| Economic
migration / WHAT IF
There are 86 million economically active migrant and immigrant
workers, including refugees, in the world today. Nearly
half of them are working in North America and Europe.
Women and girls from all over the world are recruited to be domestic
workers. Many leave children and families behind, choosing
to care for others’ children in order to feed their own.
Filipina women make up the majority of domestic workers in
Canada and around the world. The organization GABRIELA estimates
that between six and eight million Filipina women are living
abroad as families in the rich world increasingly rely on foreign
domestics so that both parents can go out to work. |
The rich world relies heavily on migrant workers. Without them significant
sections of agriculture would collapse. Every year, approximately 18,000
migrant farm workers from Mexico and the Caribbean arrive in Canada to
work in the agricultural industry. The United States depends heavily on
legal and illegal seasonal farm workers to harvest fruit and vegetables – more
than 44,000 in 2000. As a whole, the European Union needs 500,000 non-EU
migrants for seasonal farm work that locals don’t want to do. In
Britain the National Farmers Union has warned that parts of the agriculture
and horticulture industries – with annual sales of more than $5 billion – could
be forced to close if freedom to employ migrants were restricted. Australia
and New Zealand/Aotearoa would face similar problems. |
Many immigrants set up and run their own businesses, creating employment
and fuelling economic growth. In New Zealand/Aotearoa, nearly a fifth of
the population was born overseas and continued migration helps fill skill
shortages. Migrants contribute much to the country’s economy both
in terms of income tax paid and personal investment. In Australia one in
four people was born overseas. Australian Government research shows that
migrants pay more in taxes than they consume in benefits and goods services.
This is repeated in Britain, where legal migrants contribute $4.5 billion
more in taxes than they consume in services. In Canada migrant farm workers
paid $11 million into Employment Insurance in 2000 but are not eligible
to receive the benefit themselves. In oil-rich Saudi Arabia the departure
of migrant labour would spell chaos – they constitute the majority
of the workforce. |
Transport, education, construction, tourism, cleaning and, above all, healthcare
in rich countries rely on migrant labour. Some 70 per cent of people working
in catering in London are migrants. Hotels, restaurants, cafés and
bars in major centres like Melbourne, Toronto, New York and Dublin depend
on migrants – often for their very existence. Transport jobs like
taxi-driving are often done by immigrants. Without them the economies of
bustling, dynamic cities would soon run into trouble. The British Hospitality
Association has warned that it will have serious problems if it is unable
to employ workers from abroad to do cleaning and catering jobs. |
Sources:
ILO Facts on Migrant Labour, 2005; GEOPA-COPA; Victor Kennan ‘Immigrants
are Driving the Growth Engine’ Guardian Unlimited, 25 February
2005. Australian Government, Department of Immigration and Multicultural
and Indigenous Affairs; UK Home Office; New Zealand Government; Women & Economy,
UNPAC, Globalization and Migration http://unpac.ca/economy |
New
Internationalist 379
