United Nations officials say discrimination, lack of access to education and poor working conditions are growing problems, and they want governments to respond with a new human rights framework and national policies.
The world is in an era of unprecedented human mobility, with the greatest number of people in history living outside their country or region of origin.
According to United Nations figures, the world already has about 214 million international migrants.
More than 20-million of these are young people, and the number is rising.
Michelle Leighton, International Migration Branch of the International Labour Organisation, says high rates of unemployment have led many young people to seek work in other countries.
"We had an economic crisis in 2008 that spread across the world and that has affected youth the most. The lack of economic growth or stagnation in a lot of countries has left many people without jobs, particularly youth. And youth have small job prospects in their home countries and then they either move to larger cities or see if they can move overseas to obtain jobs even when they have received a university degree."
Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon says looking for work is only one of the reasons why young people move to live in other countries.
He says some are refugees, fleeing persecution.
Others are part of a family, with parents, siblings, and perhaps even children of their own.
Mr Ban says young migrants and refugees make positive economic, cultural and social contributions to their societies of origin, transit and destination.
But he says many face equal or greater struggles than what they faced at home.
Powser Soe from Myanmar spent 13 years in various refugee camps in Thailand before she was resettled in the United States.
She says young refugees face difficulties when coming from situations of interrupted education.
"When they come here, they want to go to college but the college can't approve them to go there because they don't have a high school certificate. They have a really hard time. They don't speak any English, they can't find a job and they can't go to school. So it's really hard. I want somebody to think about it and somebody to do about this. To bring this group justice and to be able to go to school to get higher education so they can do great things for the nation and for the country."
UNICEF deputy director Christian Salazar says education is just one of the basic rights that young migrants should be entitled to, regardless of temporary or permanent migration status.
"To ensure access of children and youth whether in regular or irregular situations to basic social services and labour inspection. We think that it is important and it's actually a basic right for adolescents in the world that states have to grant education and access to health to all young people, like all children on their territory. It doesn't matter which nationality they have children are children no matter where ever they are."
Mr Salazar says governments should implement a separate human rights framework especially for international young migrants.
"This framework must address the needs and rights particularly of children, adolescents and youth. There is a framework for children which has a number protecting provisions and guiding principles. Like the principle of the best interest of the child, non-discrimination, the right to life, survival and development of all children under 18 and the right to participate and be heard. We know these rights are not fulfilled in many countries, particularly undocumented adolescents and youth are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation."
Lack of proper documentation is a problem faced by Melissa Garcia, a young Colombian migrant living without immigration papers in the US.
We don't have any type of immigration status. We are considered illegal aliens. We are often called criminals, stealing jobs, and we are put in the shadows, not telling anybody who we are, not telling anyone about our status because we are afraid that we are going to get deported.
Bangladeshi representative at the UN, Dr. A.K. Abdul Momen, says migration is an effective strategy to reduce poverty.
But he also says that new national policies are crucial to promote safe migration, and to raise awareness about the abuse and exploitation that young migrants may face.
"We know that migration is the greatest poverty reduction strategy and since we are committed to ending poverty and hunger should you not concede this issue as a priority issue. From time to time many of us get shivery and feel pain when we read stories of abuse, exploitation and human indignity of migrants. To end such abuse it is imperative to develop safe and regular migration policy. Create public awareness to alert the likely victims to avoid such exploitation and eliminate negative taboo of migrant workers."
Michelle Leighton, from the ILO's International Migration Branch says it's important to emphasise how young migrants make positive contributions to businesses, economic growth and productivity.
"They fill labour market shortages of course when other local labourers do not want to take the jobs, young migrants can fill those jobs which means businesses can obtain more economic growth and productivity. They bring fresh ideas with a new perspective and that may be an old cliche but I think many still believe that's true. They're usually on the cutting edge of many ideas and trends. They can provide different approaches to meeting workplace expectations and different approach to meeting challenges."
However, Ms Leighton says that the number of young migrants with university qualifications who accept low-skilled positions is a growing concern.
"The largest flow we know now migrating from most countries are between the ages of 15 to 29. But I think what's most troubling is that in a recent survey we found that about 30 per cent of migrants with university degrees working in developed countries are working in little or low skilled jobs. So we're not really tapping into the vast potential of our young people."
YOUTH MIGRATION IN AUSTRALIA
In filling its annual immigration quota, Australia very much favours applicants with particular job skills - or large sums of money to invest.
But there's also a strong preference for younger applicants - especially those aged between 18 and 40.
Those younger people who do migrate to Australia are part of a world-wide trend that the United Nations says is unprecedented.
The UN says while it brings benefits to countries like Australia, there can be huge hurdles for the young migrants to overcome.
Chairman of the Federation Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia, Pino Migliorino, says both young migrants and refugees face similar risks and challenges.
He says those who find themselves without support networks after arriving in Australia are particularly prone to risk situations and exploitation.
"When younger people find themselves on their own, or isolated or in other communities with younger people, the extent to which people there are people they can refer to or get advice from becomes a little bit more limited. So there is going to be a sense of them being a little bit more vulnerable than what would otherwise be the case and there is clearly people who understand that and are happy to exploit them."
Mr Migliorino also says vulnerability also extends to employment and accommodation.
"The range of what are almost high risk jobs which you dont need a lot of skills for in terms of just money making. The reality is are these younger people actually going to be finding themselves in areas of vulnerability? That certainly happens around employment but it can also happen in other areas of their life like accommodation and lodgings and many many stories you get told of younger people actually getting the raw end of that whole housing market or being exploited in employment."
Soo-Lin Quek is the policy and research manager at the Centre for Multicultural Youth in Melbourne,
She says young migrants and refugees who come to Australia with fragmented education history can have a hard time in school.
They may be let's say sixteen years old coming to Australia may go to high school year ten or eleven but in reality they may have only had three or four syears of formal education. So therefore you can well imagine what can happens when they land in year 9 they go well we can't cope.
Soo-Lin Quek says issues of trauma can also impact on young refugees' ability to concentrate in class but special support services can help young refugees stay in school.
"Whether it's mental health service to support a whole lot of trauma issues the young person may be facing. It could be things like wrapping around homework groups around that group of young people where they can go to after school hours to try and catch up.
"Michelle Leighton is chief of the International Migration Branch at the UN's International Labour Organisation in Geneva.
She says Australia has done better than some other countries in setting up systems that can help young migrants and refugees to achieve the transition from education into the workforce.
But Ms Leighton says more could be done.
"Australia has a program among many others that includes a bonus payment for employers to hire young apprentices or at least payments when a young apprenticeship is completed. That's a very innovative program that would help employers to hire more young people. But there are also strategies needed for enhancing transition from informality to formality so that young people don't find themselves always in temporary or informal work where they are perhaps more subject to exploitation or abuse or a lack of payment of wages".
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says governments around the world haven't paid enough attention to the struggles and experiences of young migrants and refugees.
One issue he's highlighted is that young women and girls face the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse in destination countries.
Pino Migliorino from FECCA says that can be a problem in Australia, although it's mainly with women who are only on temporary visas, not permanent migrants.
"There has been a clear sense of younger women being exploited or brought to Australia for that type of sex trade, and that is exploitable and unacceptable in alot of ways. It is a contested area because the sex worker organisations are quite strongly stating that very few of these young women are exploited or here against their will. As I said it is a contested area and there is growing evidence that there are indeed many younger women who actually find themselves in the sex trade without necessarily feeling that's what they are here to do."
Mr Migliorino says practical support services and useful information should be made accessible to all young migrants and refugees arriving in Australia on short-term or permanent visas.
He says that's the best way to minimise the risk of exploitation and poor working conditions in any industry in which they end up working.
"They would start from straight up and down information orientation in terms of what are their rights, where should they be looking for opportunities, if they experience various situations where should they go to seek assistance, where should they place complaints, so in that sense that knowledge is really important".
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