Экономические науки / 2.Внешнеэкономическая деятельность

Student Boiko A. I.

Donetsk national university of economics and trade named after Mykhailo Tugan-Baranovsky, Ukraine

International labor migration as a contemporary problem

International labor migration—the movement of people across national borders for employment—is an increasingly important aspect of global, regional and national economies. Recent estimates indicate that 86 million people are international labor migrants [1].

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the problem of labor migration, outline its advantages and disadvantages, factors and suggest the ways of immigration policies’ improving.

Although migration has expanded less rapidly than either trade or direct investment, migration has become increasingly contentious. From 1970 to 2005, the stock of international migrants in the world increased from nearly 82 million to just over 190 million, according to United Nations (UN) estimates [2].

The United States remains much the world’s biggest recipient. It gets about as many permanent immigrants as every other country in the world added together: 720,000 in 1995, down from a peak of nearly 2m in 1991. Germany, easily the main receiving country in Europe, had roughly 800,000 immigrants in both 1994 and 1995, but its definition of “immigrant” is much broader than America’s and includes many temporary workers [3].

Push factors are things that are bad about the country that one lives in and pull factors are things that attract one to another area.

The push factors of migration are: not enough jobs; few opportunities; primitive conditions; desertification; famine or drought; political fear or persecution; poor medical care; loss of wealth; natural disasters; death threats; lack of political or religious freedom; pollution; poor housing; landlord/tenant issues; bullying; discrimination; poor chances of marrying.

The pull factors of migration are: job opportunities; better living conditions; political and/or religious freedom; enjoyment; education; better medical care; attractive climates; security; family links; industry; better chances of marrying [4].

On the one hand is the negative potential of such factors as “brain drain,” to which the following section will turn. On the other hand, remittances tend to be seen by many governments as the dominant benefit to the home country from labor migration abroad.

Temporary migrants, unaccompanied by their families, are much more likely to remit than are permanent settlers overseas. Return migrants may also bring fresh skills with them though such skills do not always match the demands of the home economy, and many returnees elect to retire. The effects also depend quite critically upon the skill profile of those who emigrate [2].

Two factors explain the double downturn in flows of people and money: hostility to migrants, especially illegal ones, and America’s deepening economic gloom. The impact of the former is plain: state-level laws that make it illegal to employ migrants without documents, ever more aggressive raids on businesses that hire such workers, and better technology to share information that will lead to catching them.

High spending on border defenses is the most visible example. The Department of Homeland Security is budgeting $12 billion in the next fiscal year to guard the frontier against job-seekers (and the odd mythical terrorist walking to his target) [5].

How can governments develop immigration policies that reap the potential gains without incurring too many political costs? Wherever possible, policy should be guided by three main principles. First, it should be multilateral, or at least bilateral. Immigration policies drawn up by rich countries without the active co-operation of poor countries are unlikely to work. Second, it should apply economic instruments. Whereas trade restrictions have shifted from quotas and bans to more transparent tariffs, no such change has taken place in immigration policy. Third, it should aim for the maximum freedom of movement, but encourage temporary more than permanent movement.

So, the problem of international labor migration is very topical for today. The United States remains the world’s biggest recipient. There are push factors and pull factors of labor migration. Besides, there are advantages and disadvantages of international labor migration. Furthermore, there is the problem of illegal employment of migrants. In order to regulate the inflow and outflow of human resources governments have to develop efficient immigration policies.

References:

1. HIV and international labour migration // UNAIDS: The joint United Nations Programme http://data.unaids.org/pub/Manual/2008/jc1513_policy_brief_labour_migration_en.pdf

2. Robert E B Lucas International labor migration in a globalizing economy // Carnegie papers. Trade, equity, and development program. – 2008. – № 92.

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/international_migration_globalizing_economy.pdf

3. Workers of the world // The economist . – 1997. – Oct 30^th.

http://www.economist.com/node/104823

4. Human migration // Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_migration

5. A turning tide? // The economist. – 2008. – Jun 26^th.

http://www.economist.com/node/11614062

6. A better way // The economist. – 2002. – Oct 31^st.

http://www.economist.com/node/1402865