international migration expanding, but absence of well crafted

 

policies bedevils its positive aspects

 

NEW YORK, 29 November -- An orderly, controlled migration of persons across borders benefits both sending and receiving countries on the whole, a United Nations report released today finds.  However, migration’s positive aspects intertwine with the difficulties it poses in a complex pattern.

This year’s UN Economic and Social Survey sees an opportunity for well crafted policies that, for instance, can help countries with ageing populations to shore up retirement systems teetering on the brink of insolvency, or maximize the benefits of remittances sent home by migrants to developing countries.  Remittances to developing countries now total at least $79 billion and exceed levels of development assistance.  In general, the authors say, international migration can serve as an agent for global interchanges of skill and knowledge, as well as economic dynamism and efficiency.

Nevertheless, with the stock of migrants living outside their home country expanding to more than 175 million, the share of world governments with policies to lower immigration grew from only 7 per cent in 1976 to 34 per cent in 2003, the Survey reports.

The United Nations report is released as globalization, international security concerns and demographic trends are redirecting attention to migration.  It also comes in advance of the 2005 report of the Global Commission on International Migration and a 2006 high-level dialogue on development and migration to take place in the United Nations General Assembly.

“Beyond existing conventions and protocols, the international community lacks a comprehensive international framework that addresses the wide range of issues pertaining to international migration”, the Survey says.  “Migration is a global and transnational phenomenon involving various parties with differing perspectives and interests.  It, therefore, calls for a global approach and global framework.”

On Frontier of Globalization

Fears in receiving countries that incoming migrants will take away jobs or bring down wages are highly ingrained, and contribute to a restrictive political and policy outlook.  But the Survey finds that studies of the economic impact of migration indicate no significant reduction in wage and employment rates among natives.  On the other hand, incoming migrants expand the demand for goods and services, add to gross national production, and generally contribute more to government coffers than they take out.

The Survey -- authored by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and drawing on the expertise of agencies across the United Nations system -- is also concerned with the “brain drain” effect of emigration on developing countries.  The average emigrant departing from Latin America or Asia possesses more than twice the years of schooling than, on average, residents of their home countries.  From Africa, the emigrants have tripled the schooling of those staying at home.  The price paid by countries of origin is most of all in lost innovation and creativity.  They also forego to a certain extent the return on their investment in education, estimated at $640 million a year for emigrants to the United States alone.  In addition, workers abroad do not pay income taxes in their home countries -- an estimated revenue loss to India, for example, of $700 million in 2000.

But these emigration-related losses tend to be offset by positive effects.  These include not only an inflow of remittances, but often also a relaxation in oversupply of labour in home countries and the knowledge and skills that return migrants bring with them.  Overseas migrants are also known to be major investors in their home countries.  Studies show that 70 per cent of foreign direct investment in China originates in the Chinese diaspora, and expatriate African technology workers are supporting high-tech start-ups in sub-Saharan Africa, via a programme linked with the United Nations Information and Communications Technologies Task Force.

Policy-makers in developed countries with ageing populations are looking at the ameliorative effect of increased immigrant flows to support pension programmes and other social and income benefits for the retired.  United Nations experts caution, however, that while the introduction of temporary or permanent immigrant workers may be one factor in a solution, it cannot by itself eliminate the labour market effects of population ageing or ensure solvency of pension systems.

All in all, migration remains one of the last frontiers of globalization.

“For the past 50 years, governments all over the world have undertaken various liberalization measures in the areas of goods, services and capital, multilaterally and unilaterally”, says United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Jose Antonio Ocampo.  “The basic premise of such policies is to maximize economic efficiency at the national and global levels.  Yet, the current international movement of people is largely shaped by restrictive migration laws and policies.”

Privileging Capital over Labour

Despite prevalent assumptions, migration inflows to developed countries are in fact currently less than prevailed in major receiving countries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  And its growth since the 1960s has been much more gradual than that of international finance flows and trade.  This asymmetry in the treatment of international flows of finance and trade in comparison with international flows of labour has favoured payments for capital over payments for labour, while the national emphasis on attracting skilled immigrants has benefited skilled over unskilled labour.

The perceived impact of migration may be magnified by concerns as to maintenance of national identities and cultures.  Policy-makers must wrestle with differing mixes of assimilationist and multicultural approaches, the Survey notes.  In the 1970s, multiculturalism tended to replace the “melting pot” paradigm, but the last few years have seen a resurgence of efforts to integrate migrants into national cultures.  This trend has become conflated and sometimes confused with post-11 September efforts to take a harder look at potential immigrants in regard to security concerns.

Points of Policy

Other points presented by the Survey for policy-makers’ consideration:

-- Protection of the workplace and human rights of migrants is a paramount responsibility.

-- Safe, orderly and rule-governed migration should be established within a framework where States understand their obligations to protect the rights of migrants, and migrants recognize their rights and obligations.

-- Given the attraction of human capital of developing countries that migration generates, there is a strong argument for destination countries to support education and labour training programmes in countries of origin.

-- Non-portability of migrants’ acquired retirement benefits as well as educational and employment credentials need to be addressed.  This lack is not only a specific social inequity, but is discouraging to migrants considering a return to their home country.

-- Transaction costs of overseas remittances should be reduced.  Lower costs and more efficient operation of formal mechanisms can reduce the sway of informal networks sometimes associated with money laundering or terrorist finance.

-- Networks of migrants in host countries lend each other mutual support and maintain their culture.  They also constitute a useful bridging mechanism with the host society.

-- Policies for the successful integration of migrants into host societies should be complemented by programmes that ensure education and appropriate job training.

-- Almost every new and numerous migrant group will elicit some degree of opposition or stigmatization.  Governments should counteract discrimination by informing the public of the benefits and rationales of migration.

-- One option for managing gaps between supply and demand of skilled or unskilled labour in developed countries is through temporary inflows.  The result is fewer problems with social integration in the host country and less of a brain drain on developing countries.  A multilateral framework for this cooperation is already in place, in the form of Mode 4 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services of the World Trade Organization.  The current global trade negotiations offer an opportunity to consider widening the scope of this agreement.

-- Bilateral and regional arrangements on international migration have proven to be useful in responding rapidly to changing migration trends and needs and improving cooperation, and their use can be expanded.

-- Countries of origin should enhance the benefits of outward migration by supporting business and academic networks that link emigrants with their home country; facilitating return migration; promoting exports of culturally valued products to overseas migrant communities; and allowing dual citizenship and participation of emigrants in their domestic political life. 

-- Since international migration is not likely to decrease in volume or importance in the foreseeable future, governments have an interest in continuing to seek new forms of international cooperation.  Broad-based ratification of existing conventions and protocols would be a major step in that direction.

The UN Economic and Social Survey is published annually by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which monitors, evaluates and analyses relevant trends and upon request of Member States, sets standards and goals.  Part I of the Survey reports on economic and macroeconomic conditions of the past year and projections for the next.  Part II covers a selected theme of international significance and timeliness.

The full text of the Survey is available on the web at www.un.org/esa/policy/wess/index.html.

For more information, contact the Development Section of the UN Department of Public Information, through Tim Wall, tel: 1-212-963-5851; or Ellen McGuffie, tel:  1-212-963-0499.

World Economic and Social Survey 2004:  International Migration (Sales No. E.04.II.C.3; ISBN 9211091470) is available for $45.00 from United Nations Publications, Two United Nations Plaza, Room DC2-853, Dept PRES, New York, New York 10017, USA, tel. 800-252-9646 or 1-212-963-8302, fax. 1-212-963-3489, e-mail: publications@un.org; or Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, tel. 41-22-917-2614, Fax. 41-22-917-0027, e-mail: unpubli@unog.ch.  Internet: http://unp.un.org/

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