New labour migration opportunities for PICs
OVER the past decade new labour migration opportunities for Pacific Islanders have opened up with New Zealand and Australia introducing schemes to fill labour shortages in targeted industries and sectors.
A working paper by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) — Labour Mobility in Pacific Island Countries — talks about labour mobility, its challenges and recommendations for Pacific Island governments and ILO on how to improve seasonal worker scheme.
The working paper will be discussed at the International Labour Organisation’s High Level Tripartite Forum on Climate Change and Decent Work in the Pacific Islands Countries in Papua New Guinea on July 24-26.
The working paper highlighted that at present, many skill gaps within the Pacific region are filled by foreign workers from outside the region with a particularly large foreign workforce in Papua New Guinea, Palau and the Cook Islands.
It says this indicates that other PICs have not been able to take advantage of opportunities where they present themselves within the region itself.
The paper recommended that if more training was directed into areas of demand (tourism/hospitality, mining, construction, forestry), Pacific Islanders would be in a better position to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves within the region.
It was also highlighted that women had limited access to seasonal labour mobility opportunities which remained a challenge, although there are significant subregional differences.
The report also highlighted that in 2013-14, only 11.5 per cent of the workers who participated in the Recognised Seasonal Employer (scheme), New Zealand (RSE) and Seasonal Worker Programme, Australia (SPW) were women.
Meanwhile the report recommends that in regards to women participation in seasonal work schemes, the other PICs could try to understand and replicate good practices from Kiribati in order to increase the proportion of women under the schemes.
It also recommends that in regards to improving labour governance in origin countries, research studies could determine what kind of reintegration assistance for returned workers would be most useful (such as in the form of training, microcredits, savings schemes or others) to assist them to build sustainable livelihoods in their island countries without the need to return to Australia or New Zealand for many seasons. This would then limit the negative social impacts of repeated absences on themselves and their families, and would create opportunities for newcomers.