Economics #4 - Migrants bring economic and social benefits, says UN

Published on Sep 16, 2006

Govts now viewing issue in terms of opportunities, not fear, says Annan

NEW YORK - UNITED Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged governments to recognise the economic and social benefits of migrants even as many countries try to keep them off their soil.

'No one can deny that international migration has negative aspects - trafficking, smuggling, social discontent - or that it often arises from poverty or political strife,' he said at the start of a two-day UN meeting on migration and development.

But, he noted, 'governments are now beginning to see international migration through the prism of opportunity, rather than fear'.

Last year, immigrants sent some US$167 billion (S$264 billion) back to their families - many living in impoverished countries with few other sources of income - and use their skills to transfer technology, capital and institutional knowledge to their host country, he said.

The UN meeting has drawn senior officials from some 131 countries. Governments, considering immigration as a domestic problem, had resisted holding such a meeting for decades.

But world leaders have warmed to the topic as nearly 200 million people - about 3 per cent of the world's population - no longer live in the country of their birth.

This number is double that of 25 years ago, the UN Population Division says.

Most come from poor nations or those marked by conflict in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Six out of 10 now live in rich countries - one in five in the United States - while the rest flock to other developing countries.

However, the phenomenon also causes problems such as the brain drain that 'can deprive countries of their best and brightest', Mr Annan said.

Many countries keep migrants at arm's length for fear they will deplete social services, threaten national security or fuel social tensions by taking on low-level jobs.

The US House of Representatives on Thursday voted to build a 1,125km fence along portions of the border with Mexico, digging in its heels against a plan by President George W. Bush to create a guest worker programme and legalise millions of illegal immigrants, many of them Mexicans.

Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista told the conference that most migrants see their move to a new country 'as a need'.

'We should not forget that behind the migrant there are men, women and children with faces and names. It is of the utmost importance to avoid treating migrants as goods to be exchanged, or even worse, as criminals.'

Moroccan Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa told Reuters his country has worked hard to discourage its citizens from fleeing to Europe, and spent large sums of money cracking down on immigrants using Morocco as a transit point.

But the money that overseas Moroccans send back is Rabat's second-biggest source of foreign currency after tourism, he said.

At the conclusion of opening statements, there will be discussions of issues, including the brain drain.

'More and more people understand that governments can cooperate to create triple wins - for migrants, for their countries of origin, and for the societies that receive them,' Mr Annan said.

His top envoy on migration issues, Mr Peter Sutherland, said that in the postCold War era, migration has taken on a new importance.

'Looking back to the era of the Soviet Union, we complained about the denial of the right of individuals to leave. Now we have the situation where the right to leave is propounded, but the right to enter is not so easily available,' he said.

He said he hoped the dialogue would be the first of many forums. Belgium has already offered to host the next one.

REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Global migration pattern
Europe is host to nearly 34 per cent of all migrants, North America to 23 per cent and Asia to 28 per cent.

About one-third of migrants move between developing nations; the same proportion move from developing to developed nations.

Approximately 40 per cent of university-educated adults from Turkey and Morocco live in developed countries, and half of the adults with college degrees from the Caribbean states have moved to the United States.

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