Labour MigrationInternational 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 VisionIOM 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 ObjectivesIn 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 BeneficiariesIOM 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 ApproachThrough 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 ProjectsStrengthening Evidence-Based Management of Labour Migration in ArmeniaIn 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 AsiaRegional Migration Programme, 2010 2013The 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 moreJoint Programme on Youth, Employment and Migration (YEM): A One-stop Shop for Youth Employment in Two Cities of Costa RicaAs 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 migrationThere 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 low-income 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, low-grade, 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. 4x 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 up-rooted, 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 migrationis 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, highly-qualified 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 seekersaremigrants who work or seek work, but they are commonly not classifiedaslabour 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, re-garding 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, theini-tial intentionof 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 uselabour 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, well-defined 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 workersrelative to the national populationare 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 originThe 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 countriesor countries of origin. Labour migration is sometimes conceptualized as theexport of labour power (Moreno 1986, Potts 1990), and the countries inquestion can thus be labelledlabour-exporting countries. Stalker (1994)interestingly refers to the migrants home country asthe country left be- 132

Table 1Selected countries of origin of international labour migrationOverseas workers as a percentage of theactive labour forcecan 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 Verde2 Tonga3El Salvador 6-9Botswana,UruguayDominican RepublicJordanSudanEgypt1-5Mexico AlgeriaPhilippines1South KoreaMoroccoPakistanTurkeyMali