DRAFT TEXTS ON TCDC AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT INTRODUCED IN ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL COMMITTEE

29 October 1997

Press Release
GA/EF/2778

DRAFT TEXTS ON TCDC AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT INTRODUCED IN ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL COMMITTEE

19971029 Committee Holds Panel Discussion on International Migration; Speakers Say Globalized Economy, Civil Conflicts among Major Reasons for Migration

The General Assembly would decide to hold a commemorative meeting during its fifty-third session to mark the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries, by the terms of one of two draft resolutions introduced this afternoon in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial)

Sponsored by the "Group and 77" developing countries and China, and introduced by the representative of the United Republic of Tanzania, the draft would also have the Assembly request the Special Unit for Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to prepare and organize the commemorative meeting, in consultation with Member States and relevant organizations and agencies of the United Nations system.

By another draft, also sponsored by the Group of 77 and China, the Assembly would invite Member States and organizations to intensify their efforts to integrate cultural factors into their development programmes and projects to ensure sustainable human development that fully respect cultural diversity.

Also this afternoon, the Committee held a panel discussion on "International Migration, Population and Developed". The Under-Secretary- General for Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai, introduced the members of the panel: James Purcell, Director-General, International Organization for Migration (IOM); Guillermina Jasso, Professor of Sociology, New York University; Solita Monsod, Professor of Economics, University of the Philippines; and Makhtar Diouf, Professor of Economic Science, University of Dakar.

Addressing the causes, trends, consequences and benefits of migration, the panellists identified as the major reasons for migration the search for better opportunities in a globalized economy, wealth disparities between rich and poor nations, curiosity, environmental degradation and civil conflicts. Migration benefited both the source and the receiving countries, it was

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stated. Also, many governments, especially in the receiving countries, had a negative view of migration, which had become a political issue, limiting the ability of State to individually address it. They stressed the need for a multilateral approach to the problem of migration.

Emphasizing that the option of remaining in one's own country should be made viable for everyone, panellists called on the international community to address such issues as international trade, investment, aid policies and the widening gap between the rich and poor countries to facilitate that. The rights of migrant workers and their families should also be addressed. There was a need for reliable data as a basis for sound policies on international migration, it was noted.

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, Thursday, 30 October, to consider population and development and international migration, including the proposed convening of a United Nations conference on international migration and development.

Committee Work Programme

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met this afternoon to hold a panel discussion on "international migration, population and development" to be moderated by the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai.

The Committee was also scheduled to hear the introduction of two draft resolutions on the following topics: cultural development, and economic and technical cooperation among developing countries (ECDC/TCDC).

Drafts for Introduction

By a draft resolution on cultural development (document A/C.2/52/L.10), sponsored by the United Republic of Tanzania on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, the Assembly would invite all Member States, agencies and bodies of the United Nations system, and non-governmental organizations to intensify their efforts to integrate cultural factors into their development programmes and projects to ensure sustainable human development that fully respected cultural diversity.

The Assembly would also stress the importance of the interaction between culture and development as a priority theme in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and that it should be reflected in the structure and activities of the Organization. The Secretary-General would be requested to include guidelines to promote culturally sensitive development in the elaboration of the International Development Strategy for the next United Nations Development Decade.

Another draft sponsored by the Group and 77 and China concerns economic and technical cooperation among developing countries (document A/C.2/52/L.9). It would have the Assembly decide to hold a commemorative meeting during its fifty-third session to mark the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries. The Special Unit for Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) would be requested to prepare and organize the commemorative meeting, in consultation with Member States and relevant organizations and agencies of the United Nations system.

The Assembly would also request the Special Unit to prepare and submit a comprehensive assessment of the progress made in the implementation of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action and its impact since its adoption, as well as recommendations for the broadening of the global partnership in international development cooperation and strengthening the integration of the modalities of economic and technical cooperation among developing countries.

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In addition, Governments and relevant United Nations organizations, including the multilateral financial institutions, would be called upon to consider increasing allocations of resources for economic and technical cooperation among developing countries and to identify and support innovative funding modalities to promote South-South cooperation, such as triangular cooperation and private sector funding. The Assembly would also decide to intensify the process of strengthening the various interregional dialogues and the exchange of experiences among subregional and regional economic groupings for the purpose of expanding South-South cooperation through integrating the modalities of economic and technical cooperation among developing countries.

Statements on International Migration, Population, Development

NITIN DESAI, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, introduced the members of the panel on "international migration, population and development": James Purcell, Director-General of the International Migration Organization; Guillermina Jasso, Professor of Sociology, New York University; Solita Monsod, Professor of Economics, University of the Philippines; and Makhtar Diouf, Director of Economic Science, University of St. Louis, Dakar.

JOSEPH CHAMIE, Director, Population Division, Department for Economic and Social Affairs, made an introductory statement on international migration. He said there were three basic core human activities: reproduction, ageing and death, and migration. Those core activities were the building blocks for population change and fundamental for the well-being of every society. The demographic revolution, or "demographic transition", concerned the projected population change from 1950 to 2050, which showed the world population growing from 2.5 billion to 9 billion. Some of the factors behind that revolution were the revolutionary changes in the levels of birth and death rates. The fall in death rates was one of the greatest achievements of mankind.

Ageing was a consequence of the demographic transition, he continued. The age structure of the world had changed to an ageing population with a greater proportion of those above 60 and relatively fewer below 15.

Compared to fertility and mortality, the knowledge base for international migration was much smaller, and there was more misinformation and questionable conclusions than those concerning fertility and mortality. Fertility and mortality were also relatively more straightforward than international migration, which was a difficult subject on which to collect information. Public policy and public sentiment often coloured research findings and conclusions from research.

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In developing countries growth rates were largely due to natural increases, he said. The net migration rates for developing countries were negative, but for the developed world the migration rates were positive. In the United States, Canada and Australia, well over half of the migrants originated from developing countries.

The lack of data was the general problem in the field of international migration, he said. Sound policies required sound data. Theories related to international migration and development were lacking, and more work needed to be done to create a comprehensive framework. The relationships between international migration and development were complex and a lot needed to be done to understand that. The demographic and political impact of international migration was much more significant today than it had been in the past.

JAMES PURCELL, Director, International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the search for food, prosperity, security and a sense of curiosity were often responsible for the global movement of people. Migration was as old as mankind itself. Nations had been built around migrants. Every country was now part of the global migratory movement. Some countries were sending out people to other countries, some were receiving and some were serving as transit points.

He said many governments now considered migration to be destructive. It had become a political issue. Therefore, the ability of the State to individually address that problem was limited. There was a need for a multilateral approach to the problem of migration. About 2 million people migrate annually.

Speaking further on the determinants, characteristics and consequences of migration, he said growing disparities in the wealth of nations, poverty, unemployment and underemployment, civil war, environmental degradation, the search for better opportunities and the desire to participate in the global economic system were spurring migration. Many of the root causes of migration were economic. There was substantial migration among developed countries. Legal migration of skilled workers was increasing. Migration could no longer be seen solely as the movement of people from poor countries to the rich ones. A lot of skilled workers were chasing jobs in the globalized economy.

He said there was also a growing number of migrants who crossed borders illegally, including criminals who traffic in drugs. The number of displaced people was also increasing. The globalization of the world economy had also led to an increase in the number of workers living outside their countries.

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Addressing specifically the relationship between migration and development, he said many developed economies, such as those of the United States, Canada and some European countries relied heavily on skilled and unskilled migrant labour for develop. Remittances from migrants to their home countries contributed significantly to the development of those economies. Underdevelopment was a source of migration throughout the world. The impact of the lack of development on migration was substantial. Issues such as international trade, investment and aid policies needed to be addressed. Migration policies and a framework for addressing migration needed to be worked out by the international community. Information, basic education to help migrants to update their skills and the rights of migrant workers and their families should also be addressed. The option of remaining in one's own country should be made viable for everyone. GUILLERMINA JASSO, Professor of Sociology at New York University, said she agreed that sound policy making required sound data. There was very little data about international migration at the present time, and more data was available about the United States than about rest of the world. The current data bases needed strong infusions of energy and creativity. The challenge for policy makers was to ensure the soundness of the information on which migration policies were based. It was important to recall that as long as there had been human beings those humans had moved, she said. By their evolution, humans were prepared to move and to distrust newcomers, because newcomers had brought with them disease, famine and war. It was the conjunction of those impulses that gave rise to tensions over migration. She said part of a framework for studying migration included knowing: who moves and why; whether or not those people stayed; and, the extent of their adaption if they stayed. Knowledge was also required about the experiences of those who remained in the country of origin and the natives of the destination country that did not move. Good probability samples concerning the legal status of immigrants of distinct types were needed, she said. Legal status shaped the environment faced by migrants, and the conditions under which a migrant made decisions was shaped by the legal climate. It was also important to follow those migrants over time in order to have information on adaption and return migration, which could be substantial. Information was also required on the migration histories of individuals, the families and households of migrants, and the sponsors of migrants, she added. In most countries the sponsor played a key part in the migration process, she said. The largest single component of immigration to the United States, and probably many other countries, was to form new families -- migration for the purpose of marriage. In those cases, most sponsors were native-born United States citizens who had fallen in love with someone who was foreign born.

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MAKHTAR DIOUF, Professor of Economic Sciences, University of Dakar, said the least studied aspect of international migration was inter-African migration. Migration was not a new phenomenon in Africa. The slave trade was an example of migration, and its impact on development was obvious in the contributions those slaves had made to the countries they had been taken. Africa was both an exporter and importer of migrants.

Categorizing inter-African migration, he mentioned countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali as exporters of migrants to the coffee and cocoa plantations of Côte d'Ivoire, while Cape Verde exported migrant workers to Senegal and the United States, especially Boston. The second category included net importers of migration such as Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, South Africa and Libya, while the third category included countries such as Nigeria and Senegal, which were both importers and exporters of migrants.

On the contributions of migrants to the development of both the sending and receiving economies, he said both the net exporters and importers benefited from migration. The migrant labour helped the economies of the net importing countries, while the net exporting countries benefited from the remittances from migrants. Cape Verde, for instance, had a per capita income which was equal or higher than Senegal's, in spite of the fact that Cape Verde did not have resources. Those remittances were substantial and often invested in the rural areas.

Explaining that the phenomenon of migration could not be discussed without addressing the issue of expulsion of migrants, he said such expulsion were often carried out in violation of bilateral treaties providing for the free movement of people. He cited the recent expulsion of Africans from France and the expulsion of Ghanaians from Nigeria in the 1980s as examples. Once the economies of host countries began to experience difficulties, migrants were often held responsible. They were deported under violent circumstances, deprived of their properties. Those were problems that the international community must deal with.

SOLITA MONSOD, Professor of Economics, University of the Philippines, said when viewing international migration in the context of globalization, one could see that while barriers to movement of goods and capital had been going down, barriers to the movement of people had been going up, or not going down as quickly. While trade and foreign direct investment had increased tremendously, migration had increased only slightly. In 1995, 66 countries had policies that discouraged migration, and 32 countries had policies that discouraged immigration. Those factors showed schizophrenic tendencies on the part of some governments in an era of liberalization and globalization.

Turning to migration in Asia, she said it was not a case of thundering hoards invading developed countries. Developing countries were host to two thirds of the foreign-born citizens, and Asia was host to over 30 per cent.

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Asia had a negative net migration rate, but it was smaller than the rates for Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. Asia still had the majority of the migration population, with 60 per cent, compared to 20 per cent from Latin America and 20 per cent from Africa. In addition, refugees accounted for a lower share of foreign-born citizens in Asia than in Latin America and Africa.

The increase of labour flows from and within Asia was one of the most noteworthy new trends in international migration, she said. In the Philippines, half of the migrant workers were female, which coincided with the world average. Most of those workers also came from regions with the least poverty incidence. The female migrant workers earned less, yet they also sent a larger proportion of their earnings to their home country. The unemployment rate in the Philippines was low, about 3 per cent, but the quality of employment was poor. Some Asian countries had already undergone the migration transition, from sending to receiving country, including Japan, Malaysia and the Republic of Korea.

There are three types of migrant policies that existed in the world, she said. One policy featured a totally multicultural integration of migrants, as was the case in Canada and the United States. Another policy, like the one in France, assimilated migrants into the host culture. The third was a policy of segregation, like the policies in Asia. It was ironic that Asians treated other Asians worse than the West treated Asians. That had to be changed, and new policies needed to be undertaken by developing countries. There seemed to be many obstacles preventing the United Nations from holding a world conference on international migration and development. Therefore, the international community should facilitate negotiations with labour-importing countries on a bilateral or multilateral basis.

Exchange of Views Mr. PURCELL, responding to comments regarding how migration could be treated in the future, said studies had found that migrants had made substantial contributions to their own countries and the host countries. Yet, because of the growing phenomenon of irregular migration, those contributions were overwhelmed or unrecognized. Chapter IX of the Programme of Action adopted by the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development had put forward a comprehensive programme that responded to the issue, he said. In addressing the relationship between international migration and development, the Programme stated that, through cooperation between both receiving and sending countries, it should be possible for every person to remain in his own country and survive. The Programme also said that the movement of people should be regulated. All countries had the responsibility of receiving back their nationals as citizens, and readmission agreements should be drafted and implemented. The Cairo Programme of Action also addressed human rights and other abuses, the protection of the families of migrant workers, and the humanitarian areas of migration.

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The international community had been supplied with a comprehensive platform to address the phenomenon of international migration, but the political will was missing to "add meat to that framework", he continued. Conferences in Asia and Latin America and of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) had recently addressed the issue of how to go about governing the movement of people. International migration was both constructive and destabilizing, and it had to be addressed comprehensively. Actions should be taken to ensure that migrants were respected and their contributions were brought to the forefront. Responding to several questions regarding the impacts of migration on receiving countries, Ms. JASSO said the impacts were not only economic, but also social and demographic, but they were extremely difficult to measure. A study recently completed by the National Academy of Sciences in the United States represented the best effort to quantify the impact of migration. That study contained the best and most comprehensive framework for thinking about the issues of migration. Its estimates, which relied on existing data, were not as good. The study's findings showed that the combined impacts of all kinds of immigration in the United States was a net positive. Some individuals were likely to be hurt, but those who gained included consumers owners of capital and the employees of newcomers. Regarding several comments made regarding a binational and multinational studies, she said the real model would include two countries, and difficulties might arise in the implementation of a study with more than two countries. The ideal vehicle would look at the databases of sets of countries involved in mutual migration streams. Longitudinal data samples with known properties were key to any study.

Ms. MONSOD, addressing questions about the impact of migration in receiving countries, said studies suggest that migrant workers should increase the per capita gross national product (GNP) for the natives in a receiving country. Migrants also reduced costs in labour intensive sectors and cushioned the impact of unemployment on native labourers, because migrants were the first to go during recessionary periods. In Canada, immigrants created as many jobs as they took, and they earned substantially less than native workers.

Turning to the fiscal impact of migration, she said the proportion of taxes paid by immigrants in the United Kingdom was equivalent to their consumption of social services. Receiving countries benefited from migration more than had been acknowledged, and fears regarding lower wages and vanishing jobs were groundless.

Introduction of Draft Resolutions

A. MWAKAPUGI (United Republic of Tanzania), speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, introduced the draft resolutions on cultural development and economical and technical cooperation among developing countries, respectively.

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