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World Migration 2008. Managing Labour Mobility in the Evolving Global Economy

Document number
1897
Date
2008
Title
World Migration 2008. Managing Labour Mobility in the Evolving Global Economy
Author/publisher
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Irregular Migration, Feminization of migration, Economic migration, Labour migration, Free movement, Undocumented migrants; Undocumented labour; Migrant rights; Migration management; Comprehensive approach to migration; Migration policy; Restrictive migration measures,
Summary
The report, focusing on the theme of Managing Labour Mobility in the Evolving Global Economy, argues that demands for increased efficiency in production as a response to fierce global competition has meant that workers, independent of their geographical location, are increasingly living in an inter-connected world of work, resulting in greater labour mobility.

These pressures for labour mobility, the report predicts, are set to increase in a world where industrialized countries, already competing for highly skilled migrants, are also in short-supply of much needed, though often less accepted, low and semi-skilled workers. This has been largely due to an increasing scarcity of local workers available or willing to engage in low or semi-skilled employment such as in agriculture, construction, hospitality or domestic care. Within the next 50 years, these countries will experience even greater shortages as birth rates fall and the working population age, leaving twice as many people over 60 years of age than children.

The current supply imbalance in the global labour force is also expected to worsen, according to the report. Demographic trends show that the working age population of Africa alone is expected to triple from 408 million in 2005 to 1.12 billion in 2050 while one study claims that China and India are projected to account for 40 per cent of the global workforce by 2030. The working age population in developed countries, however, is expected to decline by 23% by 2050 without immigration (UNDESA, 2006).
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