Immigration Checked
Printed from
<CENTER>
Immigration Checked
INDRANI BAGCHI TIMES NEWS NETWORK, TOI Crest, Jul 17, 2010, 11.29am IST
<!-- google_ad_section_start -->DAVID CAMERON |
"We would like to see net immigration in the tens of thousands rather than the hundreds of thousands ... That's the sort of figure it was in the 1990s and I think we should see that again."
BARACK OBAMA |
"Our broken immigration system affects more than a single community;it affects our entire country... it's unacceptable to have 11 million people in the United States who are living here illegally and outside of the system.Over the past few years,the immigration debate has often been portrayed as a false choice between amnesty and mass deportation"
JULIA GILLARD |
"I don't support the idea of a big Australia with arbitrary targets of,say,a 40 millionstrong Australia or a 36 million-strong Australia.We need to stop,take a breath and develop policies for a sustainable Australia"
Is the world locking down? All we hear of late is the clanging of doors as the "rich" economies rush to shut out migration,countries that were hitherto beacons of globalisation.The UK has announced that it will impose a limit on the number of immigrants the country can take by next year.The new Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government put a cap on allowing foreign workers in from non-European countries,closed off at 24,100.This is temporary,and permanent caps will be put in place from 2011,which will see higher salary and education standards being mandated and stricter citizenship requirements imposed.Of course,this doesn't affect EU migration,which the UK cannot refuse.So the Poles and Greeks can come in but not the Indians,Australians or Canadians.Or Bangladeshis.The new British law was greeted by howls of protest from the Bangladesh Caterers' Association,which represents 12,000 restaurants in the UK - imagine EU chefs labouring over the finer points of 'balti' cuisine.But seriously,Bangladesh has been particularly hard hit - in the first nine months of 2009,its migration figures fell by over half.Australia's new PM,Julia Gillard,says she doesn't want 'Big Australia' but a sustainable Australia.That means curbing immigration.Weeks earlier,Australia announced its new caps on skilled immigration.Trying to balance demand with the political imperative for a lockdown,Gillard said,"I don't want business to be held back because they couldn't find the right workers ... That's why skilled migration is so important.But also I don't want areas of Australia with 25 per cent youth unemployment because there are no jobs," she said.The new Aussie rules on skilled migration include employer sponsorships,new sets of skills,and higher education requirements etc.
Canada has capped its skilled immigration numbers at 20,000 this year.Of course,the official explanation was "emphasis on economic recovery" and "reducing the skilled worker backlog." Canada has also declared it doesn't want financial managers,university professors or mining engineers,but would welcome architects,dentists,pharmacists and social workers.Also,new immigrants need to be able to speak,read and write both French and English.
It's obviously a function of the economic downturn,but all major countries are adding barriers to the flow of people,skills and workers from foreign lands."The movement of goods and capital is a virtue,but not movement of people,even though without the latter the former loses relevance," observed a senior official in the ministry of overseas Indian affairs in New Delhi.
The signs are evident all over the rich world.Several advanced countries have passed,or are in the process of passing,measures to reduce the inflows of new migrants (see box on facing page).
All of this has the inevitable effect on the peripatetic Indian.If migration is the dominant mode of globalisation,the Indian is probably the most ubiquitous face of it.The cramped dormitories for construction labourers in the Gulf emirates chatter away in Malayalam,the huge collection of finance gurus in Singapore are the second largest collection of IIM-grads in the world,over 50 per cent of budget hotels and 37 per cent of all hotels in the US have Gujarati owners.Indian scholars,old and young,are winning Spelling-Bees and the occasional Nobel prize,and you are sure to find an Indian student pretty much in any university in the world studying everything from quantum physics to hair-styling.
Indians had spread out - to East Africa as traders;to California where they grow 95 per cent of peaches,60 per cent of prunes,almonds and walnuts;to Italy where they grow parmesan cheese;to Greece where they are the most preferred farm labour.If the world is locking down,Indians feel it more than many others - at last count,there were 25 million Indians spread across 189 countries.Despite the economic downturn,Indian overseas workers sent back $46.9 billion home in 2008-09,a 7.8 per cent increase over the sum sent back the year before.
IT'S THE POLITICS,STUPID
The causes for the shutdown are not far to seek.The economic recession has been hard for Western nations;the slowdown has affected every aspect of their lives,particularly employment.Soaring deficits have led to the closing down of economic activity and a consequent pressure on social security systems in these countries.
Inevitably,migration is a political issue,and no amount of economic logic can get away from that fact.In many countries,notably the US,pressures of migration have led to populism as a countervailing force.In these charged times,populist policies feed into a number of prevailing myths about global migration.
The first big myth is "migrants are taking away our jobs".However,experts say there is enough evidence to prove the contrary.While it might seem that migrants are taking away the cream of employment opportunities,it is also true that new immigrants from poor countries are doing the jobs that locals would not touch with a bargepole.
This is particularly true in Europe,where an ageing population will be more and more dependent on migrant labour to do basic manual labour.
A Colombian immigrant's recent lament in London,when he was about to be deported,puts a face to this reality: "The reason for me being here is not just because I want to become rich or because I want to come and take your jobs.I'm doing the job that most English people wouldn't do.I think I have never seen an English person cleaning a toilet.I don't want to harm anyone ... it's hard to be judged as a criminal when all you are doing is what you think is best for your family.What I'm doing,cleaning toilets - is that a crime?"
It is a fact that a determined migrant will come through the most determined barriers,because ulti-
mately the large labour supply gaps,particularly in the rich countries,will have to be filled.If they don't come through regular routes,they will somehow come through irregular means and become part of the shadow market.Which is perhaps why Obama has instructed federal agents to go through rolls of companies and businesses to weed out the illegal immigrants.
The second myth is that migrants are a drag on social security systems.Studies have shown that it is the very young and the elderly who are most dependent on social security nets.Working age migrants draw least upon social security benefits,because they are also contributing to it.
POPULISM: THE BIG BULLY
The descent into populism fuels the kind of immigration policies we have seen above.But this economic recession too shall pass.Then we will be haunted by two things: demographics and a bunch of useless but politically sensitive laws.This will be most starkly felt in Europe.Council of Europe statistics show that by 2050 half of the European population will be older than 50 years,and the share of the population aged 65 and older will rise from 14 per cent in 2000 to 30 per cent.In 2000,the UN suggested that the EU seriously look at migration as a solution.A Danish immigration report of 2009 suggested Denmark would need 100,000 workers over the next decade.
Yet,European countries have been turning exactly the other way.Most of the reasons are economic,but a few are also culture and security driven.For instance,European countries make a big song and dance about "integration" and imbibing European values even before one goes there.Few immigrant communities integrate openly;most are comfortable in ghettoised existence,which is not breached by the host population.Alienation is the inevitable result.In recent years,concerns about terrorism have fed antipathy towards newcomers as well,particularly if the immigrants are ethnically different.
Europe prides itself on its modernity,but,as you see with the burqa ban in France (which will most likely be replicated elsewhere too),the trends are contrary to this image.In the US,of course,the entire immigration debate is highly politicised with the new Arizona immigration law SB 1070 drawing fire.This empowers policemen to stop "suspicious" people to ask for their residency bonafides and holds the distinct possibility of degenerating into racial profiling.Obama has sued Arizona against the law,but he is troubled by the fact that more and more states are supporting the law,even as the highly fortified US-Mexico boundary fails to stem the flood of irregular migration.
The crux is,if global rates of growth have to be maintained,the rich world will need a workforce that is productive,investing and saving.That means the world will be revisiting these immigration caps sooner rather than later.
BUSINESS BEGS TO DIFFER
If politics swings one way on immigration,business and industry swing a different way.They are far more aware of the economic impact of shutting down.So it wasn't without reason that when Indian businesses complained about immigration rules to the Cameron government,it was the charismatic mayor of London who sounded the alarm bell.Boris Johnson said in a statement,"A crude cap could be very detrimental for the free movement of talented,creative and enterprising people who have enabled London to become such a dominant global force." The British are hinting that Indian companies heavily invested in the UK will not be affected,and have allowed intra-company transfers to stay out of the cap system,to retain Indian investment.
In the US,a high-profile group including Michael Bloomberg and chiefs of corporations like Hewlett-Packard,Boeing,and Disney,among others,have formed a high-pressure interest group to push immigration reform that will keep America's doors open,not closed.Rupert Murdoch,chief of NewsCorp,has said,"I think we can show to the public the benefits of having migrants and the jobs that go with them." The US has 11 million illegal immigrants - politicians want to deport them,business wants to regularise them.
Entrepreneur and researcher Vivek Wadhwa is deeply sceptical of the US' new immigration policies."America is doing itself a disservice," he said.The US' efforts to shut out migrants has seen over 100,000 skilled Indians returning home,to set up businesses,etc."This is an economic and intellectual stimulus for India," he adds,because these skilled brains are doing their bit to raise the quality of Indian entrepreneurship,applying their knowledge and skills to raise Indian productivity.That's a huge plus.
This disconnect between the political response to immigration and that of the market is growing.Because,despite the best efforts,it's been proved over and over again that if you stop legal migration,illegal migration gets going.People will move,from an area of low economic activity to one that offers better prospects.Thankfully,that means while there are countries shutting doors,there are others who are recognising the folly of doing so.Switzerland,for instance,has just reopened its doors for more foreign workers,as have Chile,Malaysia and Singapore,according to Wadhwa,who is director of research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialisation at Duke University.
BARRED IN INDIA
Back in India,you would think that since we see the other side of the argument,we would make better decisions.No such luck.India may be one of the biggest source countries for global migration,but increasingly,with 20 million foreigners living and working here,it's a destination country as well;a function,primarily,of its economic growth.Jobs are disappearing in the US and Europe,but they are being created everyday in China and India.Will India manage its own immigration issues any better? Unlikely.
India is itself in dire need of skilled labour.But with overwhelming population numbers,it's politically impossible to sell higher immigration to any government.In 2009,India sent back 25,000 Chinese workers,because they were "semi-skilled" and were here fraudulently.Fine.Soon protests came in from New Delhi's international airport developers.Those humongous glass panes that needed to be set up required special skills,and Indians don't have them.The Chinese do.The government had to backtrack,and then the penny dropped.India's economic growth needs skill - Indian or foreign.Yet,it's politically difficult to sell the argument that some Indians may have to remain unemployed while overseas workers take the jobs.India doesn't allow more than 1 per cent of a company's workforce to be foreign,nor does it allow employment to people making less than $25,000 a year.Difficult rules to follow,but easier to sell politically.
This brings us to a problem that the world will soon be grappling with.How do we manage migration so that it's politically acceptable and economically beneficial?
As an official here said,"Migration will be propelled by the labour supply gaps in the global market.It will substantially determine the pace,direction and growth of the global economy.The question is not whether to allow migration,but how to manage migration effectively."
Brave words.Basically,this means easing legal migration,while clamping down hard on irregular migration.G Gurcharan,in charge of migration policy in the government,says there needs to be greater cooperation between demographically deficit countries and demographically surplus countries.This would mean creating a pool of skilled workers and facilitating their legal migration to countries that need it,but done mutually.It would entail what he calls "equitable adversarial analysis" between source and destination countries.
India is also selling "mobility partnerships",bilateral frameworks that govern movement of labour as well.Of course this can be done at the lower ends of the skill ladder,say for EU countries that will increasingly need geriatric care.India could take a quota of such service providers,including care-givers and home care nurses etc,with a country and these would then travel without being subject to either unscrupulous intermediaries or stringent border controls.
Should the government be getting into this business? Perhaps its time for nations to work together to regulate a critical sector - labour.This is the bigger story behind the roils of global immigration.<SCRIPT>var AddOthers = document.getElementById("yahoobuzzsyn").innerHTML;</SCRIPT><SCRIPT>function putCmtCnt(){ document.getElementById("ctcnt").innerHTML=document.getElementById("cmtcount").innerHTML;globalcomment=parseInt(document.getElementById("ctcnt").innerHTML); document.getElementById("ctcnt1").innerHTML=document.getElementById("cmtcount1").innerHTML; } populate_wf('/new_cmtofart2/6178538.cms?msid=6178538','populatecomment','no','putMathQ(1);putCmtCnt();'); populate_wf('/featuredcmt/6178538.cms','ftredcmt','no','');</SCRIPT><SCRIPT>javascript:populate_wtf('/new_mostreadsec/'+sectionid+'.cms','mrctabData','yes','redirect(\'new_mostreadchnl.cms?redirected=1\')','');</SCRIPT><SCRIPT> function commonclick(e){ closeSel(e); } </SCRIPT><SCRIPT> //document.onclick=commonclick; tpbar1(); </SCRIPT><SCRIPT>bnews(120000);</SCRIPT><SCRIPT>var insideslider = new CSlider('insideslider','',1,250);var tntwk = new CSlider("xx",'',1,280);var recv = new CSlider("recvidslider",'',1,300);var vslid = new CSlider("videoslider",'',1,665); </SCRIPT><SCRIPT>var subsecid='-2128936835';alsoinurl='/alsoinside.cms?msid='+subsecid;populatediv(alsoinurl,'alsoinside');</SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=Javascript></SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=javascript src="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/main/page/relatedPostFeed?format=json&keywords=§ion=India&n=5"></SCRIPT><SCRIPT>blogss();</SCRIPT><SCRIPT> var inputs=null; var textnode=null; var active=null; defload1(); </SCRIPT><SCRIPT> function blockError(){return true;} window.onerror = blockError; var timeslog_channel_url = 'timesofindia.indiatimes.com'; var ttrendlogmsid='6178538';</SCRIPT><SCRIPT src="http://timestrends.indiatimes.com/timestrend_v13.js"></SCRIPT><NOSCRIPT></NOSCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); </SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript src="http://www.google-analytics.com/ga.js"></SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript> try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-198011-4"); pageTracker._setDomainName("none"); pageTracker._setAllowLinker(true); pageTracker._initData(); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {} </SCRIPT><SCRIPT> document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js' %3E%3C/script%3E")); </SCRIPT><SCRIPT src="http://b.scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js"></SCRIPT><SCRIPT> COMSCORE.beacon({ c1:2, c2:6036484, c3:"", c4:"", c5:"", c6:"", c15:"" }); </SCRIPT><SCRIPT src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js" async="true"></SCRIPT><SCRIPT>window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({ appId: "121244657904400", xfbml: true, cookie: true, status: true });};(function() { var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true; e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js'; document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e);}()); </SCRIPT><SCRIPT>var i; window.print();</SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=javascript src="http://ads.indiatimes.com/ads.dll/genptypead?slotid=3738"></SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=javascript src="http://ads.indiatimes.com/ads.dll/genptypead?slotid=2384&poptype=2"></SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=Javascript src="http://netspiderads2.indiatimes.com/ads.dll/getxmlad?slotid=36287&rettype=1"></SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript>function trim(str){return str.replace(/^\s\s*/, '').replace(/\s\s*$/, '');}if(getCookievalue1('mscsauth') != null){if(getCookievalue1('mscsauth') != ""){var _iBeat_uid=getCookievalue1('mscsauthdetails').split('=')[1];var _iBeat_tag='';var _iBeat_url = window.location.href;_iBeat_url=escape(_iBeat_url);var _iBeat_type="";if(_iBeat_url.indexOf('articleshow') != -1){_iBeat_type = 1}else if(_iBeat_url.indexOf('videoshow') != -1){_iBeat_type = 2}else{_iBeat_type = 3}var _iBeat_articleid="6178538";var _iBeat_searchterm="";var _iBeat_domain=document.domain;var _iBeat_action="1";var _iBeat_cat=trim('India');var _iBeat_subcat=trim('');var _iBeat_async_config={host: "timesofindia.indiatimes.com", key : 'ae9d3286a3123c65177df0aa6088b6e7'};var _iBeat_async_data = {action : _iBeat_action,URL: _iBeat_url,searchterm: _iBeat_searchterm,domain: _iBeat_domain,articleid:_iBeat_articleid,userId : _iBeat_uid,contenttype:_iBeat_type,cat : _iBeat_cat,subcat: _iBeat_subcat,contenttag:_iBeat_tag}; (function(){ function pingIbeat() { var e = document.createElement('script'); e.setAttribute('language', 'javascript'); e.setAttribute('type', 'text/javascript'); e.setAttribute('src',"http://ibeat.indiatimes.com/js/tracking.js"); document.body.appendChild(e); } pingIbeat(); })();}}</SCRIPT>
</CENTER>
