1 of 10 needs money from migrant workers

A new report provides figures on approximatly how much money migrant workers in the world provides their families and their native countries with. One out of ten of the world population depends entirely on these money.

The total figure, according to IFAD - International Fund for Agricultural Development - is 3 000 billion US dollar for 2006, far more than former figures from the World Banks. There are possible 150 million migrant workers in the world, most of them occupied with unskilled works such as construction, domestic work and agriculture. For some countries this money is of a tremendous importance, it is 31 percent of the GNP in Moldavia. Philippines have possible the most migrant workers in the world compared to the size of the country.

There are a trend to look upon these transactions in a positive way. The problem is the costs for transactions, they should be reduced according to IFAD. The same was suggested by Global Commission on International Migration, GCIM, , a former initiative in the UN-system with a Swedish chairman, former Swedish minister Jan O Karlsson.

The Swedish trade union confederation LO have a more sceptical view of the problem. I quote from a report "Migration and labour market" (only in Swedish) that was presented last year (2006):
"It can be discussed if these flows, remittances, is something positive or negative. It is know that economy get a push forward but it can also be so that the pressure for transformation gets less which can lead to that necessary structural transformations in the country delays or doesn’t take place at all.” (My translation).
I have read those lines several times. To me it is cynical to not se the individual instinct to try to improve life basically as a positive force. But of course we need to discuss collective bargaining as well in order not to dump the wages.

Source: E24 and IFAD. My picture shows migrant workers from Burma working in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.