Labour Migration

International labour migration is defined as the movement of people from one country to another for the
purpose of employment. Today, an estimated 105 million persons are working in a country other than
their country of birth. Labour mobility has become a key feature of globalization and the global economy
with migrant workers earning US$ 440 billion in 2011, and the World Bank estimating that more than $350
billion of that total was transferred to developing countries in the form of remittances. However, despite
the efforts made to ensure the protection of migrant workers, many remain vulnerable and assume
significant risks during the migration process.
When properly managed, labour migration has far-reaching potential for the migrants, their communities,
the countries of origin and destination, and for employers. While job creation in the home country is the
preferred option, demographic, social and economic factors are increasingly the drivers of migration. As a
result, a growing number of both sending and receiving countries view international labour migration as
an integral part of their national development and employment strategies. On one hand, countries of
origin benefit from labour migration because it relieves unemployment pressures and contributes to
development through remittances, knowledge transfer, and the creation of business and trade networks.
On the other hand, for destination countries facing labour shortages, orderly and well-managed labour
migration can lighten labour scarcity and facilitate mobility.
IOMs Vision
IOM strives to protect migrant workers and to optimize the benefits of labour migration for both the
country of origin and destination as well as for the migrants themselves.
IOMs Objectives
In its labour migration programming, IOM builds capacity in labour migration management by:

offering policy and technical advice to national governments;

supporting the development of policies, legislation and administrative structures that promote
efficient, effective and transparent labour migration flows;
assisting governments to promote safe labour migration practices for their nationals;
facilitating the recruitment of workers, including pre-departure training and embarkation
preparedness;
promoting the integration of labour migrants in their new workplace and society.

Principal Beneficiaries
IOM implements various labour migration programmes in 70 countries. The beneficiaries of these
programmes include:

migrants, their families and their communities;

local and national governments;

private sector entities such as employers and industry representatives; and

regional organizations.

IOMs Approach

Through its global network of more than 440 offices, IOM is able to bring together governments, civil
society and the private sector to establish labour migration programmes and mechanisms that balance
their various interests, and address migrants needs. The IOM approach to international labour migration
is to foster the synergies between labour migration and development, and to promote legal avenues of
labour migration as an alternative to irregular migration. Moreover, IOM aims to facilitate the development
of policies and programmes that are in the interest of migrants and society, providing effective protection
and assistance to labour migrants and their families.
Featured Projects
Strengthening Evidence-Based Management of Labour Migration in Armenia
In todays Armenia the phenomenon of migration is closely linked to the lack of employment opportunities
at home, which drives many Armenians to look for work elsewhere. The Armenian Government sees the
need to regulate this emigration through the promotion of legal, temporary, circular labour migration. With
IOM's involvement, bilateral labour agreements with countries in Europe are being drafted to help
facilitate the migration of Armenian workers. This is done in parallel with facilitating policy dialogue on
aligning national legislation with EU acquis legislation and agreements on migration, and strengthening
the capacities of Armenian institutions responsible for readmission of returning Armenian nationals. At the
same time national capacities in migration data collection and analysis are being strengthened to
enhance the effectiveness of migration management and to promote consistent standards of personal
data protection. A study of the Armenian labour market has already been conducted by IOM under this
programme. Recommendations supporting greater institutional coordination and the development of
migration policies through Armenias EU Association Agreement were suggested thanks to the Progress
Review of Migration Management in Armenia.

The programme has also helped to facilitate discussions

at the national level and possible outcomes arising from the EU-Armenia Mobility Partnership.
Central Asia Regional Migration Programme, 2010 2013
The Central Asia Regional Migration Programme (CARMP) is a three-year programme implemented in
three Central Asian countries and Russia by IOM, UN Women and the World Bank with support from the
UK Government. The programme exemplifies labour migration programming as a strategy to reduce
poverty levels and strengthens labour migration management in this region by improving the livelihoods of
migrants and their families while protecting their rights. The programme promotes policy development,
provides technical assistance and fosters regional dialogue across Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and the Russian Federation on migration for a broad range of stakeholders. It also directly assists migrant
workers and their families through a network of Migrants Resource Centres (MRCs). Legal, medical and
humanitarian assistance is also provided by other partners. Under the programme, 15 MRCs operating
across the four countries have assisted over 50,000 migrant workers and their families. Over 2,000

economic initiatives involving families of migrant workers in their countries of origin were also supported
by the programme through self-help groups. At a policy level, CARMP assisted the Government of
Tajikistan with its National Labour Migration Strategy and with institutional capacity building for the
recently created Migration Service of Tajikistan. In Kazakhstan, CARMP supported the development and
adoption of its Law on Migration, while it supported the drafting of a migration policy in the Russian
Federation. Read more
Joint Programme on Youth, Employment and Migration (YEM): A One-stop Shop for Youth
Employment in Two Cities of Costa Rica
As part of a larger United Nations programme and in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), IOM carries out activities to
facilitate the integration of young migrants and refugees into the Costa Rican educational system. The
programme includes workshops targeting teachers from the Costa Rican Ministry of Education in selected
communities, aimed at raising awareness on young migrants rights. In coordination with NGOs, training
activities are developed for officials on the "one-stop shop" format to promote access to services like
health, education, immigration advice and labour opportunities.

International labour migration

There are several general trends which characterize contemporary interna-tional
labour migration. Most of them are related to changes in the worldeconomy over
the last two decades. These changes include the contraction

3of the manufacturing sector in industrialized countries, the rise in oil pricesduring
the 1970s followed by their decline in the 1980s, and the persistenteconomic crisis
in much of the developing world since the early 1980s.The following section
summarizes contemporary changes in the nature of international labour migration
and the driving forces behind it (Russell1986, Jones 1990, Allen & Hamnett 1995,
King 1995, World Bank 1995):
x

Globalization
. More and more countries are incorporated into interna-tional migration systems,
resulting in a growing spatial spread and cul-tural diversity of origins and

destinations. A growing share of interna-tional labour migration comes from lowincome countries.
x

Differentiation
. International migration flows are increasingly stratifiedand segmented along lines
of skill and legality, as well as length of stay,ranging from international commuting
to semi-permanent and permanentresettlement.
x

Polarization
. Related to the increasing differentiation is a growing polar-ity between cheap, lowgrade, casual migratory labour on one hand, anda much smaller, but rapidly
growing number of highly qualified execu-tive nomads (King 1993) on the other.

Stahl (1991) terms the latter

capital-assisted migration
, as it is often associated with foreign directinvestment.
x

Feminization
. While labour migrations in the past were male-dominated,women now play a
leading role in many migration streams. Examplesinclude Asian women working as
housemaids in the Middle East, Fili- pino nurses in the United States and Ghanaian
prostitutes in CtedIvoire (Brydon 1993).
x

Acceleration
. International labour migration is accelerating in the sensethat the number of
migrants grows, while the average length of their stay becomes shorter. Since the

1960s, there has been a shift in the pattern of international migration, from
permanent migrations for resettlement totemporary migration of workers for
employment. At the same time,however, international labour migrants constitute a
declining share of thetotal world population.

4
x

Volatility
. Compared with the relative stability of labour migration flowsduring the long
boom (1945-1973), the last two decades has witnessedrapid changes in migration
flows. Politically and economically moti-vated mass expulsions of foreign workers
from several host countrieshave been a major issue for countries of origin.
Examples from the1980s include expulsions from Nigeria, Libya and Venezuela
(Castao1988). During the 1991 Gulf War, two million foreign workers were uprooted, with detrimental impacts on countries of origin (Connell 1992).
x

Push-pull balance
. In general, push factors from countries of origin are becoming more important than
pull factors in countries of employment,especially in the industrialized countries.
Deteriorating standards of liv-ing in many developing countries are becoming ever
more sharply con-trasted with increasing knowledge of conditions in developed
coun-tries. In the countries of employment, the decline in manufacturing in-dustry
has led to reduced demand for traditional labour migrants. At thesame time, the
expansion of service industries and informal sector ac-tivities creates new niches of
casual, seasonal and insecure employmentfor post-industrial migrants (King 1993,
Sassen 1988). It is worthemphasizing, however, that although the push-pull balance
is shifting,
actual migration
is still primarily demand-induced, not supply-induced(Weiner 1987).A particular
feature of the last decade has been the return of migrants whoemigrated in the
1950s or 1960s and spent their entire working life abroad.Such retirement
returnees have become a widespread phenomenon in theCaribbean (Byron and
Condon 1996).In short, it is especially interesting to note that women, highlyqualified personnel and migrants from developing countries all constitute greater

shares of the global labour migrant flows, particularly at the expense of un-skilled
workers from the European periphery.The overall increased difficulty of migrating
from one country to another is epitomized in the notion of a Fortress Europe. In
this world-wide ten-dency lies two paradoxes. One is the contrast between barriers
to migrationand the globalization of communications and social networks, with
associ-ated ease of long-distance migration (Surkhe 1993, Allen & Hamnett
1995)The other is the contrast between growing obstacles for migrants and the

5increasing mobility of capital. Capital is free to roam the world, labour isnot (King
1995). In the case of Europe, one might add a third paradox,namely the contrast
between the walled fortress and the complete free-dom of movement within the
union.The nature of this paper does not require a lengthy discussion of the problems
of classification and data sources. However, it is worth noting atthe outset that
there is no clear-cut category of labour migrants in themovement of people across
international borders. Of the worlds more than100 million foreign-born, we find
refugees, students, labour migrants, andothers who do not fit neatly into any of
these categories. Indeed, the theo-retical distinction between economic emigration
and emigration motivated by political, religious or social repression may be difficult
to apply to real-ity (Stahl 1982). Furthermore, many illegal immigrants and asylum
seekersare
migrants who work
or seek work, but they are commonly not classifiedas
labour migrants
(King 1995). In a peculiar example, the government of El Salvador actually helps
Salvadorian citizens in the United States applyfor political asylum, in order to ensure
a continued flow of remittances(Weiner 1996).A slightly different approach to the
problem of classification can be re-lated to the large number of Asian women who
cross international bordersevery year. They travel mainly as domestic servants
(usually legally re-cruited), workers in the entertainment industry (mostly illegal)
and mail-order brides. One might question a strict division between these three, regarding them instead as only slightly different modes of humiliating ex- ploitation
based on material inequality (
cf
Estrada-Claudio 1992, Chantand Radcliffe 1992).It may be particularly difficult to
categorize labour migrants enteringcountries which accomodate legal permanent
immigration, such as Austra-lia and the United States. Those who are granted
permanent residential andwork permits will not normally be identified as labour

migrants in statis-tics. However, classifying migration as either temporary

(recurrent) or permanent (non-recurrent) is problematic for two reasons. Firstly, the
ini-tial intention
of the migrant can be more important than the eventual out-come, for instance
regarding the propensity to remit earnings. It is well-known that many labour
migrants intend to return when they leave their country of origin, but later decide to
settle in the country of employment.

6Secondly, permanent emigration may have many of the same implicationsfor the
countries of origin as temporary overseas employment, as long asfamily and social
ties are maintained.I have chosen to define international labour migration as all
populationmovements across national frontiers for the purpose of employment.
Thismay be on a short-term contract basis, a life-long stay abroad followed byreturn
upon retirement, or economically motivated settlement in a foreigncountry. This
does not mean that distinguishing between different types of international labour
migration is not important. However, for the countryof origin, all the forms
mentioned will have their consequences.The term emigration is often reserved for
permanent settlement only.However, I will use
labour emigration
(
cf.
Stahl 1982) to cover the wholerange of movements referred to above, both
temporary and permanent.For an overview of present labour migration flows, I refer
to figure 1.While I will comment briefly on the map in the next chapter, a few
caveatsare in order at the outset. First of all, there is a shortage of reliable, welldefined data, and the accuracy of the map is accordingly questionable. Thestocks of
migrants in each pole of attraction only includes those with theassumed intention of
returning home (
cf
Segal 1993). Secondly, the map isconstructed on the basis of absolute flows, and
small, isolated poles of at-traction with large numbers of foreign workers
relative to the national population
are not included. A case in point is the Dominican Republic. Inaddition, most poles
of attraction receive small numbers of migrants fromoutside the realms indicated on
the map which might be of great impor-tance to the particular country of origin.
Thirdly, as noted above, contem- porary flows of labour migrants are highly volatile

and constantly chang-ing. The map gives a rough indication of the situation in the
late 1980s.
Countries of origin
The object of enquiry in this paper is not migration
per se
, but the countrieswhich share the characteristic of sustained labour emigration.
These coun-tries have been variously labelled as
sending countries
,
source countries
or
countries of origin
. Labour migration is sometimes conceptualized as theexport of labour power
(Moreno 1986, Potts 1990), and the countries inquestion can thus be labelled
labour-exporting countries
. Stalker (1994)interestingly refers to the migrants home country as
the country left be-

13
2

Table 1
Selected countries of origin of international labour migration
Overseas workers as a percentage of the
active labour force

can be several timeshigher that the share of the total population. Remittances are
not included in exportearnings, so that if the percentage is 100, this means that the
two flows are equal.
remittances as a percentage of exports

0-20 20-80 >80

percentage of populationemployed abroad
>10

ParaguayBoliviaBurkina FasoYemen Arab Rep.*LesothoCape Verde

2
Tonga
3
El Salvador
6-9
Botswana,UruguayDominican RepublicJordanSudanEgypt
1-5
Mexico AlgeriaPhilippines
1
South KoreaMoroccoPakistanTurkeyMali
<1
Indonesia
1
China
1
IndiaBangladeshMalawi
Sources:

Segal 1993, Russel and Teitelbaum (for the World Bank) 1992 quoted in Stalker
1994. Other sources:
1
Calculated from World Bank 1995.
2
Lobban 1995.
3
Ahlburg 1991.* Based on data from before the unification of Yemen in 1990.
hind
. These terms may seem arbitrary and mutually interchangeable, but infact, very
different notions of agency are embedded in them. While asending country seems
to actively deploy workers, a country left be-hind is desperately passive. I have
chosen to use the somewhat more neu-tral term
countries of origin
, except where the particular context makes
la-bour-exporting countries
more appropriate.Virtually all countries are, to varying degrees, countries of origin
of la- bour migrants. There are two principal ways of establishing the intensity of
labour emigration, and thereby identify countries of particular relevance tothis
paper. One is to consider the share of the total population or labour force

13
2

Theoretical background

Logically, migration theory has three

questions to answer: how
populationmovements are initiated,
why population flows are perpetuated,
and whatconsequences migration has
for the areas of origin and destination.
Differ-ent approaches will emphasize
different questions, and they will differ
inthe way they see these questions as
linked. Often, the first two
questionsare collectively referred to as

causes of migration. Unfortunately,

onemight say, there is no coherent
theory on the effects of emigration.
How-ever, the way in which these
consequences are conceived is often
influ-enced by a general approach to
the phenomenon of migration. In this
chap-ter, I will therefore summarize
different theories on international
migration,and illuminate what is
assumed about the consequences of
emigration for the countries of
origin.The overview of different
theories on migration is based
primarily on thereviews presented by
Adler (1977), Wood (1982);
Brochmann (1990) andMassey et al
(1993). It is worth emphasizing that in
a brief outline of thisnature, nuances

in the different theories will easily be

lost.
Equilibrium models
Within the equilibrium perspective,
migration is explained in terms of the
economic laws of supply and demand
associated with neo-classical economics. Migration is always analysed
with the individual as the basic unitof
analysis. Furthermore, migration is
conceived as a process of spatial allocation of resources, an equilibrating
mechanism in response to uneven
distribution of land, labour, capital and
natural resources. Labour movesfrom
areas where capital is scarce and
labour is abundant to areas
wherecapital is plentiful and labour is

scarce. This is assumed to result in

rising
14wages at the origin and declining
wages at the destination. The international movement of labour is seen as
conducive to a
gradual convergence in the levels of
economic growth and social wellbeing. In the context of contemporary
labour migration, this process is
thought to be aided by theflow of
remittances from countries of
employment to countries of origin.