Pros, cons of labour mobility
LABOUR migration has brought considerable development benefits to Pacific Island Countries (PICs), with the major cost of permanent migration being skill loss.
A working paper by the International Labour Organization (ILO) on Labour Mobility in Pacific Island Countries highlighted that some of the benefits to PICs included employment, remittances that support households and services provided in communities, increased education and skills development.
The paper will be discussed at the ILO’s High Level Tripartite Forum on Climate Change and Decent Work in the Pacific Islands Countries in Papua New Guinea from July 24-26.
According to the working paper, remittances are arguably the main economic benefit of migration whereby in 2018, remittances into 10 PICs (Fiji, Kiribati, RMI, Palau, PNG, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu) amounted to $US689 million ($F1.5 billion), with Fiji receiving the largest sum, followed by Tonga and Samoa.
Meanwhile, the report also highlighted that the permanent migration of skilled workers had entailed negative effects of brain drain, especially in the Polynesian countries and Fiji.
The migration of nurses and doctors from PICs was also highlighted as a growing concern affecting the provision of health services in many PICs.
The report stated that other areas including the construction industry, tourism management and a range of professional services were also affected.
The report recommends that given the lack of understanding of the social impacts of seasonal and temporary migration on migrants, their families and their communities, the ILO could commission research into this area.
It stated the particularly severe impacts of the migration of Fijian private military/security officers also warranted in-depth research that could be organised by the ILO.
“Given ILO’s expertise in working in the area of protecting women migrant domestic workers including through legislation and policy advice, a first step would be to conduct a comprehensive research study on migrant domestic workers from the Pacific region as there currently is little knowledge about them,” it stated.
Other recommendations include:
■ Using the International Labour Migration Statistics (ILMS) template of the ILO and its global database, and replicating the process of technical support and focal points in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, it is recommended that ILO develop a database for the Pacific region; and
■ The ILO could provide technical support to line ministries in the PICs (labour, immigration) to enable them to make better use of the data that is collected by these ministries.