The history of humanity is all about migration. The earliest humans (Homo sapiens) are believed to have evolved in Africa and then migrated to the other continents by land and sea. Many countries, even ones whose politicians loathe new migrants coming in, have been founded almost entirely by migrants from other regions and countries.
Today, both legal and illegal migration is on the rise, either for permanent residency or employment. The United Nations (UN) even has a separate agency for migration issues - the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). “Migration is an expression of the human aspiration for dignity, safety and a better future. It is part of the social fabric, part of our very make-up as a human family,” says the outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
As the United Nations explains the concept of migration, “throughout human history, migration has been a courageous expression of the individual’s will to overcome adversity and to live a better life. Today, globalization, together with advances in communications and transportation, has greatly increased the number of people who have the desire and the capacity to move to other places”.Today (December 18), the world marks the International Migrants Day. This year, 2016, marks the 26th anniversary of the UN’s International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (commonly referred to as the Migrant Workers’ Convention or Migrant Rights Convention). It was approved by the UN General Assembly on Dec. 18, 1990. The Convention affirms the human rights of all migrants, regardless of citizenship or immigration status, and recognizes that migrants are men, women, children, and families.
Affluent
The total number of international migrants has increased from an estimated 175 million in 2000 to 232 million persons today. Migration is now more widely distributed across more countries and one of every ten migrants is under the age of 15. Migration has become a huge humanitarian and political issue worldwide due to the influx of thousands fleeing conflict sites in Syria and elsewhere to more affluent countries in the West.
The other aspect of migration is that the migrants still maintain economic and social links with their home countries - in short, they send money back to their countries. The impact of remittance flows is significant having reached $401 billion last year - nearly four times the $126 billion in official development assistance (ODA). Sri Lanka alone gets around US$ 6 billion from its expatriates throughout the world, especially in the Middle East and Korea. Its potential benefits have been found to be bigger than the potential gains from international trade, particularly for developing countries.
Migrants can be classified into several categories. First, there are legal migrants who go abroad for employment and/or residency. Since many countries need migrant workers to fill jobs that cannot be outsourced and that do not attract local workers willing to take them at prevailing wages, there are many opportunities for migrant workers to fill this gap. A UN study has found that most migrants complement the skills of domestic workers instead of competing with them. By performing tasks that either would go undone or cost more, migrants allow citizens to perform other, more productive and better-paid jobs. They also maintain viable economic activities that, in their absence, would be outsourced. By enlarging the labour force and the pool of consumers migrants boost economic growth in the host countries.
Pastures
There are also illegal economic migrants who just want to leave their home countries and seek greener pastures abroad. Most of the boat people reaching Australia belong to this category. This is called human smuggling, one of the biggest illegal industries in the world. The lure of a well-paid job in a wealthy country is a powerful driver of international migration and the attraction has intensified as income differentials among countries continue to grow.
There are also genuine refugees and asylum seekers who either face persecution in their countries or flee a conflict situation. Another category comprises those who are taken basically against their will to other countries to be sold off as slaves for physical labour and prostitution. This is called human trafficking and differs from human smuggling, explained above. Each year, millions of people especially young girls and women are trafficked to various countries. This is an issue that the world must get together to act on.
However, there is no doubt that migration works in the long run, both for the host and home countries. The host countries benefit economically and socially from the migrants who bring in new skills and new cultures. This is why cities such as London and New York are called cultural melting pots with hundreds of languages spoken. It is however vital for the migrants to assimilate properly to the host societies - we have seen the ill-effects of non-assimilation through the phenomenon of “home grown terrorism” in recent times. The home countries also benefit by spreading their populations and earning foreign exchange from the migrants.
Opposition
When migrants establish themselves abroad, they help friends and relatives to follow and, in the process, the costs and risks of migration fall, making it possible for poorer people to join the migrants’ stream. Today, there is a lot of opposition to migration, legal and illegal, and some of the reasons outlined by the opponents are not altogether misplaced. Indeed, quite a few migrants have been caught engaging in terror activities and all countries are well within their rights to screen migrants. But this does not mean that migration should be stopped or blocked altogether. Critics have already spoken out against the proposed plan to build a wall on the US-Mexico border. While countries do have a right to curb migration, they also have a moral responsibility to ensure the safety and security of those who reach their shores after a dangerous, death-defying journey. This was amply illustrated by the tragic death of a three-year-old Syrian boy whose body washed up on a European beach, stirring the conscience of the world. It was a blot on humanity itself.
One way of curbing illegal migration is offering more legal opportunities for migrants from developing countries to come to more affluent countries. This also paves the way for better screening of successful applicants. Unfortunately, the emergence of immigration hardliners in many countries may inhibit such initiatives. There are many wrong attitudes with regard to migration that should be dispelled and migrants too have a responsibility to integrate properly to their host societies. It is a two-way process that calls for a bit of give and take but in the end, migrants – and migration - make the world a better place.