Workers of the world migrate: IOM report says mobile populations boost global economy

The world’s estimated 185-192 million migrants are good for the global economy. That’s one of the findings of a new report from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Although the research found that numbers of migrants – who make up 2.9 percent of the world’s population - have gone up from 2000’s 175 million, and have doubled in comparison with the 1970-1990 period, IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya says that overall, numbers are very small and in many cases actually declining:

Taking skills from the developed world
The report says that the movement of workers around the world boosts economies in both 

the new adoptive homelands and migrants’  native countries. The report admits that ‘brain drains’ have an adverse effect on poorer countries. Around 400,000 scientists and engineers, for example, have taken their skills out of the developing world and into industrialised countries.

But the IOM also points out that migrant workers are often an important source of income for those countries, sending home around 82 billion euros from their host countries; in the Philippines, for example, nearly ten percent of GDP comes from money sent home. In some cases, the contribution made by workers is actually larger than the amounts given in aid.

Misplaced fears
In part, the report is aimed at allaying the concerns of some Western governments, many of whom play upon the fear of migrants ‘stealing’ plum jobs and hiking-up taxes. Ms Pandya says these fears are misplaced:

The IOM’s report emphasises the role of well-managed migration in helping the economy and points out that, despite western fears of migration, foreign workers play a important role in plugging the gaps left by falling birth-rates. It also points out that competition between immigrant and local workers for the same jobs is, in fact, seldom seen. Foreign workers usually cluster around the top and bottom ends of the job market, filling roles which the local labour market is unable to meet. “We are living in an increasingly globalised world that can no longer depend on domestic labour markets alone,” said the IOM’s Director General Brunson McKinley.

Countries receiving migrant workers
Country	Migrants	Population
USA	35 million	295 million
Russia	13.3 million	141.5 million
Germany	7.3 million	82.5 million
France	6.3 million	60.7 million
India	6.3 million	1.1 billion

Only governments can decide
The IOM is keen to point out, though, that the matter of migration-management can only be dealt with by individual countries themselves:

“Governments have to decide for themselves how they want to manage migration, what their economies need, and how they want to be able to take measures to integrate migrants into their communities.”

Making the best of it
The IOM, however, is involved in schemes to help migrants, the communities that receive them and their governments to get the best from the situation:

Brain drain: there are more Ethiopian doctors working in Chicago than there are in Ethiopa.

“We’ve got programmes in Italy where we’re working together with the Italian government in a particular sector of the economy where there is a [need] for family care assistance. There is work underway to help migrants – particularly Sri Lankans – who have come to Italy and who’ve been given training in the Italian language and given job skills as well, so that they can better fit the needs of both the Italian economy and Italian society.”

Countries sending migrant workers
Country	Migrants	Population
China	35 million	1.3 billion
India	20 million	1.1 billion
Philippines	7 million	82.8 million

The way forward, according to the International Organisation for Migration, is for countries to recognise the key areas in the economy and job market which need attention, and to attract workers from abroad to fill in those gaps:

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