Migration and Remittances
Europe and Central Asia
From Plan to Action
Tomas Achacoso
October 28, 2009
Basic Facts
• Labour Migration (LM) requires proper
interfacing with other concerns such as foreign
affairs, economic development, employment,
education, etc.
• Is the result of bigger issues that are often
beyond the scope of control of labour migration
agencies, e.g. underdevelopment, poverty,
human rights, security, etc.
• Inter-agency cooperation and coordination is
utmost to make LM work – easier said than
done
Basic Problems
•
•
•
•
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Lack of vision
Weak institutional capacities
No focal point - local and international
Inappropriate framework - multilateralism
Lack of enforceable international norms and
conventions
Basic Problems
Lack of vision
inability to elaborate on a vision to arrive at
the “desired future” of what LM can do for
the country and attain the hopes of the
labour migrants
Basic Problems
Weak institutional capacities
• need to have not only the right labour migration
laws and policies but also the ability to correctly
implement and manage them
• requires institutional capacity: capacity to
establish laws and regulations and choose among
priorities, capacity to ensure policies are
implemented, capacity to use and deploy scarce
human and material resources, and capacity to
deliver services efficiently and effectively
Basic Problems
•
•
•
•
•
No focal point - local and international
“there is a gaping hole in the international institutional
architecture…
ILO looks after workers’ rights
UNHCR deals with forced migrants
WTO under its services agreement, manages the
temporary access of professional and semi-professional
workers
IOM is a cross between a consulting body and an altruistic
group whose status is not defined by a treaty
• NO treaty-defined “World Migration Organization”
(WMO) that could oversee the whole phenomenon,
according to internationally agreed objectives and
procedures.”
Jagdish Bhagwati (2003)
Basic Problems
Inappropriate framework - multilateralism
• “Clearly, there is no consensus on making
international migration the subject of formal,
norm-setting negotiations. There is little
appetite
for
any
norm-setting
intergovernmental
commission
on
migration.”-Kofi Annan – UN High Level Dialogue, NY 2006
Basic Problems
• Between 1990-2008, 68 major regional and
international consultative initiatives on labour
migration were undertaken
• All these illustrate, more than any quantified
study or projection, the drastic limitations of
labour migration conferences and seminars in
establishing
instruments
or
devising
mechanisms to promote and protect labour
migrants under the multilateral framework are
a real issue.
Basic Problems
Lack of enforceable international norms and
conventions
• certain provisions from internationally
developed and ratified conventions which
when compiled from “different branches of
international law” can be applied to labour
migration issues
Recommendations
• Reframing for transformation – Think out of the box
• Formulate a Vision of what LM can do for its development
and what it hopes for its labour migrants
• Establish a learning process rather than just training
programmes
• Seek out Sponsors and Champions
• Nurture environment for cooperation and coordination to
flourish
• Develop Institutional Capacity Building Critical Path
measures
• Strengthen international relations
• Establish labour and/or welfare centers/attaches
Reframing for transformation
• LM institutions cannot translate vision into
action without executive ability
• need to first become mentally prepared to
transform the source of what drives their
labour migration programme, the standards
for basing decisions and the values that
underlie
their
accomplishments
and
achievements towards a position ready to face
the challenges
Formulate a Vision
• A vision statement should outline the role and
future of labour migration and should be
accompanied by an operational strategy which
emphasizes the country’s core values and
explicitly links the activities in labour
migration to the interests of the country’s
national development plan
Learning Process
• stakeholders acquiring the proper insights and
competencies appropriate for their station in
life. In this way, the proposed process, if
followed, can improve the sustainability of
technical
assistance
projects
through
developing the capacity of the beneficiaries to
understand what the job requires in the
present and what it will require in the future.
Sponsors and Champions
• Two leadership roles must emerge in order to
make these changes succeed.
• First, the process of change must be
SPONSORED by important and well-connected
leaders and policy-makers
• Second, these changes have to find their
CHAMPIONS. These are leaders who believe in
the process and promote effective thinking
and acting on the part of key policy-makers.
Critical Path Measures
• reform is continuous
As the world keeps changing, country’s must
keep adapting.
• a coherent collective system of long-term aid
should be set up which would enable laboursending countries to draw up long-term plans
and policies.
International Relations
Apply The International Law Principle of “The
Comity of Nations” which refers to the
recognition one nation allows within its
territory of the legislative, executive and
judicial acts of another nation, when these
are not contrary to its policies or prejudicial
to its interests
Labour Centers/Attaches
• make Labour-receiving countries more
conscious of the shared responsibility in LM
and as a way of encouraging labour-receiving
countries to strengthen their immigration
policies and procedures which will redound to
the benefit not only of the sending but
receiving countries and all labour migrants as
well