Managing Labor Migration in the Twenty-First Century » (1st Edition)

Philip Martin is a professor at the University of California, Davis, and chairman of the UC Comparative Immigration and Integration Program. Manolo Abella is the head of the International Migration Programme of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva. Christiane Kuptsch is senior research officer at the ILO’s International Institute for Labour Studies.

Why have ninety million workers around the globe left their homes for employment in other countries? What can be done to ensure that international labor migration is a force for global betterment? This groundbreaking book presents the most comprehensive analysis of the causes and effects of labor migration available, and it recommends sensible, sustainable migration policies that are fair to migrants and to the countries that open their doors to them.

The authors survey recent trends in international migration for employment and demonstrate that the flow of authorized and illegal workers over borders presents a formidable challenge in countries and regions throughout the world. They note that not all migration is from undeveloped to developed countries and discuss the murky relations between immigration policies and politics. The book concludes with specific recommendations for justly managing the world’s growing migrant workforce.

Foreign Affairs

Given declining birthrates and increased longevity in rich countries, international migration is likely to become a more important feature of the international landscape in the coming decades. Destinations of immigration include not only the rich countries of Europe and North America, but also emerging-market countries, such as Thailand, whose economies are prospering. This book reviews the issues involved in international migration, paying special attention to programs for temporary workers in a number of countries. The authors discuss dispassionately both the advantages and the disadvantages of these programs, and why they have often been terminated after some years (for example, in the United States and Germany). Overall, they find such programs far preferable to the growing number of illegal workers, who are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation both by employers and by migration brokers. The book usefully provides in an appendix the International Labor Organization's conventions on migrant labor.

Contents

Preface....................ix
Part I Global Migration 1 Why International Migration?....................3
2 Global Migration Patterns and Issues....................14
Part II Professional and Unskilled Migrants 3 Highly Skilled Guest Workers....................55
4 Guest Worker Programs....................83
5 Managing Guest Workers....................121
Part III Developing Countries and Sustainable Migration 6 Thailand: Migration in a Tiger Economy....................133
7 Managing Migration in the Twenty-first Century....................150
Appendix: ILO Conventions on Migrants....................169
Notes....................191
References....................209
Index....................216