Description:
"Migration not infrequently gets a bad press. Negative stereotypes
portraying migrants as stealing our jobs? or scrounging off the
taxpayer? abound in sections of the media and public opinion, especially
in times of recession. For others, the word migrant? may
evoke images of people at their most vulnerable. This year?s Human
Development Report, Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and
Development, challenges such stereotypes. It seeks to broaden and
rebalance perceptions of migration to reflect a more complex and
highly variable reality.
This report breaks new ground in applying a
human development approach to the study of
migration. It discusses who migrants are, where
they come from and go to, and why they move. It
looks at the multiple impacts of migration for all
who are affected by it—not just those who move,
but also those who stay.
In so doing, the report?s findings cast new
light on some common misconceptions. For example,
migration from developing to developed
countries accounts for only a minor fraction of
human movement. Migration from one developing
economy to another is much more common.
Most migrants do not go abroad at all, but instead
move within their own country.
Next, the majority of migrants, far from
being victims, tend to be successful, both before
they leave their original home and on arrival
in their new one. Outcomes in all aspects of
human development, not only income but also
education and health, are for the most part positive—
some immensely so, with people from the
poorest places gaining the most.
Reviewing an extensive literature, the report
finds that fears about migrants taking the jobs
or lowering the wages of local people, placing an
unwelcome burden on local services, or costing
the taxpayer money, are generally exaggerated.
When migrants? skills complement those of local
people, both groups benefit. Societies as a whole
may also benefit in many ways—ranging from rising
levels of technical innovation to increasingly
diverse cuisine to which migrants contribute.
The report suggests that the policy response
to migration can be wanting. Many governments
institute increasingly repressive entry
regimes, turn a blind eye to health and safety
violations by employers, or fail to take a lead
in educating the public on the benefits of
immigration.
By examining policies with a view to expanding
people?s freedoms rather than controlling
or restricting human movement, this
report proposes a bold set of reforms. It argues
that, when tailored to country-specific contexts,
these changes can amplify human mobility?s
already substantial contributions to human
development.
The principal reforms proposed centre
around six areas, each of which has important
and complementary contributions to make to
human development: opening up existing entry
channels so that more workers can emigrate;
ensuring basic rights for migrants; lowering the
transaction costs of migration; finding solutions
that benefit both destination communities and
the migrants they receive; making it easier for
people to move within their own countries; and
mainstreaming migration into national development
strategies.
The report argues that while many of these
reforms are more feasible than at first thought,
they nonetheless require political courage. There
may also be limits to governments? ability to
make swift policy changes while the recession
persists..."
Source/publisher:
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Date of Publication:
2009-09-00
Date of entry:
2009-10-10
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Language:
English