World migration tops 120 million, says ILO report

World migration tops 120 million, says ILO report

JAKARTA (JP): Far from reducing international migration flows
-- by moving products instead of people -- globalization will
give rise to increased migration pressures in the years ahead,
the International Labour Office (ILO) said in a report made
available to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

The report, entitled, Workers without Frontiers -- The Impact
of Globalization on International Migration, argues that flows of
goods and capital between rich and poor countries will not be
large enough to offset the needs for employment in poorer
countries. Instead the social disruption caused by economic
restructuring is likely to shake more people loose their
communities and encourage them to look abroad for work.

The total number of migrants around the world now surpasses
120 million -- up from 75 million in 1965 -- and continues to
grow, according to the report.

"Only when development has been underway for some time will
people have faith that staying at home is the better long-term
solution," the report said.

The ability to find good jobs and earn much higher pay is the
prime reason people are emigrating.

A 1996 survey of 496 undocumented Mexicans in the United
States found that they earned an average of US$31 per week in
their last Mexican job compared to $278 per week in the U.S., an
earning ration of 9:1.

In 1997, Indonesian laborers earned $0.28 per day in their
country versus $2 or more per day in neighboring Malaysia.

In 1995, hourly labor costs in manufacturing stood at $0.25 in
India and China, $0.46 in Thailand, $0.60 in Russia, $1.70 in
Hungary and $2.09 in Poland against $13.77 in the United Kingdom,
$14.40 in Australia, $$16.03 in Canada, $17.20 in U.S.. $19.34 in
France, $23.66 in Japan and $31.88 in Germany, according a study
quoted in the report.

Countries of the next generation of the newly industrialized
economies (NIEs) such as Thailand and Malaysia are both sources
and destinations for migrant workers.

In 1977, before the economic crises, Thailand was host to
600,000 migrants, but also had 372,000 Thai workers spread around
Asia.

Indonesia exports unskilled labor to the Middle East, Malaysia
and Singapore and imports skilled workers, mostly from India and
the Philippines.

"By the middle of 1997 there were thought to be over 6.5
million foreign workers in seven Asian countries: Japan, South
Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan."

In a number of Asian countries the majority of emigrants today
are women, generally working as domestic servants in the Middle
East, Singapore, and Hong Kong. This is the case for 69 percent
of migrants from Srilanka, 65 percent from Indonesia and 55
percent from Thailand, the report said.