Khalid Koser, migration specialist at the Geneva Center for Security
Policy told IRIN: "These hits come on top of the 2008 global food
crisis and high commodity prices, as well as [slow] progress on the
Millennium Development Goals, accentuating some already negative trends
for the developing world."
Much of sub-Saharan Africa has yet to see the full impact of the global
financial crunch, but in the coming months higher unemployment and cuts
in investment and aid will combine with a cut in remittances to show
"the real impact", Koser said.
Quotas
The number of would-be migrants affected is unknown, World
Bank chief economist Dilip Ratha said. Meanwhile more countries are
announcing cuts. The UK has introduced a points-based system favouring
highly skilled over unskilled migrants, Australia has reduced skilled
migrant intake by 14 percent and Spain has introduced a migrants
"voluntary return" programme.
Italy will soon introduce tougher requirements for residency permits,
according to International Labour Organization (ILO) and World Bank
staff. And in the United States the February 2009 stimulus package
makes it more difficult for beneficiary firms to hire high-skilled
foreign workers.
A UK Home Office spokesperson told IRIN: "We’ve always said we would
run our immigration system for the benefit of the UK and that is why we
introduced a points system."
She continued, "We have already demonstrated that flexibility by
putting a stop to low-skilled labour entering the UK from outside
Europe."
But the World Bank’s Ratha told IRIN: "A crisis is the worst time to
impose immigration restrictions both for the sending and the
destination country."
Migration specialist Koser agrees: "Reducing quotas are a mistake
because governments are responding to public pressure rather than the
reality."
Government officials in Liberia say the cuts will increase poverty.
Liberia’s deputy Finance Minister, Samuel Marwolo told IRIN,
"Remittances from legal labour migrants have already slowed, and should
governments enforce quota cuts, it would contribute to the level of
poverty in the country."
In 2007 remittances to developing countries surpassed official global
development aid by 60 percent, according to the World Bank.
Unemployment
Remittances from migrants to developing countries are set to drop by
five to eight percent in 2009 according to the latest World Bank
research, in contrast to double-digit growth in the last five years.
"As a result, a large number of poor households in developing
countries, especially poorer remittance-dependent countries, will
suffer," economist Ratha said.
Quota cuts stem from a rapid rise in unemployment in industrialised
countries, according to ILO migration specialist Patrick Taran. The
unemployment rates in the UK, Italy and Spain are 6.7 percent, 7
percent and 17.4 percent, respectively, and rising. Spain’s rate is
currently the highest in the European Union.
But some sectors that are highly dependent on migrant labour – such as
agriculture – are not expected to see a significant decline in demand,
though others such as construction, manufacturing, hospitality and
retail services are facing sharper cuts, according to Taran.
IRIN.
Post published in: Africa News