Labour outmigration, economic crisis and return migration: a policy dilemma

As the economic crisis is increasing it is indeed affecting all walks of life in the world - no matter whether it is migrant workers or native workers in the receiving countries but also the migrants' dependent families back home. With the increasing economic downturn crafting inclusive and right based policies to handle the crisis is becoming complicated. It is more complex than expected because policies derived only from the perspective of receiving countries would not be fair. In one way, the workers have been migrating due to their own situation such as poverty, unemployment and low incentive from agriculture in their home countries but in other way they are an important element for the economy of receiving countries as well.

Based on my observation and my ongoing research on migrant families in Nepal, the migrant workers who are primarily working in Gulf countries and the countries of Southeast Asia like Malaysia are generally considered as working in 3D (dirty, difficult and dangerous) condition, the unskilled sector. It is apparent that these lower class jobs would not attract native workers even if they get unemployed because they were not willing to do these kinds of jobs so the migrants were able to fill in over the past decade. So, as natives are becoming unemployed and are starting to look around for jobs, they are bound to be frustrated when they will see migrants – especially temporary migrants – working while they are on the dole. At best, this would further create a financial pressure to the governments (of the developed countries) as the unemployed natives would be entitled for unemployment benefits. At worst, this may create an anti-immigration feeling to the native workers. This can be the situation of receiving countries if they encourage foreign workers to return home.

The situation in the source countries like Nepal would become more traumatic. This is because the economic crisis does not only affect the industrial countries but also to the developing countries in the world whose economy also depends on the market. The initial signs are already seen as the market price has been exponentially increasing, especially of the imported goods. The price of food produced within the countries is also increasing. It also applies to the agricultural inputs to the farming households that increase their food production costs. In the worst case, the farmers may leave out agriculture due to lack of capacity to invest. Researches already showed that labour migration is one of the most important livelihood diversification strategies adopted by the farming households. Remittance provides good source of resilience of such households as a considerable part of remittances are used for agriculture and household consumption purpose. In other words, remittance receiving households tend to be more food secure, especially in a situation of extreme poverty. Child education is another major sector of remittance use. Some of my respondents are found so much worried if their husband would return back due to economic recession. They are praying for the god that the companies where their husbands are working would not be affected so that they could work till the time they want.

In this situation, labour migration is a highly complex issue that has a big influence on two socioeconomic and political spheres. A single migrant may have a number of dependents back home and his failure may pose a questionable future to them. Hence, conventional approach of policy making just by looking at the situation of migrants and his/her destination may put many rural flocks into more vulnerable condition, which are already miserable as compared to the developed world.

Rethinking the focus of migration research

Transnational migration in the form of temporary labour migration has been becoming a major factor in rural transformation in many developing countries such as Lesotho, Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras, Bangladesh, Nepal and the list goes on. It has been witnessed as one of the main livelihood strategies of rural people (Chondoka, 1996; Connell and Conway, 2000; Lipton, 1980; McDowell and de Haan, 1997). Thieme (2005, p.66) report, “international labour migration has been an integral part of the livelihoods strategies of the majority of people for many generations”. The remittances – money and goods – sent back home by these migrant workers have a profound impact on the living standards of people in the developing countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East {Adams, 2003 #221}. For example, in Nepal, migration contributes about 25 percent to the national gross domestic product (Seddon et al., 2002). However, international migration does not bring only the economic changes. There are more than economic aspects of labour migration like socio-political and cultural changes. This paper tries to unravel some of the sectors that have been remained to be the overlooked dimension of migration research. These sectors deserve the attention for effective management of labour migration particularly to the areas of origin. At first, let’s proceed with some existing situation in migration studies then, we go through what we need at local level to make migration effective for local development.

With no revelation, two main domains have predominantly occupied the whole literature on migration. First, it always follows behind the migrant themselves who, of course, are the main actors of the whole phenomenon of migration. It is also obvious that without ‘migrant’ there is no ‘migration’ at all. The issues mainly focused in the areas of destination are integration, migrants’ rights, immigration, refugees and so on. However, migration can not be disentangled with the migrant’s socio, political and economic situation back home. It means, one does not leave home in isolation, neither he becomes isolated after migration. Rather he has a constant relation, linkage networking at home and community of origin. Hence, one can argue that migration should be treated more than migrant and the ‘other side of migration’ is equally important for a complete study of the dynamics of migration, which has been paid a little attention (Rodenburg, 1993). In the areas of origin, ‘who migrates’, ‘what causes migration’ and at most the economics of remittances as a source of GDP have covered another huge body of literature.

Second, the migration scholars tend to see more on the economic aspects of remittances, which is absolutely correct because that is the only visible thing that comes into the migrant’s areas of origin as a product of migration. Most often, the remittances are compared with foreign direct investment (FDI) and development cooperation between developed and developing countries (de Haas, 2005). However, migration is not only the remittances even though it is argued that remittances can be in the form of knowledge, skill, and export of democracy and so on. Still there should be more than just remittance which has to be seen as the product of migration. In this context, the studies on the interconnectedness between migrants and their household members left behind are still inadequate, which would be one of the demanding areas of enquiry in migration studies.

Labour migration may result in a new household composition, livelihood organization gender relationship and social structure, particularly in the areas where male out-migration is predominant. 

References:
Chondoka, Y. A. (1996). Labour Migration and Rural Transformation in Chama district, Northeastern Zambia, 1890 -1964. PhD Thesis, Toronto: University of Toronto.
Connell, J. and Conway, D. (2000). Migration and remittances in island microstates: a comparative perspective on the South Pacific and the Caribbean. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 24(1): 52-78.
Lipton, M. (1980). Migration from rural areas of poor countries: The impact on rural productivity and income distribution. World Development, 8(1): 1-24.
McDowell, C. and de Haan, A. (1997). Migration and Sustainable Livelihoods: A critical review of the literature (IDS Working Paper 65). Sussex: Institute of Development Studies.
Rodenburg, A. N. (1993). Staying behind: rural women and migration in North Tapanuli, Indonesia. PhD Thesis, Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Seddon, D., Adhikari, J. and Gurung, G. (2002). Foreign labour migration and the remittance economy of Nepal. Critical Asian Studies, 34(1): 19-40.