Tuesday 18 November 2003

Press Briefing Notes
Tuesday 18 November 2003
Spokesperson: Niurka Piñeiro

GENEVA - IOM Council Session to Discuss Migration in a Globalized World
SWITZERLAND - IOM Publication "Labour Migration in Asia"
SWITZERLAND - IOM Publication "Migration and Development - A Perspective from Asia"


GENEVA - IOM Council Session to Discuss Migration in a Globalized World - The 86th session of the IOM governing body opens
today in Conference Room XVII at the Palais des Nations.

This year's Council session "International Dialogue on Migration" focuses on Migration in a Globalized World and this morning, IOM's Director of Migration Policy and Research will make a presentation on migration trends and the impact of global liberalization.

This will be followed by presentations from members of the Geneva Migration Group (GMG) - an informal grouping of heads of international agencies with a strong interest in migration issues. Those taking part will include IOM's Brunson McKinley, ILO's Juan Somavia, UNCTAD's Rubens Ricupero, UNHCHR's Bertrand Ramcharan and UNHCR's Ruud Lubbers.

This afternoon, guest speakers will discuss various migration and policy areas. They will include Jan Karlsson, Chairman of the new independent Global Commission on International Migration; Milton Ray Guevara, Minister of Labour of the Dominican Republic; Ousmane Ngom, Minister in Charge of International Relations in Senegal; and Michel Dorais, Canada's Deputy Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. The former Under Secretary General of the United Nations, Nitin Desai will serve as commentator for the session. The discussions will focus on four main migration policy areas which underlie migration management - migration and development; facilitated migration; migration control; and forced migration.

Tomorrow, government representatives will present an update on selected migration developments in regional initiatives such as the Ministerial Dialogue on Migration in the Western Mediterranean (5+5) and the South American Forum on Migration.

Updates will also be provided on significant local and thematic initiatives such as the Berne Initiative, the Asian Labour Ministerial Consultations, the Italian National Association of Municipalities immigration initiative, and the Regional Conference on Public Health and Trafficking in Human Beings in Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe.

During this year's Council session, Malta will be admitted as IOM's newest Member State. This will bring the number of IOM Member States to 102. Applications for IOM Observer status have been received from the League of Arab States; the Organization of the Islamic Conference; the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee-Center for International Migration and Integration; and the Jesuit Refugee Service.

A press conference will take place today at 13h15 in Conference Room XVII at the Palais des Nations. For more information, call Media and Public Information, Tel: (41) 022.717.9111 mpi@iom.int. IOM Council documents are available in English, French and Spanish on the IOM Website at www.iom.int

SWITZERLAND - IOM Publication "Labour Migration in Asia" - "Labour Migration in Asia" is a new IOM study focusing on trends, challenges and policy responses in Asian countries to a phenomenon created by three decades of promoting overseas employment to reduce domestic unemployment and boost foreign exchange earnings.

Asian labour migration policies, many of which were born from the chronic labour shortages of the oil rich Arab states in the 1970's and 1980's, are now among the world's most dynamic and proactive, while remittances have become important contributors to economic growth and development throughout the region.

The report, which contains papers by labour migration specialists from IOM, the ILO and the Asia Pacific Migration Research Network presented at the Ministerial Consultations on Labour Migration organized by IOM in Colombo, Sri Lanka in April 2003, addresses trends and characteristics of labour migration policy responses and international cooperation in 10 major labour sending Asian countries.

It also looks at some of the problems faced by migrants and their right to protection under international humanitarian law, as well as ways to improve international cooperation to protect migrant workers, facilitate orderly labour migration and combat human trafficking in the region.

The report, which includes extensive statistical data, also includes a compendium of labour migration policies and practices in nine major Asian labour sending states - Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

SWITZERLAND - IOM Publication "Migration and Development - A Perspective from Asia" - This new report in the IOM Migration Research Series looks at the links between international migration and development and shows how several Asian countries have successfully mobilized their diaspora to promote development at home.

According to official data, worldwide remittances last year amounted to US$80 billion - more than Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Development Assistance (FDA). The report notes that in some Asian countries, such as Sri Lanka, overseas remittances have now become "the backbone of the country's economy."

The report states that more than 50% of remittances are not sent through official channels. In Bangladesh, 40% of all remittances are sent through informal channels, 4.6% are remitted through friends and relatives, and 8% are taken by migrants when they return home.

In Pakistan, senior bankers estimate the real flow of remittances at between US$8 to $10 billion, of which only US$1 billion is sent through official channels.

In 2002, the Bank of Vietnam put the total official remittances at US$2.4 billion, double the US$1.2 billion recorded in 1998, but only half of the total US$0.4 billion sent home annually. This money is sent by some 100,000 Vietnamese employed overseas as construction and domestic workers in South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and Russia, and by the 2.5 million Vietnamese who have settled permanently overseas.

In the Philippines, the Central Bank reports that the amount of remittances has grown from US$1 billion in 1989 to US$8 billion in 2002.

In China, economists believe that expatriates account for about half of the country's inward foreign direct investment.

The report states that there is now unprecedented competition among industrialized nations to attract highly skilled workers as permanent or temporary settlers. In this process, many less developed nations are experiencing a significant net migration loss of young, well-educated and skilled nationals.

To counter this brain drain, countries like India are developing programmes to encourage qualified expatriates not just to invest in India, but also to return home and to use their skills acquired abroad to benefit India's economic and social development.