Migration and development

There was a low-profile meeting last week in Georgetown, of the Caribbean Community/ Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Caricom/ ECLAC)- sponsored Caribbean Forum on Population, Migration and Development.
Linking the issues of migration and development, they issued a raft of proposals titled “The Road Map for Population, Migration and Development beyond 2014”. They included a wide range of development goals: “to reduce poverty and inequality, promote and protect the rights of vulnerable groups, including older persons, adolescents and youth, and persons with disabilities; achieving gender equality, equity and empowerment of women; and achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.”
But it is our belief that while the abovementioned issues are at the centre of so many other national development plans, there is not enough focus in a structured manner, on the last proposal which seemed to have been inserted almost as a throwaway line: “managing migration for development to maximise the benefits and reduce the negative impacts”.
In the Caribbean, migration has been one of the primary responses by the populace in the face of economic hardships. In addition to the structural momentum that such a long historical response develops, the present downturn in the economies of several Caricom territories will certainly give it a new impetus.
While there is a stubborn view that migration is a negative phenomenon – apart from the reduction in demands for a piece of a fixed pie – it has gradually dawned in policy circles that there are also many positives.
However, for migration to become an effective tool for development in labour-sending countries such as the Caribbean, it is necessary to design the right complementary policies and programmes, including those relating to social protection.
A few years ago, the then United Nations (UN) secretary general described international migration as a “positive force for development if buttressed by the right policies”.
Migration has the potential to deliver many positive benefits for development and poverty reduction and contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and beyond.
In an increasingly globalised and integrated world, it is not only capital among the three factors of production that has become fungible across borders: labour has always followed in capital’s wake – even though not in the same direction. As particular countries developed for whatever confluences of circumstances beyond capital infusion, people in search of a better life followed.
The move abroad is invariably economically beneficial for most migrant workers and their families, even though their social and political situation might be problematical. However, it is now universally acknowledged that those migrants also have a great positive impact on their “home” economy – especially through remittances.
Remittances to labour-exporting countries represent a key source of foreign exchange for the host government and, in addition, can provide valuable lifelines to recipient families and communities. Guyana alone receives about US$ 400 million annually, while the Caribbean as a whole – especially Haiti and Jamaica (US$ 2 billion each) which have much larger expatriate communities – receives billions.
The combined flows make remittances larger than foreign direct investment flows and twice as large as official aid received by developing countries. Their impact is also more significant, since their distributive effects vary significantly. Remittances fundamentally differ from other financial flows in that they are based on social ties and networks of responsibility and affection.
Remittances are a financial manifestation of a complex network of relationships that are established between migrants, their families, and communities of origin. I
n the Caribbean as a whole, for instance, anecdotal evidence suggests that much of the spurt in housing is assisted by remittances.
On the other hand, there are unintended consequences, such as a “dependency syndrome” created in those who receive remittances especially and do not have an incentive to enter the workforce. The old “brain drain” dilemma posed by migration can also be reversed by inducing expatriates to return with their skills, as exemplified in the ongoing “diaspora project”. Migration, we can conclude, is integrally linked to development.