Migration and Development: Challenges for Policymaking

1. Migration and Development:Challenges for Policymaking Louka T. Katseli, Robert E.B. Lucas and T. Xenogiani Gaining from Migration Second Experts’ Workshop Paris 11 July 2006

2. Outline • Migration and development: policy coherence needed for more effective management • Migration patterns, sending countries and policy regimes • Smart visa policies for legal migration and development • Mobilising and channelling remittances for development • Integrating international migration into development strategies • Policy coherence for migration and development: what role for OECD policies?

3. Migration and developmentinterlinkages • Migration patterns • Capacity of sending Development countries to adjust require greater policy coherence between admission policies and development cooperation

4. Policy coherence for migration and development: a definition The pursuit of win-win opportunities for both host and sending countries through the systematic promotion of mutually-reinforcing policy actions.

5. Policy coherence for migration and development: what is needed? • Better understanding of migration patterns and their links to conditions in countries of origin. • Careful consideration of the interlinkages of migration and development processes. • Improved coordination of migration, trade and development cooperation policies. • Incorporation of migration into PRSPs.

6. Patterns of EU migration • Europe lags behind North America in attracting highly-skilled migrants. • Heterogeneity across EU countries: • Northern Europe: large share of migrants from other OECD or EU15 countries. • Southern Europe: more than 50% from neighbouring countries, transition and developing countries.

7. Patterns of EU migration: Geography, history and politics matter • Three migration models coexist within the EU 15 driven by: • Historical and language ties France, Benelux, Morocco, Algeria, Spain, UK, India, Pakistan, Portugal, Ireland Turkey • Geographic proximity: Italy, Greece, Albania, Turkey, Germany, Austria Serb-Mont, Morocco • Humanitarian considerations: Denmark, Finland, Iraq, Serb-Mont, B-H, Sweden Iran

8. For an effective management of migration Need to build an Integrated European migration monitoring system

9. Future trends? • In absence of migration, EU15 population is expected to drop by 10 million during the next two decades (esp. Italy, Greece, Germany and Austria). • New EU members (incl. Rom. and Bulg.) are likely to experience overall population drop. • Continuous need for low-skilled migrants in agriculture, tourism, construction and household services.

10. Migration pressures are likely to continue • Maghreb countries are becoming migration transit countries. • Increased international migration from low income SSA. • Continued flows of refugees and asylum seekers from the Middle East and other regions.

11. Low-skill migration: an important driver for development • Low-skill migration has greater impact on poverty reduction than migration of professionals. • Only 17% of low-skilled migrants in the EU15 come from low income countries. • Dominant destination of low-skilled migrants is other developing countries. • Temporary migration likely to be chosen over permanent settlement if costs are not too high.

12. Smart visa policies for legal migration and development • Proliferation of temporary employment schemes: joint management in 57 out of 92 countries. • Limitations of specific duration guest worker programmes • Multiple entry visas: device to ease return and circularity. • Continuous and active monitoring of contracting arrangements. • Pre-departure training and linguistic courses.

13. High-skill migration: an important driver for growth and innovation • Emigration of highly-skilled persons can be beneficial for sending countries. • Compensation schemes and recruiting restraints hard to administer and usually ineffective. • Potential for general guidelines of recruitment and partnership arrangements. • Multiple entry visas, temporary work schemes and subsidisation of replenishment activities.

14. Remittances : who benefits? • The poor if: • Poorer families migrate • Poor overseas migrants remit • Potential gains depend on admission criteria, duration of absence , family separation, intention to return. • Migration of highly skilled who settle permanently abroad with their families bring little by way of remittances to the home country. • Non-receiving households benefit through multiplier and market integration effects.

15. Remittances: how to expand benefits? • Remittances not a substitute to development assistance. • Lowering the cost of transfers: a priority for EU member-states. • European development banks, financial institutions and development agencies can take the lead in providing improved access and innovative financial instruments. • Codéveloppement: migrants and migrant associations need to be involved. • Development assistance: a catalyst for diffusion of benefits.

16. Migration needs to be integrated into PRSPs • Macroeconomic management • Changes in tax revenue • Changes in expenditures • Transfer systems vs remittances • Human resource management • Incentives for temporary stay abroad (e.g. advanced seniority in public sector post) • Deployment of skills • Replenishment • Education policies • Financing higher education (loans vs grants) • Adapting curricula to local needs • Accreditation of private colleges and training facilities

17. Labour-market integration: • Improved infrastructure • Remove barriers to internal migration • Regional agreements (e.g. regional passports) • Remove barriers to labour-market entry of returning workers • ODA can be used as a catalyst to diffuse benefits of migration and facilitate adjustment through: • Promotion of infrastructure • Improvements of education and health systems • Capacity building • Co-development projects • Fellowships and training arrangements

18. Policy coherence for migration and development: what role for ODA? • ODA cannot really slow migration …but it can serve as a catalyst to: • diffuse the benefits of migration • facilitate adjustment • ODA channelled to investments in infrastructure can facilitate domestic labour market integration. • ODA channelled to capacity building can mitigate the negative impact of the brain drain.

19. Policy coherence for migration and development: what role for trade policies? • EU and OECD trade policies have a significant impact on living standards and income in low income countries and hence affect migration patterns. • The joint impact of migration and trade on development should be incorporated into migration policymaking. • More coherence is needed between EU and OECD trade and migration policies. • The international community needs to consider the scope of GATS Mode 4 to encompass low-skilled workers.

20. Policy coherence for migration and development: what role for security policies? • The interlinkages between development, migration and security should be jointly considered: a human security agenda? • Strategies for risk prevention, risk mitigation and risk coping should be incorporated into migration policies.

21. EU institutional set up for greater policy coherence • Rethinking of existing institutional set ups and segmentation of policy competencies across ministries, directorates and organisations. • Strengthening systematic consultations across EC relevant directorates. • Creation of a permanent inter-directorate liaison network as a powerful instrument for information exchange and policy consultation.

22. THANK YOU www.oecd.org/dev