Migrant workers: recent trends

UN Chronicle, Feb, 1985

"The migration of workers from one country to another have become one of the central characteristic features of the global economic system", according to a report of the Secretary-General on the social situation of migrant workers and their families (E/CN.5/1985/8), prepared for the Commission for Social Development. An estimated 20 million workers are currently employed outside their countries, some 12 million of whom have migrated from the developing countries to the developed market economy countries and the high-income oil-exporting countries of the Middle East.

The following material is drawn from sections of the report that concern recent trends in migratory labour.

International migration by people seeking employment and a better income has taken place in most regions of the world. The present pattern of migration reflects several major factors: shifts in intra-European migration brought about by the economic crisis; a profound change in the nature and scale of international labour migration in the Middle East; and an increase in irregular--or illegal--migration.

In Western Europe, the economic crisis has led to a dramatic curtailment of migrant workers, especially in countries that have attracted the largest numbers of migrants, such as France, the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland. The employment of foreign migrant workers in Western Europe reached a peak of about 6 million in the early 1970s. Since 1974, however, receiving countries have virtually stopped importing migrant labour, at the same time making efforts to encourage migrant workers to return home. That development, which has been called "the export of unemployment", creates considerable difficulties for the sending countries, which are faced with trying to reintegrate an influx of returning migrants into their already overburdened labour markets.

International migration of labour is now of crucial significance in the Arab world. In several Middle Eastern countries, in fact, foreign workers out-number the nationals by large margins. In the United Arab Emirates, for example, they form some 90 per cent of the work force; in Qatar, 77 per cent; in Kuwait, 71 per cent; and in Oman, 64 per cent.

The Arab countries have promoted a new type of international migration, known as collective-contract, or project-tied, migration. The ILO defines it as "the movement of foreigners admitted to a migrant-receiving country for a period of time on the basis of a work contract with an enterprise or employer to carry out in that country specific projects that by their nature are limited in time".

The use of project-tied Asian labour was initiated in the mid- and late-1970s because it maximized economic efficiency and minimized the social costs of immigration. It is usually associated with work camps situated away from the population centres. Foreign workers are engaged to put up the buildings and infrastructure, then sent home at the end of their contracts.

Under this type of migration, virtually every aspect of the migrant workers' daily life is under the protection and control of the employer. They are forbidden to form unions; minimum standards for accommodations at the camps are not always met; the incidence of work-related deaths and injuries in high and on the increase; and the workmen's compensation system in unsatisfactory.

In addition, issues of equal opportunity and treatment remain unresolved, and the exploitation of workers has been known to occur. Instances in which workers' contracts were violated or even broken unilaterally by the employer have been reported in several countries.

Irregular migration has also become a sizeable phenomenon in recent years. It is widespread in North and South America, but also occurs in West Africa, the Middle East, Western Europe and Oceania. It is estimated, for example, that in the United States there are, in addition to the 2.5 million legal migrant workers, between 2.5 and 4 million economically active irregular immigrants living in the country. "With the current global economic difficulties, the interaction between rising pressure to emigrate from poor developing countries and decreasing opportunities for regular immigration might well lead to more irregular migration", the Secretary-General warns.

But despite problems associated with migrant labour, the recruitment of foreign workers remains an important factor in the world economy today. "The fact that the foreign labour force has not undergone any noticeable reduction during the period of deep recession experienced by market economies in recent years might be seen as evidence that international migration is a long-lasting phenomenon", the report affirms.