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Issue 25: June 2003

COMMENT

Politics of human migrations

One in five Canadian workers, one in four Australians or – at the other extreme – one in 500 Japanese workers is foreign-born today. The 1 million Indians in the United States comprise a meager 0.1 percent of India's population, but earn the equivalent of an astonishing 10 percent of India's national income and are beginning to flex their muscle in U.S. politics. Could migration from countries with a bulging young population and an excess of labor-force entrants solve the problem of a graying society and a worker shortage in other countries? A special survey on migration in The Economist (Nov. 2, 2002) noted that the potential gains from liberalizing migration "dwarf those from removing barriers to world trade."

Population movements have been taking place since the beginning of time. If human beings were not genetically programmed to travel vast distances, we would still be living in Africa. Whether our restlessness is rooted in curiosity about lands on the other side of the hill or the ocean, whether we seek to escape destitution and persecution at "home," or even whether we simply go astray, large-scale movements of peoples have been intrinsic to human nature and an integral part of the human story. Mostly the journeys produce happy endings; others end in tragedy.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that "Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state" and "to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." Orderly international migration has positive impacts both on the communities of origin and of destination. Migration also can facilitate the transfer of skills and contribute to cultural enrichment.

Today, however, the sheer magnitude of the phenomenon is creating social strain and political stress. International migration, with its web of demographic, social, economic and political consequences, is increasingly at the forefront of national, regional and international agendas. From Europe to Oceania, the entry and treatment of migrants and asylum seekers has become a battleground for elections and raw emotions. The question of refugees from North Korea arouses similarly strong feelings around East Asia.

In one U.S. poll taken in December, a public divide arose on the subject of immigration: Three or four times as many "ordinary" as "elite" Americans considered immigration to be a critical threat to U.S. interests and wanted its level reduced. While the elite favor amnesty for illegal immigrants, the extent of public hostility has produced a political stalemate. In the same month, another report showed that the arrival of over 38,000 immigrants in the first 11 months of 2002, mostly from China and India, had fueled New Zealand's economy by pushing up demand for new houses and goods to furnish them. Yet there, too, anti-immigration politicians have done well in recent elections.

The number of people living outside their countries of birth is estimated to have jumped from 70 million three decades ago to 185 million today, an all-time high in human history. The large majority of migrants are lawful residents making meaningful contributions to their host countries. At the same time, international migration entails the loss of human resources for the countries of origin and creates political, economic and social tensions in many countries of destination. While the phenomenon is complex and unambiguous and comprehensive answers are yet to emerge, it is clear that the international community must address the issues involved with a sense of urgency, and seek multilateral, development-oriented solutions that can benefit all.

The number of refugees, internally displaced people and asylum seekers jumped from under 15 million in 1990 to over 22 million in 2000: a 50-percent increase over the decade. Refugees are a symptom of a deeper malaise in the polities from which they have fled; the failure to establish satisfactory coping mechanisms is a symptom of a deeper malaise afflicting the world. The treatment of refugees by host societies -- including the entire infrastructure of laws, regulations, administrative practices and personnel -- helps to separate a civilized from an uncivilized society.

There is also a criminal element to the movement of people away from homes and into the black hole of international trafficking. The selling of desperate young women into sexual bondage has become one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises in the global economy. The U.S. State Department estimates that some 700,000 persons, especially women and children, are trafficked each year across international borders.

The demons of displacement include too much government, leading to tyranny; too little government, leading to anarchy; civil, revolutionary and international warfare; economic collapse; epidemics; and ethnic cleansing and mass expulsions. Contrary to media-fueled perceptions, about three-quarters of the world's refugees are to be found in developing countries.

The growing incidence of population flows in and between countries is creating many challenges for international, national, provincial and local communities and authorities. This has posed problems for countries of origin, transit and destination. As compelling as the stories of human drama behind the dry statistics might be, it is a deeply unsatisfying state of affairs that we lack reliable data for a full understanding of international people flows, the complex interrelationships between population flows and development, and the national and global economic and political consequences of large-scale shifts in population. We do not even have internationally agreed definitions of such common terms as "citizenship" and "residence."

Questions that still need to be researched include: What demographic and population trends are impacting migration patterns, internally and across national borders? What are the present trends and future prospects? What ethnic groups are likely to increase in number and visibility in the international population flows in the next few decades? What economic and political ramifications will their migration represent? Sensible, defensible and durable policy responses are made difficult in the absence of reliable answers to such questions.

Humanitarian responses must be guided by protection principles, not political expediency. But the refugee problem is political as well as humanitarian. To the extent that the problem of refugees is exacerbated by weakened state structures, the solution is to strengthen the institutional foundations of fragile states.

Our response to humanitarian tragedies should be driven by the needs of the victims and by our capacity to render effective assistance. A new book published by U.N. University Press warns of an alarming shift since "9/11" from protection of asylum seekers to protection from them. Host communities have tried to justify tightened entry procedures for refugees and asylum seekers with rhetoric about the need to guard against the entry of potential terrorists, when the evidence so far is that terrorist infiltration comes in the form of visitors and students. Thus many would-be asylum seekers are turning in desperation to human traffickers and putting themselves even more at risk.

The universalization of the human rights norm is one of the great gifts of Western civilization to the rest of humanity. This finds its most eloquent and powerful affirmation in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which asserts that we are all born equal in dignity and rights.

Asylum seekers are attempting to flee threats to their lives in parts of the non-Western world. They should not become triple victims by being persecuted in home countries, exploited and abused by human traffickers, and then detained/rejected by potential host countries.

Ramesh Thakur is UNU Vice Rector and director of the Peace and Governance Programme. This commentary first appeared in the July 7 edition of the Japan Times. These are his personal views.

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