Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good afternoon, everyone. It has been such a pleasure to join so many fellow mayors from across the world in conversation this weekend. At Civic Hall, at Gracie Mansion [and] even riding through the city atop a Big Bus, we have asked ourselves a few questions: What are the shared responsibilities that bind us as mayors? How can local leaders restore the trust in government that has been diminished across the world? And what role do cities play, and how can we use our power to bring about the change people are calling for?
We have heard from Mexico City and from Rome about what the answers to those questions look like when it comes to housing. We have heard from Freetown about how cities can set the model for how to protect our people and our world from the devastating impacts of the climate crisis.
But now I would like to take a moment to speak about the third core pillar of this weekend: migration. Whether we are talking about the ancient peoples who walked from continent to continent across the Bering Strait 30,000 years ago or the Great Migration right here in the United States, the movement of people from one place to another is a fact as old as human history itself.
And despite the fear that so many leaders seek to sow when they speak of migration, we are gathered today in a city that is living proof of how immigrants can be a force of transformative good. A city where you do not think twice hearing Swahili and Spanish, Creole and Cantonese spoken on the same block.
A city where newcomers arrive here decade after decade in search of refuge and opportunity and helped to make this city into what it is today. A city that I, an immigrant who arrived here when I was only seven years old, who only became a naturalized citizen in 2018, am so proud to lead.
Every inch of New York City is living proof that migration is an asset; that the world's city is so much stronger because we contain the world. I am so glad to be here among likeminded leaders, both on this stage, in this crowd and even beyond these walls.
Because each of us hold a shared responsibility to provide all our people with opportunity; and to view migration not as an obstacle to a city's success, but, frankly, as fundamental to that success. And we know there are many who will seek to sow division and spread fear to obstruct that goal. We are not daunted by it, nor will we use it as an excuse to abandon our convictions.
We also know that there are material challenges that we must overcome as well. Our city and cities across the globe so often bear the cost of housing and providing for newcomers without the resources to do so adequately. And these are needs we must meet while simultaneously working to make our cities more affordable and more resilient for the millions who already call them home.
That is why in this communiqué we are calling on our nations to fund direct investments in housing, public services and climate protections - the resources cities need to support our people. With that commitment in mind, we can now stand at the culmination of this weekend's work: the ratification of the communiqué.
This document, as has been held up a number of times today, is not simply an outline of the issues facing our communities; it is a testament to our shared vision that everyone deserves a decent, dignified home. That economic development and climate resiliency go hand in hand. And that those fleeing war, genocide, flood, famine and instability should not be turned away but should be welcomed.
To make that vision real, this communiqué sets forth a bold and actionable framework with clear requests for resources and funding from our nations. And yet we know, as we have heard, that this document can only be as meaningful as the actions that follow.
So today, as we move to ratify this communiqué, let us do so with a commitment to that very thing: a commitment to action, a commitment to a future where our cities and nations work for the working people who call them home. Thank you so much.
