Review of International Practices: Migration, Labour Markets and Development

The Programme for the Study of Global Migration performed a comprehensive review of international experiences and practices pertaining to migration, labour markets and development, upon a request by the International Institute for Labour Studies (IILS) of the International Labour Organization (ILO). The review is designed to be part of a larger IILS project aiming at maximizing the contribution of labour migration to development in selected countries in North and West Africa.

The project deliver a comprehensive evaluation of international practises pertinent to migration, labour and development. Building upon ILO’s work the project assess existing policies, while drawing on both academic literature as well as other sources, in order to capture information about policies and experiences which may not have been formally evaluated yet. The following issues related to migration, labour and development are examined and elaborated:

•  Analysis of former well functioning policies, programmes, institutional arrangements and experiences regarding:

• management of outward migration and aspects related to e.g. mitigating the loss of human capital and domestic education policies

• management of inward migration concerning social cohesion, protection, development and destination  labour markets, including e.g. foreign credential recognition and mitigating impacts/opportunities for nationals

• management of transit migration (e.g. protection, employment, housing)

• management of urban/rural migration and issues of rural development, urban infrastructure development

• best practices surrounding remittances and the linkages to origin country development

• programmes and policies that encouraged a return and reintegration of migrant workers to their country of origin, including e.g. programmes targeting entrepreneurs or encouraging qualified persons to return.

• The project provides examples of best practises in regards of countries implementation of policies, institutional arrangements, and experiences while taking into consideration their respective development stage.

• Analysis and review includes examples of policies, institutional arrangements and experiences that have proven less successful and lessons that can be drawn from those experiences.

• Overview and explicit discussion of the different country contexts from which the examples are drawn.

• The review takes into account and builds on previous ILO work that has already been done on the subject. The ILO’s Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration: Examples of Best Practices provides in particular a starting point, but the project will importantly go beyond these examples and include more detailed and up-to-date information.

• Prof. Jean-Louis Arcand, Director
• Mr. Matthias Rieger and Ms. Narada Luckanachai, Research assistants

1. Narada Luckanachai and Matthias Rieger, "A Review of International Migration Policies", for the Programme for the Study of Global Migration (ILO, International Institute for Labour Studies, 2010).
   
2. This project results contributed to the ILO publication Making Migration a Development Factor: the Case of North and West Africa