Migration and RemittancesEurope and Central Asia

From Plan to Action

Tomas AchacosoOctober 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

• 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 visioninability 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 ProblemsNo 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 labour-sending 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

• 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

Labour Centers/Attaches