Socio-Economics of Migration : Looking back at a 2005 article by Joseph Chamie
In his article of October 11 2005 "Dying to Get In: Global Migration" published by globalist.com Joseph Chamie had raised important questions that remain relevant still now after a decade.
What is driving global migration and what can be done to make it safer?
The pay is ridiculously low, benefits are non-existent, health care is next to nothing — and opportunities for career advancement are limited. Faced with such circumstances, what would you do? For millions of people, the answer is to migrate, the sooner the better and by any means possible....
....everyone has the right to leave — and return to — his or her country. This right was recognized internationally over a half-century ago with the adoption of Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.............
Joseph Chamie writes about remittances by migrants sent back to support their families in the sending countries to be more than $150 billion per year, well exceeding official development assistance. For 2003, he indicates some of the largest remittances were to India ($17 billion), Mexico ($15 billion), and the Philippines ($8 billion). And the largest sources of worker remittances were from the United States ($34 billion), Saudi Arabia ($15 billion) and Germany ($10 billion).
The above carries the potential for bettering circumstances in the sending country if these remittances are monitored and taken advantage of through bilateral or multilateral international collaborations.
Many employers (in the developed countries), for example, seek highly skilled professionals, scientists and technicians for their firms, colleges, hospitals and organizations. In addition, there are many who seek unskilled workers to perform those “5-D” jobs — domestic, difficult, dirty, dull or dangerous — that native populations generally avoid.
In many receiving countries, the private and public sectors often look to immigration to address labor shortages and, in a growing number of instances, this immigration is intended to counter the consequences of declining and ageing populations......all motivating legal and illegal migration
......for the period between 1990 and 2000, the average net flow of all migrants, both legal and illegal, from the less developed regions to the more developed regions of the world was estimated at 2.3 million per year — with about half of this flow entering the United States...with no less than one million — and perhaps closer to two million — unauthorized migrants entering annually into the more developed regions.
He calls on urgent actions by sending, transit and receiving countries that should include high-level intergovernmental negotiations to coordinate actions internationally. Better coordination also needs to be a goal between government agencies at all levels in individual countries. In addition, greater clarity of policies and programs as well as greater and more consistent enforcement of laws and explicit accountability..... governments need to be prepared to hold a more open dialogue with the public on the issue of immigration, which has given risen to fears and outright xenophobia in many countries.
The failure to address the immigration issue decisively and in a timely manner will inevitably lead to more people “dying to get in” — whether in North Africa, on the U.S.-Mexican border or elsewhere in the world.
Written by Kia Goolesorkhi