Immigration
from KOPIN

"There are more international migrants today than ever before, and their number is set to increase. It is a complex and divisive issue: the subject of intense public and political concern and the reality for many migrants – both legal and irregular – is one of exploitation and abuse.”
Khalid Koser (member of the UN’s Global Commission on International Migration)

It is a widely acknowledged fact that migration is not a phenomenon that can be analysed on its own. Other important global issues such as development, poverty and human rights cannot be ignored or downplayed.

If we had to take a historical and wide view of migration in all its forms, we would see that migrants invariably had an important role in the growth of many rich countries, be it economical or cultural. More often than not, they turned out to be the most enterprising, hopeful and dynamic members of society.

It must also be stated that migration does present a set of challenges. Exploitation and discrimination of migrants is a common occurrence. Integration within the hosting society is often problematic, while also the building of ethnic communities that healthily interact within society at large could be difficult to achieve without causing segregation and hampering integration. Another important downside to migration is the brain drain from originating countries. However, these last two facets should also be analysed in the light of the latest trends that depart from traditional processes of migration. Particularly when compared to a century ago, migration has become a temporary measure for a lot of people. Most of the people often have a “dream to return” and an increasing number of migrants are in fact doing so and investing in their homeland.

As Kopin is an NGO that works in International Development Cooperation, this article will try to focus on the link between migration and underdevelopment. There are two ways how to look at this: underdevelopment in origin countries creates the impetus for migration, but it also deepens the structural difficulties of these same countries to develop at a healthy and steady pace.

The incentives for migration
Underdevelopment in economically deficient countries worsens demographic and democratic deficits. The UNDP measures a country’s ‘development’ according to its Human Development Index (HDI) that takes into consideration three key aspects of a society: income, health and education. A 2005 report shows that a number of countries already ranking amongst the poorest have seen a deterioration in their HDI. It is no coincidence that from the 18 countries negatively affected, 12 where sub-Saharan African countries. This effectively means that the human wellbeing of the populations of these countries suffered a further decline but also that the disparity between these countries and the rest of the world increased.

Abject poverty dents the development of communities because it prevents people from getting their most basic health needs such as nutrition, sanitation and medication. It also means that education is also seen as a commodity and child labour as a necessity, thus compounding further the stunted growth of the newer generations. The pressure from a growing population when many prosperous countries are experiencing declining and negative birth rates only helps make matters worse. This effectively means that the majority of the world is living in developing or underdeveloped countries and that the proportion will continue to rise if these countries do not experience a turn around.

It is neither a coincidence that these countries suffer from failed democratic processes. Rule of law is weak, corruption is high and participation in civil society is practically impossible. An unstable economy and risk of armed conflicts and political crises naturally drive people to flee such countries. In fact, such migrants are treated as refugees and have a right to seek asylum.

However, it is not just the situations in countries of origin that trigger flows of migrants. Globalisation is also creating a demand for migrant workers in richer countries, while the ICT revolution has facilitated growing awareness of disparities and opportunities.

High-income economies are experiencing segmentation of their labour market. Those segments of the labour market that offer a low pay, are unstable and have a low status are being avoided by native workers. These have become dominated by migrant workers and are often described as ‘3D jobs’ – entailing work that is dirty, dangerous or difficult, and often a combination of these. Research has shown that even in recessions and periods of economic stagnation, native workers in rich countries are still reluctant to work in these jobs. Thus demand for migrant workers continues irrespective of economic trends.

Brain Drain – one of the effects of migration
On 20 November 2008, the European Parliament approved the introduction of the Blue Card while recommending some safeguards against the brain drain and greater flexibility for EU Member States.

The European Commission proposed this initiative in order to attract highly qualified migrants to meet its labour force needs and compete in the global ‘battle for brains’. While the EU recognizes the importance of coherence between its migration- and development policies, the introduction of the Blue Card system, will effectively mean that the EU risks increasing the brain drain in developing countries, with negative consequences for key development sectors. The current Blue Card proposal is, therefore, not coherent with the EU’s development policy.

It could be argued that emigration could effectively ease the pressure on those labour markets that have high levels of unemployment as it reduces competition for limited jobs. However, for developing countries, the most important negative effect of voluntary migration (as opposed to human trafficking) to developed countries (e.g. in Europe) is the brain drain caused by the loss of highly skilled workers. It is estimated that more than a quarter of highly skilled workers originating from African countries such as Mozambique, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda live in developed countries. Figures for the Caribbean and Pacific are as high as 70%. This brain drain has severe repercussions on the labour market in the migrants’ countries of origin, as it impacts negatively on vital sectors such as education and health, and reduces those countries’ capacity to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – one of the priorities of the EU’s development policy.

Some recommendations
European NGDOs have come up with a number of Policy recommendations on this subject.
The EU should provide adequate assistance to developing countries and achieve the target of 0.7% of GDP for Overseas Development Aid. It should help developing countries to devise effective strategies to retain highly skilled workers, e.g. through development programmes aimed at improving local employment opportunities and working conditions. This is especially necessary in the health sector.
The EU should provide targeted investments to train, deploy and retain staff in developing countries who are working in sensitive sectors such as education and health. The EU should also provide long-term budgetary support to underpin the domestic financing of those sectors.
The EU should ensure that all its member states sign a legally binding commitment – one that includes the private sector – in order to prevent active recruitment in developing countries. Such a code of practice should address country- or region-specific needs. Furthermore, in order to ensure compliance, the EU should set up a formally constituted body with an oversight and watchdog role in the EU and developing countries.
To prevent a negative impact on source countries, the EU should introduce concrete measures to encourage the permanent return of Blue Card holders. Within the EU the portability of social rights should be facilitated. In developing countries, migrants should be offered benefits in order to encourage their return.
If the EU attracts workers whose education and training have been provided by their home countries, then these countries of origin should be appropriately compensated for having provided these skills.
The EU should encourage its member states to strengthen their own (national) workforce policies in all sectors in order to become less dependent on foreign workers from less developed countries.

Sources
International Migration (A Very Short Introduction); Khalid Koser, Oxford University Press, New York, 2007

http://www.eucoherence.org – A Project on EU Policy Coherence for Development: Case 6.1 - Blue Card proposal – assessing implications for development; http://www.eucoherence.org/renderer.do/menuId/227304/clearState/true/sf/227364/returnPage
/227364/itemId/512303/realItemId/512303/pageId/227351/instanceId/227393/

MEPs support the European "Blue Card" proposal for highly-skilled immigrants (20th November 2008) – Press Release by the European Parliament;
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/018-42218-322-11-47-902-20081117IPR42214-17-11-2008-2008-true/default_en.htm