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04/2006 		 

Migration demands a coherent approach

Migration is a complex international phenomenon. It requires international cooperation, with countries sharing responsibility. Policy-makers must not only consider the effects of migration. The causes also deserve attention – as well as the opportunities. Isolationism is not an option.


[ By Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul ]

None of us will forget the terrible pictures from last November, when injured and desperate people tried to enter the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa. Fourteen of them died in the attempt. This fact, in itself, should stir us to action. We must ask ourselves why they wanted to reach Europe on such a dangerous route. Only by looking at the causes of migration will we be able to design sensible solutions, which must go beyond isolationism and strengthening border protections.

“We” involves more than only those in Europe involved in development issues. Migration relates to several areas of policy. It affects a number of aspects in our daily lives. Therefore, it is high time to draft a coherent strategy. The need for action was accentuated further by the riots in suburban France late last year and by the storm of outrage recently triggered by the Mohammed cartoons. A number of questions arise:
- How can we confront the causes of involuntary migration in developing countries more effectively?
- How can we improve prospects for people in their home countries, so that they do not have to resort to migration?
- How can we manage the “suction effect” of immigration into the advanced nations, which is due not only to our wealth, but also to our (legal and illegal) labour markets?
- How do we want to handle integration?


It’s about people

Due to globalisation and growing international inter-relatedness, migration is increasing and becoming a matter of course. We are not talking about shipping commodities now, but about people. They head into the unknown because of hardship, despair and a lack of prospects. Others leave their homes and families in search of better lives.

Migration crucially affects developing and transition countries. Migration rates are higher for those countries than for developed ones. Furthermore, 45% of migrants and 70% of refugees move to other developing countries. Tanzania alone accommodates almost 700,000 refugees from neighbouring countries. Migrants to advanced countries often include university graduates and skilled workers – and increasingly so. As they migrate, their skills go missing at home. This is what experts call the “brain drain”. Migrants with few qualifications and who are unable to find a legal way to migrate often resort to the services of people smugglers, putting their lives at risk. Or they enter a country legally and simply over-stay their visas. It is estimated that some five million people are illegally living and working in Europe.

No doubt, migration is a particularly emotive issue. Migrants find themselves in a foreign environment and sometimes in perilous circumstances. When the subject of migration is discussed publicly in the host countries, there is a feeling of prosperity threatened and values endangered. Such fears make it difficult to deal with the issues in a rational manner. It would be absurd to try to prohibit migration entirely and to isolate ourselves completely. We should instead establish sensible parameters, recognising that we can benefit from migrations positive economic and cultural effects. In the federal German state of North Rhine-Westfalia alone, for example, there are 83,000 companies which were set up by migrants and which make an enormous contribution to growth and employment. Because the phenomenon of migration is very complex, however, solutions are not simple.


Double strategy

I believe that a rational strategy for dealing with migration must have two components. First of all, we must continue to address causes of migration such as hardship and misery where they arise. Second, it also makes sense to bank on the potential of those people who migrate from developing countries with skills and a healthy dose of pioneering spirit.

As far as the first point is concerned, I believe that we must look at the causes. It would be short-sighted to only consider the effects. Development efforts should be understood as contributions to safeguarding peace. They can help to solve conflicts and ease the suffering caused by displacement. Therefore, we support the protection programmes run by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). More than five million refugees have been able to return to their home countries with its help in the last three years alone. Liberia provides a current example. Since 2004, 340,000 refugees, who were scattered throughout West Africa in 34 years of civil war, have started to return home. In 2005, German bilateral assistance supported the return of Liberian refugees to the tune of Û 1.7 million. The situation in Liberia may still be fragile, and the return process far from complete. Nonetheless, recent events provide a glimmer of hope to the entire region.

Forward-looking development policy must practise crisis prevention. We must pursue the fight against global hunger and poverty with determination, and press ahead with implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. Schools, education, opportunities for earning a livelihood – all of these contribute to the goal of providing people with prospects in their native countries. I am also a strong advocate of trade liberalisation, because it creates significant impetus for more growth, investment, employment and income for developing countries. Consequently, it boosts opportunities for the people there. Our common goal is that no-one should be driven to migration by a lack of prospects in their native country.

And yet people will continue to migrate in the future. Some people will leave their countries voluntarily, in the hope of applying their acquired know-how and qualifications in industrialised countries. Banking on the potential of such people is relatively uncharted territory for development institutions. While we must not ignore the reasons for migration, we must, in particular, consider the opportunities associated with international migration. The phenomenon could bear much more fruit for the development of the world’s poorest nations. Migrants transfer an impressive amount of money to their home countries. They are involved in their nations’ economic, socio-political and cultural fates, and they have specific knowledge and skills. All of these factors are possible starting points for involving migrants more closely in the development of their native countries.

However, none of this will succeed without coherent strategies at the national level, without agreements between countries and without co-ordinated efforts at the global level. The EU Commission deserves great praise in this respect. It has adopted statements initiating dialogue on mutual cooperation with the countries of origin, and making specific recommendations for priority action. The European Council has similarly recognised the pressing nature of the issue. In the second half of last year, it adopted six resolutions on the subject, including on improving refugee protection in the regions of origin, on the EU Strategy for Africa, and on migration and external relations. In this context, the “Global Approach to Migration”, which was adopted by the European Council in December 2005, is of particular relevance. Among other things, the EU committed to swiftly implementing development measures.


Core areas of concern

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) will focus on the following three areas to make use of the potential migration offers for developing countries:
- remittances by migrants to their countries of origin,
- cooperation with migrant organisations, and
- migration of qualified workers.

The topic which probably has the greatest direct impact on the standard of living in many households in developing countries is remittances, the money migrants send home to their families. Incidentally, these transfers do not only flow from North to South, but also among countries in the South. According to World Bank estimates, total remittances of approximately $ 150 billion were made through formal channels in 2004. That sum was twice the global expenditure on official development assistance. Many developing countries depend on this type of inflow. For example, transfers by migrants from abroad make up 13.8% of the gross national product in El Salvador and 9.8% in Morocco.

Whatever the economic implications, the main significance of these remittances is that they provide relatives with an opportunity to reduce extreme poverty and cushion off major emergencies. The Global Economic Prospects report released by the World Bank in late 2005 stressed this point. This potential can be further enhanced. The cost of making remittances should be reduced, the process simplified, and the conditions for effectively using these funds in the home countries improved. Stabilising the financial sectors there deserves particular attention.

Another focus of ours will be on cooperation with “diaspora organisations” set up by migrant communities in Germany. For German development agencies, this is largely uncharted territory. For a while now, the BMZ has recognised the potential offered by diasporas for developing their native countries. We are assisting individual diaspora associations in Germany. So far, however, we have not tackled the issue systematically in our cooperation with partner countries. We intend to carry out a review to identify the countries of origin where a more intensive cooperation with diaspora organisations in Germany can significantly contribute to achieving development objectives, as well as the instruments needed to do so. In addition, we are in contact with migrants through the programmes the BMZ has been funding for 20 years to reintegrate skilled workers, who return home, in the labour markets of developing countries. Nevertheless, there possibly still is greater scope to “use” migrants as bridge-builders.

In this connection, I believe it is particularly important to consider ways of making it easier for migrants to move between their home and their host countries. For instance, they should be enabled to return to Germany for extended periods after moving back to their native country. For many affected, such a “reverse option” would make the decision to relocate easier. Just think, for example, of Afghan people considering a return to their homeland. They cannot be sure whether they will be able to make a living there as planned. Keeping “a foot” in Germany while moving back, will possibly give them the necessary confidence to seriously consider returning to Afghanistan in the first place. Moreover, our development agencies as well as German companies abroad depend on people who are able to switch from culture to culture and even enjoy doing so.

Nonetheless, the migration of well-trained, skilled workers or highly-qualified scientists from developing countries to industrialised countries is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it goes along with opportunities to promote development in the country of origin, for instance, by transferring knowledge or brokering contacts. On the other hand, the countries of origin lose well-trained people, who are urgently needed at home.

It is alarming, and particularly so in view of the Millennium Development Goals, that more than 16,000 African nurses have left the continent to work in the United Kingdom since 2000. Only 50 of the 600 doctors who were trained since independence in Zambia still work in the country. In my view, how we deal with the migration of qualified and highly-qualified people must exemplify how we deal with the issue of international migration in general. This aspect makes it particularly clear that only a coherent approach, which covers various fields of policy nationally, internationally and at the EU level, can result in adequate solutions.

We need an international exchange of ideas and views – and possibly agreements too – in order to bring in line the interests of the recruiting countries, the countries of origin and, of course, the migrants themselves. This fact received particular emphasis last year in the final report of the Global Commission on International Migration launched by Kofi Annan and led by Jan Karlsson and Mamphela Ramphele.


Outlook

Isolating a “Fortress Europe” or establishing reception camps in North Africa are no options to sustainably deal with the growing immigration pressure on Europe in the long run. Policy-makers must not only focus on short-term symptoms of migration, but rather on its causes and the opportunities it offers. Targeted management of migration will only be possible in partnership with the countries of origin. The interests of the migrants themselves must be taken into account. With our commitment to development, we want to give people better prospects in their homeland – and reason to stay. In doing so, Germany and Europe must not avoid responsibility for achieving justice in globalisation, and the countries of origin must not avoid responsibility for democratic good governance and development efforts.

In future, however, we must confront the development potential and the creative energy of international migration with a more open mind. Migrants can contribute to the development of their countries of origin, as they also contribute often enough to our economic development and prosperity. Many are looking for ways to provide better support for their families and regions of origin – let us support them in their efforts and learn to use their potential!

International migration is by its very nature a phenomenon which goes well beyond the domestic interests of just one country, and it thus calls for international cooperation with shared responsibility. Global governance in issues of international migration is an important issue. I sincerely hope that this realisation spreads and, in saying so, I am thinking of the “High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development” which will be on the UN agenda in September 2006.


Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul
has been Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development since 1998. She is a member of the Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament.
www.bmz.de