Immigrant Workers

Individuals cross international borders to reunite with their families, flee natural and human-made disasters, and improve their economic and educational opportunities and those of their families, among other reasons. Even though at the receiving end, in the major immigrant-receiving countries of Europe, Russia, and the United States, a prevailing assumption exists that these countries receive most of the global migrants, the reality is that the majority of the over 200 million migrants in the world today move within their respective regions (e.g., within Africa, within the former Soviet Union, and within Europe). Thus, of the 30.6 million African migrants today, about half go to other African countries; of the 36.2 million migrants from the Americas, 29.2 million migrate within the region; two-thirds of the 56.7 European migrants relocate within the region; and 39.5 million of the 77.9 million Asian migrants have stayed within the region. The cross-border movement of workers is a major aspect of how countries participate in the global economy, and it is thus a normal feature of an increasingly interconnected world.

Labor migration makes up a large proportion of these broad global movements, with a notable increase in the participation of women, who initiate their migration independent of men and earn wages no longer seen as supplementing men's incomes. Millions of women and men cross national borders every year in search of employment to bring a better standard of living to themselves and their families. Even though an image of migrant workers moving from poorer to wealthier societies predominates, the economic dislocations associated with the recent recession and the balance of growth shifting away from Europe toward other fast-growing countries has given rise to new labor flows. China is attracting skilled workers and investors, and European countries, such as Italy and Ireland, are seeing increases in emigration, mostly of skilled workers and professionals. A new landscape of global labor migration is emerging.

Given the interconnected nature of origin and destination for migrant workers, an examination of their experiences and issues that relate to them—policy decisions that shape this migration, effects of these movements, political agendas, and Workers' rights—must be examined from a perspective that takes into consideration the sending and destination countries, and often regional and even global concerns. When considering the causes of international migration, whereas opportunity and higher wages are key drivers for international [Page 416]migration, many individuals leave their countries for other reasons, some deeply personal, such as divorce or family dissolution, and others more macro, and such as political strife, economic dislocations, and/or human-made disasters. Regardless of the personal and/or structural roots of migration, the overwhelming majority of adult migrants enter the labor force once they arrive in destination countries. In general, immigrant workers do better economically in the host country than in the origin country. In addition to the wage benefits of migration, migration often brings additional, less quantifiable advantages to migrants and their families—whether they live with the migrants or were left in the origin country.