Hardship at home, hardship abroad the migration 'system' doesn't work.

In less than twenty years, the number of international migrants has more than doubled. Currently, 175 million people reside in a country where they were not born, most of whom are in Europe (56 million), Asia (50 million) and North America (41 million)--astonishing numbers that underscore the need for accurate information and analysis on trends that will impact policy decisions affecting the future.

As United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said, migration is an emerging issue that will have "a profound effect on our efforts to meet the challenges of development and globalization". It requires political leaders from both developed and developing countries to strengthen cooperation.

The challenge, he said, is threefold: "to better protect the human rights of migrants; to fairly share the burdens and responsibilities of providing assistance for refugees; and to fully realize the positive potential of international migration--for migrants and for transit and receiving countries alike."

People migrate for many reasons: to look for better economic opportunities, but also to escape from war, persecution, violence and disasters. In destination countries, the demand for foreign labour in formal, informal and black market sectors endures, yet more of these States are imposing increasingly restrictive entry requirements. This, in turn, leads to illegal trafficking in human beings, deceptive recruitment, forced kidnapping and prostitution, and buying and selling of adults and children.

The issue goes far beyond "brain drain" or "brain gain". In fact, international migration brings into the mix a great deal of sensitive issues, such as growing concerns about its economic, social, demographic and political consequences. It touches on matters of national and international security, social and cultural change, and the allocation of already stretched resources.

Rising international migration is moving Governments to re-examine their policies. About 40 per cent of countries have policies geared towards lowering immigration levels. But though developed countries have traditionally been inclined towards limiting immigration, developing countries recently have also been moving towards restrictive policies. Choices made will determine whether migration is managed to maximize its benefits or will be a potential source of social disruption as well as friction between States.

To weigh in on these issues, the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER), part of the United Nations University, convened an international conference at its headquarters in Helsinki, Finland on 27 and 28 September 2002. It brought together over a hundred experts from around the world to discuss the impact and policy implications of international migration trends for migrants and refugees, sending and receiving countries and for the global economy.

Whether the people concerned were refugees, economic migrants or forced migrants, conference participants agreed that current migration management practices are not working. Practices and policies do not address migration's root causes or provide real security to those in need.

The system is influenced by several factors. With the setting-up of restrictive asylum and migration measures comes that secondary growth in human trafficking and smuggling, according to several experts at the WIDER conference. Others pointed out the imbalance and unfairness of the system, with a much greater likelihood that people with money could leave their country of origin and seek asylum in a more prosperous State.

The current asylum and migration management system was described as "dysfunctional" and inefficient. Massive amounts of money are spent on relatively small numbers of asylum seekers who manage to arrive in the industrialized nations. Meanwhile, refugees and displaced people in other parts of the world, most notably in sub-Saharan Africa, received progressively lower levels of assistance from the international community.

Stephen Castles and Sean Loughna of the University of Oxford's Refugee Studies Centre told participants that "indicators of conflict", such as repression of minorities. ethnic conflict and internal wars, were the best predictors of outflows of forced migrants. However, the separation into these causal factors, although useful for analysis, could not be sustained in practice, "for every migratory movement is the result of a dynamic interaction between a multitude of factors. Economic and political causes form not a pair of opposites but a continuum." Similarly, the distinction between conflict and development indicators needs to be questioned, because conflicts are often the expression of a failure to bring about economic and social development, to introduce democratic institutions and to safeguard human rights, they argued.

Moreover, there are policy clashes. Some States, in particular during periods of high unemployment or low economic growth, ignore the crossing of their nationals over borders. They may even traditionally view positively the living abroad of their nationals, as the emigres tend to funnel money back into the family, or the movement may act as a political pressure valve.

Participants also agreed that migration is no longer a problem of just the sending States, the transit States or the receiving States. It is increasingly becoming an international problem that requires international cooperative solutions. As Secretary-General Annan has said: "There are no easy choices, or simple solutions in this area." But it is time to stop using migrants as scapegoats and begin looking at the benefits that a better-managed international migration system can create.

International migration flows and migration rates in the world's major
areas, 1995-2000

                     A. Annual net      B. Annual net
                   number of migrants  migration rates

Northern America         1,394               4.6
Europe                     769               3.0
Oceania                     90               1.1
Africa                    -447               0.4
Asia                      -494              -0.6
Latin America and       -1,311              -1.0
 the Caribbean

Source: United Nations Population Division, DESA

Note: Table made from bar graph

RELATED ARTICLE: Vital Statistics

Migrants: Around 175 million persons currently reside outside the country of their birth, which is about 3 per cent of world population. The number of migrants has more than doubled since 1975-60 per cent reside in the more developed regions and 40 per cent in the less developed. Most of the world's migrants live in Europe, Asia and North America. Almost one of every ten persons in the more developed regions is a migrant; in contrast, it is nearly one of every seventy persons in developing countries.

Refugees: The number of refugees worldwide at the end of 2000 stood at 16 million, of which 12 million are under the mandate of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and 4 million under the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The largest number is found in Asia with 9 million, followed by Africa with 4 million, and 3 million are located in developed countries.

Net migration: The more developed regions gained an estimated 2.3 million migrants from the less developed regions, or nearly 12 million over the period 1995-2000. The largest gains were made by Northern America, which absorbed 1.4 million migrants annually, followed by Europe with an annual net gain of 800,000, and Oceania with a net intake of 90,000 migrants.

Workers' remittances: Remittances are a major source of foreign exchange earnings and an important addition to the gross domestic product for a number of countries. For example, remittances from abroad in 2000 augmented GDP by more than 10 per cent for countries such as El Salvador, Eritrea, Jamaica, Jordan, Nicaragua and Yemen. They can be used to import capital goods and provide investment funds for entrepreneurs. Also important, they can add to household income and savings and be used for the purchase of consumer products and services.

Legal framework

In international law, there is no overall legal framework covering migration, which is a complex field with links to areas such as human rights, labour markets and development. Legal norms and migration provide an analytical overview of the key legal aspects of migration, touched upon by many parts of national and international legislations.

United Nations instruments:

The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, ratified by 141 countries, establishes legal protections and a clear definition of the status of refugees. It prohibits the expulsion or forcible return of persons accorded refugee status.

The 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, ratified by 139 countries, extends the scope of the 1951 Convention, which benefits only persons who became refugees prior to 1 January 1951, to persons who became refugees after that date.

The 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, ratified by 19 countries, establishes an international definition of the different categories of migrant workers. It formalizes the responsibility of receiving States with regard to upholding the rights of migrants and assuring their protection.

The 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, ratified by 18 countries, aims to prevent and combat trafficking in persons, particularly women and children, protect and assist the victims of such trafficking, and promote cooperation among States parties to meet these objectives.

The 2000 Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, ratified by 17 countries, aims to combat and prevent the smuggling of human cargo, reaffirming that migration in itself is not a crime and that migrants may be victims in need of protection.