Thoughts on Global Migration

Humans have always been on the move. One of the first professions adopted by humans was hunter-gatherers, which required them to move from place to place in search of food, water and shelter. Migration has populated different corners of the world, and have introduced ideas from one part of the world to another. This trend continues today - we see people moving to places where they have a comparative advantage. However, countries and regions have been trying to slow the pace of international migration. As legal migration, whether temporary or permanent, becomes more difficult, potential migrants have been taking dangerous routes to reach their destination countries. In recent years, we have read in the news about Rohingya boat people trying to escape persecution in Burma, Africans and Syrians trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe, and a large number of children from Central America trying to escape to the US. The journey for a lot of these migrants is not easy - for example, Australia has been detaining asylum seekers in  Papua New Guinea before deporting them. Dangerous migration is not only undertaken by those who are persecuted, but also by economic migrants. These economic migrants just don't move from developing to developed countries, but also go the other way round.

Moving from place to place seems to be ingrained in us, so it would be futile to try to stop the flow of migration. Some countries are more willing to accept richer and/or skilled migrants. However, semi-skilled or unskilled workers can add some economic benefit to their destination countries. A new paper by Michael Clemens of Center for Global Development shows that existing barriers to migration cost the world trillions of dollars in terms of lost economic opportunities. Besides, those who are escaping persecution in their home countries need protection in a different country. Thus, there needs to be a more systematic policy that assists the inflow of economic migrants and asylum seekers from the developing to the developed world. The International Organization for Migration could take a more active role in facilitating the process of moving migrants, both economic and persecuted, from one country to another. Developed countries can issue more temporary work visas to facilitate migration. This would help to reduce people taking dangerous routes to move to the country of their choice.