Labor

Chinese President Hu Jintao will visit Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Mauritius this month to discuss a series of measures to help African countries cushion the impact of the global financial crisis.

Over the past decade, China has been consolidating its economic relationship with various African countries.  Given the crisis, I thnk it would be interesting to discuss if China will maintain its aid, trade, investment and migration flows to Sub-Saharan Africa and if there will be opportunities for new innovative financing mechanisms.

In her recent book, "Dead Aid," Dambisa Moyo mentioned that “if you start to look towards China for example, which has $4 trillion of reserves, all of a sudden you could see there might be another opportunity to do a bond issue in the Chinese market." 

Some recent developments on this front: 

More restrictive immigration policies by developed country governments are being implemented as the financial crisis deepens. For example, the United Kingdom just published a bill which contains some of the following measures:

1) Migrants who are not citizens or permanent residents of the UK will not have access to full services benefits and social housing; and

2) Migrants will have to pay a levy towards schools, hospitals, and other local services so that that the new flows of UK immigrants do not put pressure on the community.

According to the UK Visa bureau, “the bill is part of the new Australian-style points –based system for immigrants introduced in stages last year, which aims to control UK immigration so that only those needed in the British economy move to the UK and no more.”

Australia may cut migrant visas as unemployment grows. In a recent interview, Australian Immigration Minister Chris Evans said that "the global financial crisis could lead to a smaller migrant intake in 2009, as demand for skilled migrants slowed."

Today marks the celebration of the unquestionable contribution and sacrifices that many international migrants make to both destination and origin countries.  Migrants work hard, fill jobs that are needed, and send a large portion of their earnings to support their families at home.  Despite all of their contributions, native populations’ opinion and the policies developed by their governments continue to be mixed. 

As the new US President gets inaugurated next month and as the EU continues to work on developing its immigration policy, it is interesting to see what the natives in destination countries think about migrants.  A recent study by the German Marshall Fund of the United States shows that 47% of Europeans and 50% of Americans perceived immigration to be more of a problem than an opportunity.  Of all European countries, the United Kingdom is the most skeptical on immigration in Europe. Over 62% of UK respondents regarded immigration as more of a problem than opportunity.  Furthermore, over 64% of respondents.  A large majority of people in the US and the United Kingdom believe that immigrants take away jobs from natives and also immigration increases tax rates.

• With these opinions on immigration, how will immigration policies be shaped in the coming year?
• Will the British develop unfriendly policies towards the migrants who compose 10% of their overall population?
• Will negative perceptions of immigrants continue to grow as the global recession continues to hurt the US and European economies?

On August 25, 2008, the Philippine Professional Regulatory Commission released statistics indicating nearly half a million Filipino nurses are unemployed (see news).

This educated unemployment problem is nothing new to the Philippines. Prior to the creation of the government’s labor export policy in the 1970s which developed institutions to facilitate overseas employment for its citizens, there were tens of thousands of graduates who could not find a job to match their educational backgrounds in the domestic labor market. Unemployment rates for those who graduated from college in the 1960s were more than three times greater than those with only a high school diploma. Those with college degrees were even 11 times more likely to be unemployed compared to those with only an elementary school education. Contrary to what parents usually instill in their children, the more educated you are, the more likely you are to be unemployed.