Human resource development in the region
By Linda Low
SINGAPORE (JP): One of the areas that the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) Human Resource Development Task Force has explored is the movement of people in the Asia-Pacific region; both temporary and permanent migration.
There are several emerging trends which have impact on labor migration, including: * Changing labor force structure due to declining agricultural labor surplus and inherent difficulty in creating employment fast enough to absorb such labor which is subject to retraining or forming new skills for rural labor. * Diversity of labor surplus/deficit positions creates vast opportunities for flows of labor and its attendant potential for transfers of skills and technology. * Impact of foreign direct investment in pace with industrial restructuring, diversification and globalization on labor force structure. * Low labor force participation rates combined with high unemployment and underemployment rates have accentuated labor movements and brain drain in some PECC economies. * Increasingly aware of the importance of education and training, or human resource development, as a strategic tool of development and competition without which such skills will be imported.
Like free trade and capital flows that may be hampered by institutional and legal barriers, the movement of human resources faces similar constraints. But any study of human resource movement is handicapped by availability, reliability and consistency of data and information. These problems are compounded by the extent of illegal labor movements. For national and security reasons, governments may attempt to control, regulate and monitor the flow of human resources which may be permanent as in the immigration programs of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and the U.S. or temporary entry of imported or guest labor. Both generate socio-political problems and issues which make matters more sensitive than mere economic concerns.
Both pull and push factors affect decisions regarding migration. Labor moves in response to wages differentials which equilibrates the regional labor market and affects cost structures. Foreign labor helps importing economies keep their costs low and competitive while earning the needed income and foreign exchange for the exporting economies. In the process, skills and technology are transferred as foreign workers receive training on-the-job as well as other generic skills in various industries.
The broad benefits of immigration for the receiving countries include expansion in aggregate output, consumption and investment, creation of new jobs or increase employment without worsening unemployment rate, boosting per capita income, improving balance of payments in the long run, raising the quality and dynamism of the country's human resources and contributing to public revenue on a net basis.
For costs, migrant labor may compete for jobs in economies depressed with unemployment, government deficits or balance of payments deficits. Even in economies which need foreign labor in both skilled and professional areas and in "dirty, dangerous and difficult" jobs, certain socio-political concerns may counteract economic demands.
In broad terms, the policy suggestions include: * Simplifying laws and measures that restrict the cross-border movement of labor involve regulations governing. * Bilateral, regional and international arrangements on conditions relating to the right to pursue a particular profession or activity should help to liberalize such trade in services. * Greater monitoring of statistics and studies of the unprecedented flow of labor in the PECC region. * The type and level of skills flowing within and outside the PECC region should be part of policies on economic cooperation as human resource development becomes a developmental and competitive tool. * The magnitude of illegal flows which infringe both labor and immigration should be addressed to as a clandestine people smuggling industry has grown and human rights issue should be stemmed before the social clause is invoked in trading arrangements.