Determinants of remittances by unskilled Pakistani migrant workers

2021 ◽  
pp. 011719682110418
Author(s):  
Abdullah Khan ◽  
Khadija Tippu ◽  
Saffi Ur Rehman ◽  
Muhammad Ali
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Wage Differential ◽  
International Labor Organization ◽  
Unskilled Labor ◽  
Foreign Reserves ◽  
Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia ◽  
International Labor ◽  
Unskilled Workers ◽  
The Empirical Analysis

Foreign remittance is the second-largest source of foreign exchange in Pakistan which makes international migrant workers key players in the balance of payments equation of Pakistan. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are the most common destinations for unskilled migrant workers from Pakistan. With the increasing costs of migration and the sluggish economic performance of the Middle East in recent years before the pandemic, unskilled workers in the region are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the flow of remittances to their families. This study contributes to the literature on remittances by: (1) identifying the determinants of sending remittances by unskilled Pakistan migrants in KSA and UAE; (2) finding the determinants of the wage differential between foreign jobs and local jobs of unskilled Pakistani workers; and (3) estimating the average time that a worker needs to potentially repay the costs of migration. Data for the empirical analysis came from the Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) 2015 Migration and Recruitment Costs Survey in Pakistan. The findings suggest that experience and income are the most important determinants of remittances. However, the returns to education and experience are lower in KSA and UAE for unskilled labor as compared to Pakistan. Moreover, the economic costs of migration are high for these workers as it takes between five and nine years to recover the costs of migration. Unskilled migrants are important assets for Pakistan that will boost foreign reserves and reduce the balance of payment deficit. However, the opportunity cost of migration is high for educated and experienced workers and labor migration policies should consider both the costs and benefits of unskilled migration.

Regulating Recruiters

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Martin
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
International Labor Organization ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Right To Work ◽  
International Labor ◽  
General Welfare ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Cost

This chapter outlines the major International Labor Organization and UN conventions that protect migrant workers, contrasts the efforts to reduce the cost of remitting small sums over national borders with those to reduce what workers pay to recruiters, and discusses the trade-off between the number of low-skilled migrants a country sends abroad and the rights enjoyed by these migrants. The migrant numbers–rights trade-off is straightforward but often misunderstood. Some rights have costs, including the right to work-related and general welfare benefits. If migrant-sending countries insist that their citizens abroad must have full rights to benefits, the cost of migrant workers will rise and there will be fewer jobs for them. Finding the best balance between migrant numbers and rights is difficult but necessary. The chapter concludes with incentives to induce recruiters to act in ways that protect migrant workers.

International Labor Organization

1953 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-143
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Director General ◽  
Labor Organization ◽  
International Labor Organization ◽  
Governing Body ◽  
International Labor ◽  
Regional Conference ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Contract Of Employment

From November 24 to 28, 1952, the Governing Body of the International Labor Organization met in its 120th session in Geneva, under the chairmanship of Fernando Cisternas (Chile). The Governing Body decided that the thirty-seventh session of the International Labor Conference, to be held in Geneva, should open on June 4, 1954. After long discussion on proposals relating to the agenda of this session, the Governing Body decided to add the following to those items necessarily included: a) technical assistance, b) penal sanctions for breaches of contract of employment, c) migrant workers (underdeveloped countries), and d) vocational rehabilitation of the disabled. It was agreed that the next Asian regional conference should be held in Japan in September 1953 and that its agenda should include problems of wage policies and workers' housing in Asia and measures for protection of young workers in Asia. Regarding other meetings, the Governing Body instructed the tripartite subcommittee of the Joint Maritime Commission, which was to meet in 1953, to consider the need for a tripartite regional conference on hours of work and manning in the short-sea trades of northwest Europe and a resolution under which the United Nations Economic and Social Council would be invited to study the possibility of establishing machinery to regulate freight rates for shipping in this region; decided that a meeting of experts should be held in July 1953 to examine systems of payment by results in the construction industry and the techniques involved in their introduction and operation; fixed the agenda for the fourth session of the Permanent Agriculture Committee, to be convened in May 1953 in Geneva; and authorized the Director-General (Morse) to convene the eighth international conference of labor statisticians early in 1954 in Geneva, the conference to be preceded by a preliminary meeting of statistical experts in 1953 in order to define the scope of the conference's agenda.

scholarly journals Into the Unknown: COVID-19 and the Global Mobility of Migrant Workers

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 332-336
Author(s):  
Tesseltje de Lange ◽  
Sandra Mantu ◽  
Paul Minderhoud
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Virus Transmission ◽  
Temporary Employment ◽  
International Labor Organization ◽  
Migrant Laborers ◽  
High Dependency ◽  
International Labor ◽  
Legal Position ◽  
Labor Pool ◽  
Industrial Needs

As the COVID-19 crisis developed, the International Labor Organization estimated that 4.7 percent of the global labor pool, comprising 164 million people, were migrant workers who were living and working outside their home country. While some were laid off and sent home for the lockdown, others continued working. These others were migrants performing crucial jobs in the front line of the crisis. They help to produce our food, pack our orders, and build or clean our houses, among other tasks. Many COVID-19 infections appear to be labor-related, with many of the crucial sectors exhibiting an extra-high risk of virus transmission. Migrant workers on the frontline can be low-waged, hold a temporary job, lack knowledge of their legal position and the local language, and have a limited social network and high dependency on others—such as recruiters or temporary employment agencies—for work and housing. This essay addresses these migrant vulnerabilities in the labor market and identifies measures that might simultaneously curb the vulnerabilities and account for industrial needs for labor in essential sectors. We argue that the vulnerability of migrant laborers is structural; the COVID-19 crisis has put a magnifying glass on a preexisting vulnerability and clarified the need for solutions.

scholarly journals International legal regulation of healthcare development in the OECD

2021 ◽  
Vol 136 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-51
Author(s):  
Sh.V. Tlepina
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Maternity Leave ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
International Labor Organization ◽  
International Labor ◽  
Important Means ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
The Right

The article examines the issue of international legal regulation of matters of strategic development of healthcare using the example of the OECD member states. The issues of the activities of the International Labor Organization through the implementation of conventions and recommendations are considered. ILO Conventions and Recommendations play an important role in the development of health care in the context of the pandemic. The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is testing the national health systems, their resilience, preparedness, and speed of response to emergencies. The rapid spread of COVID-19 emphasizes the urgent need to strengthen the health system. Conditions particularly relevant during the pandemic include working hours, including the regulation and compensation of overtime, inconvenient working hours, and shifts; weekly rest; maternity leave; sick leave; social security. The right of workers (including migrant workers) to form trade unions is of great significance. The right to association is also one of the important means of labor regulation, as well as for medical workers. To ensure the efficiency of measures taken in response to the COVID-19 outbreak and its aftermath, there is needed an environment of trust through social dialogue and tripartism.

Global Labor Migration

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-86
Author(s):  
Charlie Fanning ◽  
Nicola Piper
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Labor Migration ◽  
International System ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
International Labor Organization ◽  
Governance System ◽  
Global Migration ◽  
Historical Perspectives ◽  
International Labor ◽  
Critical Policy

This article discusses the roots of the current governance system of global migration in relation to labor mobility from a critical policy and historical perspectives, by assessing the current state of global migration governance and key protection gaps regarding migrant workers, to then consider future avenues for research and advocacy to forward migrants’ human and labor rights. In the authors’ analysis of global migration governance, they center the historic and contemporary role of the International Labor Organization, whose social justice mandate and body of international labor standards extend to migrant and nonmigrant workers, and its shifting position within the international system. The authors argue that shifting geopolitical concerns and competing institutional mandates within the international system have been obstacles to advancing a rights-based approach to the global regulation of labor migration. Nevertheless, they find that the current institutional and political environment may provide opportunities for enhanced cooperation and action at the global level to empower migrant workers.

Merchants of Labor

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Martin
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Ancient Rome ◽  
International Labor Organization ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
International Labor ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries ◽  
Work Abroad ◽  
Migration Costs

Merchants of labor are the intermediary recruiters between workers in one country and employers in another. They have a checkered history, often associated with trickery or coercion to fill undesirable jobs, from finding soldiers in ancient Rome and sailors in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to moving low-skilled workers over borders today. Moving workers over borders is a big business, generating at least $10 billion a year from 10 million workers each paying $1,000 to work abroad. UN agencies such as the International Labor Organization want employers to pay all of the costs of the workers they recruit, and the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 call on governments to cooperate to reduce worker-paid migration costs. Governments try to reduce worker-paid migration costs by setting maximum fees that recruiters can charge and punishing violators. However, there are not enough complaints and inspectors to detect overcharging, which can be a victimless crime if workers get what they want, a job abroad that pays higher wages. Merchants of Labor explores the potential of government incentives to encourage recruiters to better protect migrant workers during their recruitment and deployment. Faster processing, exemptions from taxes and subsidies, and awards could be carrots to reduce worker-paid costs rather than rely exclusively on the stick of enforcement.

Filipino Guest Workers, Gender Segregation, and the Changing Social/Labor-Scape in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-512
Author(s):  
Simeon S. Magliveras
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Major Part ◽  
Gender Segregation ◽  
Guest Workers ◽  
Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia ◽  
Gcc Countries ◽  
Overseas Filipino Workers ◽  
Dress Codes ◽  
Social Labor

Filipinos are a major part of the workforce in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with a population of almost one million. This article investigates the effects of gender segregation on Filipino workers and how they navigate their lives through systems imposed on them. In particular, it examines the Kafala system (administrative sponsoring system) used for recruiting migrant workers for GCC countries. This article suggests that contrary beliefs about gender segregation and dress codes, Filipinas found it empowering. However, this article also concludes that gender segregation and dress codes also lead to isolation and loneliness. In addition, it is concluded that the fate and contentment of the overseas Filipino workers are directly dependent on who sponsors them.

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