find jobs for the migrants.

"The list of refugees in need unfortunately continues to grow — at the same time the international community has been utterly unable to keep up," Powers said. "This year has shown with painful clarity that our existing systems, approaches, and funding are inadequate to the task at hand and to the amount of human suffering that is ongoing." The U.S. takes in about 70,000 refugees a year, but lags behind its peers in accepting those from Syria.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.