More people are on the move than at any other time in history due to population growth, improved technology and growing demands for labor, says the International Organization for Migration.
And that means companies and countries need to start thinking differently about migration.
“I don’t think you can have a full policy on trade and investment if you don’t include migrants given the disparities that exist in the world,” IOM Director General William Lacy Swing said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on East Asia being in Jakarta this week.
One in every seven people in the world is a migrant. And about a fourth of those 1 billion move across country borders. As a group, those 250 million international migrants remit about $450 billion a year, according to the World Bank, and Mr. Swing says that number will probably exceed $500 billion in 2015.
That money comes from private financial flows, so does not benefit governments directly. But it does go toward feeding families, educating children, providing health care to the sick and elderly and creating jobs in some cases, Mr. Swing said.
To ensure that money is used efficiently, the IOM is pushing to reduce the cost of remittance transfers, which Mr. Swift says amount to about 8% globally, but can run up to 12% in some cases. The IOM is working on a project with the universal postal service in Bern, Switzerland, to see how postal services might be used to reduce remittance costs.
Migrant worker activists hold placards during a protest against the beheading of Indonesian workers by the Saudi Arabia government on April 17 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
It is also working to design a program called the International Recruitment Integrity System (IRIS), which will create a code of conduct for recruitment agencies to prevent them from charging migrant workers for training or running up debts before they’re placed in jobs, for example.
Mr. Swift says a lot of the unethical treatment migrant workers face is centered in the first step of migration – recruitment – and he plans to raise the initiative when meeting with Indonesian government officials this week.
In the Mediterranean, the IOM’s top priority is saving lives, Mr. Swing said. As many as700 migrants were feared to have drowned Sunday after their boat capsized in cold waters off the coast of Libya. The IOM says around 900 people have already died making the crossing since the first of the year.
Armed conflict and political persecution are driving people out of countries near Europe, making that region both the “most favored and the most deadly destination” for migrants who don’t have proper papers, said Mr. Swing. Meanwhile, rising anti-immigration sentiment, fears of a loss of nationalism and security concerns have led to restrictions that have strangled the free movement of people, he added.
The key to ensuring benefits from migration is about finding the right mix between open borders and respect for national sovereignty, Mr. Swing said. Migration “is not an issue to be solved, it is a reality to be managed.”
Source: Wall Street Journal
