MIGRATION and development
IN the present-day world, marked by globalisation, economic integration and technological advancement,
migration has become an international phenomenon.
There is freer movement of goods, services, capital, labour and ideas than ever before. Although barriers to international trade and financial transactions have been dismantled significantly over the past two decades, barriers to cross-border movement of people still remain high.
Migration was considered a problem in the past with negative implications for development. It was adversely viewed in terms of brain drain, labour force depletion and rural exodus. However, in the globalised world of today, there is a growing recognition of the positive effects of migration.
International migration has the potential to generate substantial welfare gains for migrants and their families and for the countries involved both of origin and destination. For developing economies like Pakistan, remittances are an important source of much-needed foreign exchange earnings. Migration also entails benefits such as knowledge, skills and technology transfer, reduction in unemployment, modernisation, democratisation and empowerment of the disadvantaged segments of society.
Despite its benefits, however, migration remains a polemical issue. The main reason for this is that migration, like trade and capital flows, has distributional implications, whereby net gains for society may entail losses for some individuals and groups. Migration also creates ripples of resistance because the movement of people has economic, psychological, social and political consequences.
Viewed from this perspective, the gains and losses from international migration need to be objectively evaluated, particularly from the standpoint of developing countries. What is more important is to consider policy initiatives that could enhance the developmental impact of migration and its contribution to poverty reduction.
This by no means is an easy task. As migration is a diverse phenomenon, its economic impact in one place or another is largely determined by the particular circumstances involved. Moreover, in view of the paucity of basic data on migration, assessing the impact of policy changes is fraught with difficulties. This underscores the need for better data and more research.
Moreover, institutional arrangements need to be made to provide authentic information on migration opportunities and risks to avert unfortunate migration decisions and to limit the abuse and exploitation of vulnerable migrants. An effective regulatory framework for recruitment agents is required to protect intending migrants and to improve transparency.
Greater emigration of low-skilled workers from labour-surplus developing countries could make a significant contribution to poverty reduction. A feasible option could be managed migration programmes between origin and destination countries that combine temporary migration with incentives for return.
The countries of origin that are adversely affected by high-skilled emigration can help to retain key workers by improving working conditions in public employment and by investing in research and development. Countries of origin can also take steps to encourage educated emigrants to return by offering incentives.
Governments can deepen the developmental impact of remittances through the adoption of appropriate policies. These include improving access of poor migrants and their families to formal financial services, expanding banking networks at home and abroad and facilitating the participation of micro-finance institutions in providing low-cost remittance services.
An important factor in this phenomenon is respect for human rights of all migrants. This is an essential component of migration management and development strategies. Enhanced dissemination and understanding of UN and ILO legal norms and instruments relating to migrants is required among all the stakeholders. Maltreatment of workers and non-compliance of contractual obligations in receiving countries are a cause of concern and require cooperation among origin country representatives abroad.
In this context the illegal human trafficking that needs to be checked assumes great importance. It needs the cooperation of a number of agencies to enhance capacity among institutions and individuals dealing with these issues.
However, the root causes of this phenomenon need to be addressed by undertaking development in high migration areas in countries of origin and by increasing opportunities for legal labour migration in countries of destination. The management of labour migration requires a multi-dimensional and well coordinated approach in order to contribute to the development of both origin and destination countries.
The efforts and initiatives undertaken by the International Organisation on Migration (IOM) during the recent past have resulted in positive outcomes. The ministerial meetings held at Colombo and Manila as well as the workshop held at Islamabad last July initiated the process of exchanging ideas and best practices.
The role of IOM as an inter-governmental facilitator in the migration process needs to be recognised. This role can be enhanced to assist countries of origin like Pakistan in placing our labour in new markets. It may be mentioned that about 3.8 million Pakistanis are working or living abroad.
The UN High-Level Dialogue on migration and development held in New York in September 2006 was a step in the right direction. The credit for this initiative goes to all the member-states who have worked to put international migration on the global agenda. The UN High-Level Dialogue offers a unique opportunity for states to share best practices on migration management. It also provides an excellent forum to foster international cooperation on key migration issues such as migration and development, migration management and human rights issues of migrants.
Such initiatives are raising awareness about the development dimension of migration worldwide and serve as a catalyst for governments to improve their internal coordination on migration and development issues. The developing countries, including Pakistan, should play a vibrant role in these global initiatives and ardently support the idea that the dialogue on migration and development should continue through an international body mandated for the task.
This should also be supplemented by regional consultative processes which are crucial for fostering dialogue and mutual understanding on shared migration challenges.
By Sami Saeed
The writer is a civil servant. The views expressed by him are his own.
samisaeed7@hotmail.com
http://www.dawn.com/2007/10/08/op.htm#3
October 08, 2007 Monday