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<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"></TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>CPL (kojakbt22) <NOBR>
</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>8:28 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>22955.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD>Migration does a world of good
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>Migrant workers do improve their own lives and economies of host countries: UN report </TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Tan Dawn Wei </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
When Annie left her parents, husband and young children in Solo, Indonesia, to make that trip to Singapore that thousands had made before her, it was with one hope only: that she would earn enough as a domestic helper to give her family a better life.
After five years of cooking, cleaning and caring for the Chan family in an Ang Mo Kio five-room HDB flat, she had remitted enough money back home for her family to build a house, put her children in school and pay for her aged mother's medical bills.
Earlier this year, she decided to go home. The Chans later received a letter from her bearing good news: She had opened a restaurant in Solo serving Chinese food cooked by her, something she picked up from Mrs Chan over the years.
In the time Annie was looking after the household, including the Chans' two school-going children, Mrs Chan found a job as an administrative assistant in a manufacturing company, bringing home an additional $2,400 a month.
Annie's story is not special. It is the same tale that practically every domestic worker here tells. Migration has helped to make lives better for the 190,000 maids who work here now, and the many more who came before them.
Migrant workers have also contributed to their host countries, especially Singapore. They are building the integrated resorts that will bring in the tourists, constructing and cleaning your HDB homes, and even clearing your rubbish for you.
These are also the findings of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) latest Human Development Report, released earlier this month.
For many, moving away from home is often their best, and sometimes only, option in seeking a better life.
Yet, the majority of the world's migrants do not move to another country. The report estimates that 740 million people are internal migrants, almost four times those who cross international borders.
Another surprising finding: The share of international migrants in the world's population has remained stable over the last 50 years, at about 3 per cent.
This is even though 'demand' for migration has gone up, given ageing populations in many developed countries, growing employment opportunities and more accessible transport.
The spanner in the works: increasing barriers by governments to curb migration, which are especially high for those with little or no skills.
But all signs point to an 'everyone can win' situation, said Dr Francisco Rodriguez, lead researcher of the report, who shared the study at a launch event at the National University of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy last week.
Migrants from the least developed countries had the most to gain - their earnings saw a 15-fold increase, their education enrolment rate doubled from 47 to 95 per cent, and child mortality saw a 16-fold reduction.
Needless to say, countries that opened their doors to migrants saw their economies boosted.
It is this good news that UNDP wants to spread, including to the Singapore Government, which it in turn hopes will carry this positive message to its citizens.
Mr Kamal Malhotra, the UN's resident representative in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, commended Singapore for taking care of certain migrant worker issues, such as stepping up the prosecution of employers for unpaid wages and abuse.
But with the global financial crisis hitting migrant workers the hardest, he hopes the authorities can come up with more enlightened policies rather than take the easy route by revoking work permits and sending workers home.
'Increasingly, Singapore is going to need more and more semi-skilled workers, partly because its own population is not willing to do those jobs and because of low fertility,' Mr Malhotra told The Sunday Times in an interview.
'So the Government needs to have a forward-looking strategy not just for skilled workers, which it has and has been quite successful at, but also at the unskilled and low-skilled end.'
South-east Asia is a major hub for migration, with Asia accounting for almost 20 per cent of all international migration. A third of Singapore's workforce is foreign, based on Manpower Ministry figures.
While the report recommended that countries liberalise the channels that allow low-skilled workers to seek work overseas, as well as ensure their rights, it was also quick to debunk common misconceptions.
Misconceptions such as foreign workers taking away jobs, committing crimes or impacting negatively the social cohesion of a country.
Social repercussions hinge on whether a worker is a complement or a substitute, said Dr Rodriguez.
In developed countries like Singapore, low-skilled workers tend to be complements, and will increase the productivity of the other workers, such as when women are freed up to rejoin the workforce because they have domestic help.
The recommendations set out in the report are similar to those that local advocacy groups have been pushing for.
These include protecting the basic rights of the workers, like giving mandatory days off for domestic helpers, providing safe, hygienic living conditions for foreign workers and making sure they are properly compensated for their work.
'In Singapore, low-wage workers have equal employment rights as local workers, but any government should recognise that they are vulnerable because of their temporary status and employers have unilateral power to cancel their work permits,' said Dr Noorashikin Abdul Rahman, an executive committee member of migrant worker welfare group Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), at a panel discussion last week.
'It encourages a 'use and discard' mentality.'
In April this year, TWC2, with nearly 40 other representatives of civil society groups and trade unions, gathered and produced a hefty list of recommendations to the Manpower Ministry.
Among other things, they urged the Government to encourage employers to recruit migrant workers directly rather than go through agencies, which puts an unnecessary cost burden on the workers.
'Migration is good,' said Professor Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, at the UN report's launch event last week.
But he also warned of a political and social backlash, especially towards legal migration. The danger then is that illegal migration will increase, which will lead to greater human trafficking and exploitation.
So it is important for countries to keep their doors open and develop a global bargain between sending and receiving nations so their needs are balanced, he said.
When that happens, more hopeful stories like Annie's can be told.
[email protected]
[email protected]
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>Migrant workers do improve their own lives and economies of host countries: UN report </TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Tan Dawn Wei </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
When Annie left her parents, husband and young children in Solo, Indonesia, to make that trip to Singapore that thousands had made before her, it was with one hope only: that she would earn enough as a domestic helper to give her family a better life.
After five years of cooking, cleaning and caring for the Chan family in an Ang Mo Kio five-room HDB flat, she had remitted enough money back home for her family to build a house, put her children in school and pay for her aged mother's medical bills.
Earlier this year, she decided to go home. The Chans later received a letter from her bearing good news: She had opened a restaurant in Solo serving Chinese food cooked by her, something she picked up from Mrs Chan over the years.
In the time Annie was looking after the household, including the Chans' two school-going children, Mrs Chan found a job as an administrative assistant in a manufacturing company, bringing home an additional $2,400 a month.
Annie's story is not special. It is the same tale that practically every domestic worker here tells. Migration has helped to make lives better for the 190,000 maids who work here now, and the many more who came before them.
Migrant workers have also contributed to their host countries, especially Singapore. They are building the integrated resorts that will bring in the tourists, constructing and cleaning your HDB homes, and even clearing your rubbish for you.
These are also the findings of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) latest Human Development Report, released earlier this month.
For many, moving away from home is often their best, and sometimes only, option in seeking a better life.
Yet, the majority of the world's migrants do not move to another country. The report estimates that 740 million people are internal migrants, almost four times those who cross international borders.
Another surprising finding: The share of international migrants in the world's population has remained stable over the last 50 years, at about 3 per cent.
This is even though 'demand' for migration has gone up, given ageing populations in many developed countries, growing employment opportunities and more accessible transport.
The spanner in the works: increasing barriers by governments to curb migration, which are especially high for those with little or no skills.
But all signs point to an 'everyone can win' situation, said Dr Francisco Rodriguez, lead researcher of the report, who shared the study at a launch event at the National University of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy last week.
Migrants from the least developed countries had the most to gain - their earnings saw a 15-fold increase, their education enrolment rate doubled from 47 to 95 per cent, and child mortality saw a 16-fold reduction.
Needless to say, countries that opened their doors to migrants saw their economies boosted.
It is this good news that UNDP wants to spread, including to the Singapore Government, which it in turn hopes will carry this positive message to its citizens.
Mr Kamal Malhotra, the UN's resident representative in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, commended Singapore for taking care of certain migrant worker issues, such as stepping up the prosecution of employers for unpaid wages and abuse.
But with the global financial crisis hitting migrant workers the hardest, he hopes the authorities can come up with more enlightened policies rather than take the easy route by revoking work permits and sending workers home.
'Increasingly, Singapore is going to need more and more semi-skilled workers, partly because its own population is not willing to do those jobs and because of low fertility,' Mr Malhotra told The Sunday Times in an interview.
'So the Government needs to have a forward-looking strategy not just for skilled workers, which it has and has been quite successful at, but also at the unskilled and low-skilled end.'
South-east Asia is a major hub for migration, with Asia accounting for almost 20 per cent of all international migration. A third of Singapore's workforce is foreign, based on Manpower Ministry figures.
While the report recommended that countries liberalise the channels that allow low-skilled workers to seek work overseas, as well as ensure their rights, it was also quick to debunk common misconceptions.
Misconceptions such as foreign workers taking away jobs, committing crimes or impacting negatively the social cohesion of a country.
Social repercussions hinge on whether a worker is a complement or a substitute, said Dr Rodriguez.
In developed countries like Singapore, low-skilled workers tend to be complements, and will increase the productivity of the other workers, such as when women are freed up to rejoin the workforce because they have domestic help.
The recommendations set out in the report are similar to those that local advocacy groups have been pushing for.
These include protecting the basic rights of the workers, like giving mandatory days off for domestic helpers, providing safe, hygienic living conditions for foreign workers and making sure they are properly compensated for their work.
'In Singapore, low-wage workers have equal employment rights as local workers, but any government should recognise that they are vulnerable because of their temporary status and employers have unilateral power to cancel their work permits,' said Dr Noorashikin Abdul Rahman, an executive committee member of migrant worker welfare group Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), at a panel discussion last week.
'It encourages a 'use and discard' mentality.'
In April this year, TWC2, with nearly 40 other representatives of civil society groups and trade unions, gathered and produced a hefty list of recommendations to the Manpower Ministry.
Among other things, they urged the Government to encourage employers to recruit migrant workers directly rather than go through agencies, which puts an unnecessary cost burden on the workers.
'Migration is good,' said Professor Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, at the UN report's launch event last week.
But he also warned of a political and social backlash, especially towards legal migration. The danger then is that illegal migration will increase, which will lead to greater human trafficking and exploitation.
So it is important for countries to keep their doors open and develop a global bargain between sending and receiving nations so their needs are balanced, he said.
When that happens, more hopeful stories like Annie's can be told.
[email protected]
[email protected]
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
