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IOM - International Organization for
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Geneva - People are becoming increasingly mobile within and across borders to meet the social and economic challenges of globalization with the search for employment at the heart of most movement in the 21st century, says the World Migration Report (WMR) 2008 launched today by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
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GENEVA, 2 December - People are becoming
increasingly mobile within and across borders to meet the social and economic
challenges of globalisation with the search for employment at the heart of most
movement in the 21st century, says the World Migration Report (WMR) 2008
launched today by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The report, focusing on the theme of Managing Labour Mobility in the Evolving
Global Economy, argues that demands for increased efficiency in production as a
response to fierce global competition has meant that workers, independent of
their geographical location, are increasingly living in an inter-connected
world of work, resulting in greater labour mobility.
With more than 200 million international migrants in the world today, two and a
half times the number in 1965, and most States simultaneously being countries
of migrant origin, transit and destination, WMR 2008 states that human mobility
has become a life choice driven by disparities in demography, income and employment
opportunities across and within regions.
"The international community made some very important choices in the last
century to facilitate the development of the global economy by allowing the
free movement of capital, goods and services. The inevitable consequence of
that choice is human mobility on an unprecedented global scale. But for all
countries, matching the subsequent supply and demand in an international labour
market remains a critical challenge," says Gervais Appave, Co-Editor of the
WMR 2008.
These pressures for labour mobility, the report predicts, are set to increase
in a world where industrialized countries, already competing for highly skilled
migrants, are also in short-supply of much needed, though often less accepted,
low and semi-skilled workers. This has been largely due to an increasing
scarcity of local workers available or willing to engage in low or semi-skilled
employment such as in agriculture, construction, hospitality or domestic care.
Within the next 50 years, these countries will experience even greater
shortages as birth rates fall and the working population age, leaving twice as
many people over 60 years of age than children.
The current supply imbalance in the global labour force is also expected to
worsen, according to the report. Demographic trends show that the working age
population of Africa alone is expected to triple from 408 million in 2005 to
1.12 billion in 2050 while one study claims that China and India are projected
to account for 40 per cent of the global workforce by 2030. The working age
population in developed countries, however, is expected to decline by 23% by
2050 without immigration (UNDESA, 2006).
Mindful of the adverse effects of too much out-migration on their economies and
societies, the reports says job creation at home remains the priority of most
migrant origin and developing countries. Nevertheless, an increasing number of
governments are complementing this strategy by seeking opportunities for their
workers on the international labour market to help develop their economies.
"What we are witnessing in countries of varying levels of development is a
re-emergence of low and semi-skilled temporary labour migration programmes in a
bid to square the needs of an economy and a labour market while minimizing any
political backlashes to increases in migration," says Ryszard Cholewinski,
Co-Editor of the WMR 2008. "However, this strategy can only work if there
is a complementary vision to develop the human resources of any labour force
and to adequately protect the rights of migrant workers participating in such
programmes."
The priority for any country and for the global economy as a whole is to have
planned and predictable ways of matching labour demand with supply in safe,
legal and humane ways, WMR 2008 finds.
Crucially, such an approach would ensure the fundamental human security of
migrants through their better economic and social protection in work and in
life. This protection would not only encompass migrants but automatically their
families, whether they have migrated too or remained behind.
For developed countries, clearly aware that labour market dynamics are
increasingly operating across international borders, the challenge will be in
adopting planned, flexible, "front-door" labour migration policies
that meet their own individual labour and skills needs.
"These types of policies are especially important during downturns in the
global economy such as the one we are witnessing today. The Asian financial
crisis of the 1990's showed that even in times of economic hardship, there is
still a structural need for migrants," Appave argues. "The world is
on the move, there is no turning away from that. If we harness that mobility
through policies addressing both human and economic needs, many of the
migration anomalies of the past can be overcome and we would see real progress
when we talk about global development," he concludes.
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