Migration: Desired and Permitted Movements of Persons - Reasons and Consequences - Assignment Example

MIGRATION, THE DESIRED AND PERMITTED MOVEMENTS OF PERSONS: THE REASONS AND CONSEQUENCES Introduction Highly skilled labour with specialized skills and competencies are in short supply in industrialised countries, and are being sourced globally from an international labour market. Hence the migration of skilled labour especially from developing countries is increasing. Such immigration of skilled labour forms an inherent part of economic development policies and national technology development plans of host countries. The internationalization of labour markets poses both challenges and opportunities for nations to develop their human capital of skilled workers. Based on the changing circumstances, several European and OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries have formulated “new incentives, procedures, and legislations to make their participation in the international labour markets more gainful”1. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this assignment is to investigate the reasons and consequences of the international mobility of labour as a development strategy in the 21st century. The pros and cons of such migration of labour will be critically examined. Discussion The increasing international mobility of highly skilled labour causes participating countries and regions to gain and lose important human capital stocks. Though countries may not be participating voluntarily, contemporary global reality is that the occurrence of labour mobility is rising steadily. This is especially true of European Union (EU) countries, on which restrictions on local labour from going abroad are not imposed. In a globalized labour market, increased or decreased migration on a national level is more due to the situation at the international level, rather than caused by changing work conditions at home in relation to pay or other incentives2. The United States Immigration of Highly Skilled Professionals The migration of highly skilled workers has been associated with the global expansion of world trade and the international expansion of transnational companies. However, a major part of the movement has been attributed to shortages of certain expertise in local labour markets. Internationally trained physicians frequently elect to migrate to the United States because of the high regard they have for the U.S. in terms of technological development, the quality of its medical schools, its specialist training and its commitment to fundamental biomedical research. However, banking and finance professionals are attracted to certain global cities because of the concentration of appropriate jobs available along with the cultural and other factors being of a convivial nature for them. Migration of skilled information technology labour, particularly engineers have been largely attributed to shortages existing in this field for highly skilled labour. On the other hand, scientists may be motivated to relocate outside the country to fulfill personal aspirations and scientific curiosity3. The number of developing countries supplying labour is increasing, and immigrant workers are claiming a large share of urban service jobs. Besides industrialised nations such as Britain and the United States, rapid industrialization in the oil exporting Arab countries has generated a major new international labour flow. Further, labour import and export policies show that immigrants are increasingly being used as a commodity. Their services are vital, in several sectors, for economic development of the host country4. Immigrants have a strong impact on concentrated regional labour markets. The service sector is labour intensive, but many services cannot be exported to countries with large reserves of cheap labour. Great Britain and the Immigration of Highly Skilled Labour With a view to the country’s development, governments may play a positive or negative role in formulating incentives for highly skilled workers to stay or move abroad. Government’s positive role would be to provide incentives for foreign skills to flow in or remain in the country, by easing immigration and work permits restrictions, providing tax incentives, and promoting the country as an attractive working and living environment. In Britain, demographic change and skills shortage in the labour market are two major socio-economic trends that have been taken into consideration by policy makers. Older and smaller populations will impact on the availability of sufficient skilled workforces. The size of the population has stabilized as a whole, but the age of the population continues to grow older. Business and industrial leaders are facing major difficulties in finding persons with the right skills to fill vacant jobs, especially in strategic sectors such as Information Technology, Telecommunications and Health5. The development of a policy plan on legal migration in the labour market was carried out by the European Union governments. This included admission procedures which responded promptly to fluctuating demands for migrant labour6. European Union governments have been changing immigration legislation to make it easier to attract highly skilled labour. Changes in legislation governing immigration to most European Union member states are increasingly allowing skilled immigration to occur in a legal and much facilitated form. These changes provide the EU with the flexibility necessary to cope with globalization, changing demographic needs, and pressing skills shortages. Changes in legislation have ranged from introducing new categories of visa and work permits to facilitating entry procedures 7. Member states of the European Union should be able to draw from a common pool of labour by introducing an EU work permit. An important tool is tax discounts provided for foreign nationals. If tax competition continues, it will become more lucrative for highly skilled European Union workers to work outside their home countries, and skilled workers will migrate to the most advantageous tax haven8. Migrants as Development Agents in the Host Country There is a new conceptualization, acknowledging a strong link between migration and development in the host country9. The first claim is that financial remittances carry a huge potential for poverty reduction and local investment, especially since remittances are very often resistant to economic recessities. The amount of remittances transferred to developing countries passing through officially sanctioned channels such as banks or money transfer services, are believed to have risen sharply over recent years. This has resulted in a change in perceptions of costs and benefits, with a shift from the concept of “brain drain” in the 1970s to “brain gain” in the 1990s. The current trend is to find positive impacts from labour mobility10. The second claim is that the concept of social remittances, the flow of ideas and practices which are “good” and universally acceptable in most countries such as human rights, gender equity and democracy, are beneficial to society. An example is that sometimes, diaspora made up of exiles, refugees and labour migrants are hailed as mediators in conflict resolution as in South Africa and Nigeria11. The third claim of beneficial impacts by labour mobility is the desirability of temporary labour migration, because of the concept that temporary migrants transmit a higher percentage of their income than do permanent immigrants. And the belief in the circulation of ideas and knowledge. The above three broad, optimistic claims are tied to migration control. In the long run, economic growth supported by financial knowledge and social remittances will reduce “migration pressure” in the sending countries. Transnational networks and associations of migrants form the core of optimistic visions of nationality and international economic development policy establishment12. Earlier, transnational migration was considered as a sign of failure of the state or other institutions to deliver well-being and human security, during most of the 1970s and the 1980s. However, “since the 1990s, international organizations led by the World Bank, non-governmental organizations and organizations for economic cooperation and development (OECD) and nation state governments have increasingly touted remittances as a solution to development”13. Further, the contributions of migrants to social insurance, welfare state provisions, closing of labour market gaps in the informal service economy, and the norms of democracy and human rights transported to the host country play a significant part in development. On the other hand, according to Unison14 the disadvantages of international labour migration includes the sending country’s loss of expertise and skills. This brain drain is particularly acute in developing countries, when the out-migration is permanent. Large numbers of skilled workers in health, education and social services are lost to the country of origin. Similarly, inequality is a factor that persists when there is mobility of labour. Global income distribution is affected at three levels: in the sending country, in the receiving country and in inequality between countries. Where immigration increased the receiving country’s labour supply, inequality rose sharply, where emigration reduced the sending country’s labour supply, inequality declined15. Conclusion This paper has highlighted the migration of skilled labour from developing countries to industrialised countries such as Great Britain and the United States. The migration of labour as a desired and permitted movement of persons, the main drivers of international migration, and its consequences have been investigated. The beneficial results produced by immigrants as development agents in the host country, as well as the adverse outcomes of immigration have been determined. It was found that the international mobility of skilled labour forms a part of the development strategy of advanced nations, in the 21st century. The immigrant networks and organizations are development agents, supporting growth, development and trade in the host country. To some extent economic inequality is caused in the sending country as well as in the receiving country. However, in principle inequality between the two countries should be reduced. The reason is that in international migration people move from relatively low wage countries to nations with higher wages, thereby reducing the real wage gaps between the home country and the host country. Thus, the beneficial impacts of international migration of skilled labourers far exceeds the detrimental consequences of the process. --------------------------------------------- Bibliography Alan Findlay, ‘Skilled Transients: the Invisible Phenomenon? In The Cambridge Survey of World Migration (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003) 515 Commission Decision (EC) 2005/0669 on the Policy plan on legal migration [2005] COM OJ L212 Brussels, 21.12.2005 Sami Mahroum, ‘Europe and the Immigration of Highly Skilled Labour’ (2001) 39 IM 27 Saskia Sassen, The Mobility of Labour and Capital (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1990) 43 Stefano M Bertozzi, ‘Legal Migration: Time for Europe to Play its Hand’, (CEPS Working Document No. 257. Social Science Research Network, February 2007) accessed 24th August 2009 from: http://www.ceps.be Thomas Faist, ‘Migrants as Trans-national Development Agents: An Inquiry into the Newest Round of the Migration-Development Nexus (2008) 14 PSP 21 U.N. (The United Nations), ‘The International Mobility of Talent and its Impact on Global Development’ (The United Nations Publications 2006) accessed 24th August 2009 from: http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/working-papers/discussion-papers/2006/en_GB/dp2006-08/ Unison, ‘International Labour Migration’ (A Unison Discussion Paper 2006) accessed on 24th August 2009 from: http://www.unison.org.uk/file/a2444.pdf.pdf Yossi Shain and Aharon Barth, ‘Diasporas and International Relations Theory’ (2003) 57 IO 449 Read More