INTERNATIONAL LABOUR MIGRATION

International Labour Migration

International Labour Migration

Introduction

One important feature of modern globalization involves migration. The world has seen recent growth in immigration to developed countries. The number of working-age individuals born in one country and living in another country increased from 42 million in 1990 to 59 million in 2000, or 1.7 million per year, on average. According to Massey and Taylor (2004), contemporary international migration unfolds in a context of the globalization of markets. The United States is by far the world's largest immigrant destination. The global financial crisis that took place in the third quarter of 2008 creating a strong negative impact for many countries, companies and employees that worked in many developing countries. The ILO (International Labour Organization) provided a quick reaction by looking at the consequences related to the employment and job conditions. It was estimated that by 2009, 50 million jobs would be lost. This is the reason why it is a fact that the ILO has paid exacting concentration to policies consequences which gave them an enough chance to study the matter in detail. The ILO passed a declaration of global jobs pact which allowed companies and the employees to make use of their complete potential of their productive resources. Therefore, all the issues related to International Labour Migration will be discussed in detail.

Discussion

Immigration law is currently a topic of national debate in the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that from July 1, 2007 to July 1, 2008, 888,825 people immigrated legally to the United States. This represents 32% of the total change in population, after considering births and deaths of the native population. Much of the current debate involves illegal immigration, and the impact that both legal and illegal immigration have on the wages and employment of native citizens. Although numerous studies have focused on the effect of immigration on wages and employment, particularly with regard to low-skilled workers, no consensus on the issue has yet been reached. Basic economic theory posits that an increase in the supply of low-skilled (high-skilled) workers should result in a decrease in the wage of low skilled (high-skilled) workers, all else being equal. If a shift in the supply of labour decreases wages and thus increases employment, the country experiences a gain in national income, or immigration surplus (Aslund, 2003, 448).

The researcher known as Borjas in 1995 illustrated that the immigration surplus is proportional to the demand elasticity of factor price for labour. The greater the impact of immigration on wages, the higher the gain to the nation as a whole. Borjas reports that studies summarized in Hamermesh (1993) indicate that the demand elasticity of factor price is greater for skilled workers than unskilled workers; this would suggest that immigration of high-skilled workers would have a greater impact on wages of native high-skilled workers than immigration of low-skilled workers would have on wages of native low-skilled workers. Thus, the immigration surplus would be larger when immigrants are more ...