Migrant workers grow 9% to 164M in 2017 — ILO

THE International Labor Organization (ILO) said the number of migrant workers worldwide rose 9% in 2017 compared with 2013.

In ILO’s second edition of the Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers report, it placed the number of such workers at 164 million in 2017, of which 111.2 million or 67.9% are concentrated in high- income countries and account for 18.5% of high-income countries’ labor force.

The share of migrant workers in highincome countries actually fell from 74.7% in 2013, the ILO said, noting that it might herald economic growth in low-income economies.

“This growing number could possibly be attributed to the economic development of some lower-income countries,” the ILO said.

It added that said “migrants of working age have higher labor force participation than non-migrants of working age, primarily due to the significantly higher labor force participation rates of migrant women compared to non-migrant women.”

The ILO also reported that “compared to the 2013 global estimates, the migrant labor force participation rates of both men and women were lower in 2017.”

Arab states are among the subregions with the biggest share of migrant workers in proportion to all workers at 40.8%.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), a majority of the 2.2 million Overseas Filipino Workers in 2016 work in the Arab States. Some 23.8% of OFWs work in Saudi Arabia while 15.9% work in the United Arab Emirates, 6.4% work in Kuwait, and 6.2% work in Qatar. —