Tomas Ernst

Tomas Ernst
Job title
Program Manager, MMICD
Main areas of work

Tomas Ernst manages the Mainstreaming Migration in International Cooperation and Development (MMICD) initiative at IOM's Regional Office in Brussels. Tomas and his team are responsible for supporting EU and EU Member State planning and coordination on migration and sustainable development and for building technical partnerships with UN agencies on migration integration. The MMICD team creates tools to support migration and development planning within EU institutions, EU delegations, UN agencies and UN country teams. The objective of this work is to mainstream migration into all development sectors and to elevate migration within the UN, with a particular focus on the UN SDGs.

Previous experience

Tomas Ernst joined IOM's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) in September 2020, initially as Socio-Economic Response Officer (COVID-19) before joining the LHD portfolio as Senior Regional Labor Mobility and Human Development Officer. Previously, he worked for IOM in Iraq and Tunisia and spent a decade working with the United Nations and World Bank in Europe, Asia-Pacific, East Africa, and the Middle East. His social start-up, Donate2play.com, was recognized by Boulevard Magazine for its innovation in transforming the financial practices of nonprofit organizations. Tomas spent the previous five years working in local government, and his research essay on "Integrating Migrants/Newcomers into Municipal Environments" was published by Oxford University in 2019.

Thematic interests
  • Migration and sustainable development