20000306International flows of capital, goods generate migration:ILO

KARACHI: It was always thought that increasing globalisation would bring more work to poorer nations.

But according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), it has led to a rise in migration, as people leave home in search of work, says a new report made available here on Sunday.

The number of people living in foreign countries has risen to an estimated 130 million, up from 75 million in 1965.

Instead of creating a level economic playing field, increasing international flows of capital and goods are generating more migration, says the ILO report.

Industrialised nations had been quicker to exploit opportunities for trade, increasing their demand for labour. And big falls in the cost of travel and communications had made migration easier, reducing the material and emotional costs.

The report notes that labourers in Indonesia earned $0.28 a day in 1997 compared with more than $2 a day in neighbouring Malaysia.

"In a world of winners and losers, the losers do not simply disappear. They seek somewhere else to go," said report author Peter Stalker.

"In the short term, free trade may stimulate further emigration because increasing exports from industrial countries will cause unemployment in some sectors of the 'sending' countries."

In the long term, said the report, closer integration of economies could reduce the need to emigrate. But the poorest developing countries faced a fierce struggle to catch up with the industrialised world.

The ILO report also estimates that the smuggling of migrants without papers is a business worth upto seven billion dollar a year.

"Trafficking is a very lucrative enterprise. An organised trip over an East European border, or a boat trip from Morocco to Spain, would be worth about $500," the report says.

"But a sophisticated travel package from China to the United States can cost up to $30,000," it added.-Internews