International Development Minister Erik Solheim and Minister of Labour and Social Inclusion Bjarne Håkon Hanssen

Globalisation’s losers

Article in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten 3 September 2006

Fleeing from Africa

Wave after wave of Senegalese men, women and children are landing on the beaches of the Canaries in small unseaworthy wooden boats. They have risked their lives to escape from poverty, hunger and disease.

Opposites

For most of them the dream of a new life remains just a dream. They drown at sea or are sent back home. Meanwhile in Bergen, the consultant firm Necon is in the process of engaging 50 Indian engineers. These engineers have valuable expertise to offer a wide range of employers from the oil and gas industry to the construction of the new opera house in Oslo, and they will earn many times more than their colleagues back home. The engineers from India and the boat passengers from Senegal represent two opposite poles in today’s globalised world. They are the winners and the losers among the world’s almost 200 million international migrants.

The world is getting smaller

Goods, services, capital and people are crossing borders as never before. We are linked up through Internet and read about better lifestyles elsewhere. The number of international migrants has almost tripled from 75 million in 1960 to nearly 200 million. Only 5 per cent of these are refugees. These are facts that we cannot ignore, and that cannot be altered through simple measures either within Norway or at the international level.

Our shared task is to ensure that the migration pattern develops so that the migrants themselves, their countries of origin and their host countries all benefit. From a historical perspective, migration seems to have been one of the most effective ways of fighting poverty.

The UN is the best forum

It is against this background that the UN has arranged its first high-level dialogue on international migration and development in New York from 14 to 15 September. Migration has global dimensions that require closer cooperation to ensure better links between migration and development policies at both national and international level. The UN is the best forum for dealing with global challenges, and our immediate goal is to ensure that this issue is given a permanent place on the UN agenda.

We therefore support UN General Secretary Kofi Annan’s proposal for the establishment of an informal forum under the auspices of the UN for dialogue on migration and development.

The international debate

The current international debate reflects the complexity of the issue and the conflicting interests between countries and between organisations. Developing countries are asking for simpler visa regulations, amnesties for illegal immigrants, decent working and living conditions, and greater appreciation of their contribution to their host countries. It is also pointed out that the money that immigrants send home is important for developing countries.

On the other hand, several countries in the South are seeking actively to limit migration, particularly the migration of health personnel. Many countries and organisations in Africa especially are criticising Europe for having double standards. European countries are actively recruiting qualified labour. Unskilled workers from poor countries are officially not welcome, but are effectively an important factor in parts of the farming, service and other industries. Restrictive and ambiguous migration policies lead to irregular migration, it is claimed. Western countries are accused of being more concerned about their own needs for labour than other more global interests.

A difficult balancing act

Our national balancing act has to ensure that the private and public sectors have access to labour, that emigration and immigration are properly regulated, and that immigrants have equal rights and good conditions for taking active part in society. The international balancing act is equally tricky. The aim is not to stop migration, but to deal with it in a better way, to reinforce the positive effects and counteract the negative ones.

A more globalised world means we need new integration measures. Many people’s identities are linked to two or more countries. This can knit the world more closely together and promote loyalty across borders, but it can also lead to conflicts and insecurity. The rules of play for coexistence across religious, cultural and national boundaries must therefore be discussed at the international level, and not just left up to individual countries to decide.

Our priorities

Norway must take part in this debate. No country should enjoy the benefits of international migration without engaging in the efforts to find solutions to the negative aspects. Uncontrolled migration is a threat to both developing and developed countries. The Norwegian Government wants migration to be approached from the perspective of our common interests: better economic and political conditions in the country of origin, protection of rights in the host country, and proper migration regulations.

The main reason people migrate is that they want to find a livelihood. Economic growth is important, but it not enough. We must work actively to ensure a more equitable distribution, not just between countries, but also between the rich and poor within each country. The efforts to ensure employee rights is an important part of our policy both at home and abroad, and we direct particular focus towards the rights of women and children.

Women

The UN is currently launching a report on women and international migration. Almost half of all migrants are women, but they have little presence in international development forums. They earn less than men, but nevertheless send a larger share of their earnings back to their country of origin.

Eighty per cent of the victims of human trafficking are women, and they are overrepresented in industries with poor regulations and little control. Focus must be directed to ensuring their labour rights, combating human trafficking and increasing knowledge about the social consequences of migration.

Much to learn from other countries

New solutions and new forms of cooperation are needed in several areas. The brain drain is depleting developing countries of valuable resources. Funding mechanisms for research efforts in the South, better salaries and focus on ethical labour conditions are powerful measures that we are already implementing to stem this flow. We need more flexible rules for dealing with different types of migration, and this will be taken into consideration when we draft our new immigration legislation.

Several other European countries are working in this direction. Belgium is giving immigrants the opportunity to take part in development projects in their country of origin. France is doing the same in Mali, Senegal and Morocco. The Netherlands is providing higher salaries for Zambian doctors who work in Zambia, and is supporting the temporary return of Ghanaian doctors.

The UK has taken an initiative to stop active recruitment of health personnel from developing countries, and has implemented measures with the finance industry to make private transfers of money less expensive.

Much to learn from immigrants

Immigrants in Norway have so far played only a small part in international development efforts. We believe that input from immigrants can provide a valuable contribution to improving our international development policy, particularly in the areas of health, education, peace efforts and various forms of evaluation. We would like to utilise the competence and knowledge found in NGOs and immigrant communities, and we have established consultations with civil society with this in view.

The high-level dialogue is the start of a more holistic approach to migration and development. We must ensure closer interconnection between these two policy areas as we proceed. We hope the high-level dialogue will increase awareness of these issues and that migration will come to provide greater benefits for the migrants, the countries they come from and the countries they travel to.