In Europe, growing job insecurity has led to a political slide to the right -- with the notable exception of neighboring Greece, which has just returned the socialists to power. This political shift often goes hand in hand with growing discrimination against migrants perceived to be stealing jobs from the local population and pressure on politicians to keep newcomers at bay with more stringent regulations. Against this backdrop, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has just released its 2009 Human Development Report, a provocative document that challenges popular myths and makes the case that “mobility has the potential to enhance human development -- among movers, stayers and the majority of those in destination societies.”
The report's authors argue that “migrants boost economic output, at little or no cost to locals.” Ageing Europe may be struggling with high joblessness, but with its working population expected to register a 23 percent decrease by 2050, it would benefit from inflows of younger workers and therefore needs to develop a new approach to migration.
In host countries, the availability of migrant workers for childcare, for instance, can allow mothers to work. Less-developed countries of origin benefit not just from the workers' remittances, but also from the flow of ideas and the behavioral changes that travel entices. Women are among the main beneficiaries of such changes.
Along the way, the report also attempts to correct some widely held misperceptions. Migration, for a start, does not necessarily involve uneducated workers moving to richer nations: In fact, nearly two thirds of migrants have moved from one developed country to another, while worldwide refugees amount to only 7 percent of migrants.
The ratio of people who leave their countries of origin has remained stable at 3 percent of the world's population for half a century, but a survey in 20 European countries has shown that most people believe migrants in their home countries to be at least twice as numerous as they really are.
It is this reality gap that politicians will have to tackle if more enlightened migration policies are to be introduced. What could these be?
Rather than creating more obstacles, particularly for low-income migrants, governments around the world should lower the barriers to movement, the report argues. Recommended measures include lowering transaction costs, including the cost of passports in countries of origin, expanding schemes for truly seasonal work in agriculture and tourism that would offer wage guarantees as well as adequate health and safety standards and ensuring that migrants who lose their jobs have time to look for another position or to put their affairs in order before leaving.
While developed nations are often happy to keep foreign students after graduation, the UNDP report suggests that visas be increased for low-income workers, according to local demand. Governments should also ensure that migrants get equal pay for equal work, as well as decent working conditions.
Whether the global recession will, as the authors hope, be an opportunity to reform migration policies and “institute a new deal for migrants -- one that will benefit workers at home and abroad while guarding against a protectionist backlash” remains to be seen. The UN recommendations may prove a hard sell for politicians in mature economies in these troubled times.
But their ability or willingness to dispel domestic fears could have an impact on Turkey's European Union accession process. Popular opposition to Turkey's membership bid is linked in part to the growing backlash against foreign migrants and the perception that Turks would migrate en masse to richer countries. With this Human Development Report, its authors hope to reshape the debate on migration, one that is often “driven by emotions and accusations.” Let's hope they succeed.
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