A world without borders

Sometimes recent migrants are paid well below minimum wage rates, are expected to work long hours and denied the right to move to another location or job. In some parts of the world migrants are employed on restricted job contracts, only allowed to stay for a rigidly defined period and denied the tax and social security benefits of other workers.

There is little doubt that migration has siphoned off the better-skilled and educated sector from many developing countries.

Many Caribbean and Pacific countries have lost more than 75% of their tertiary educated population. Today, almost 10% of all tertiary educated persons born in Africa now live in OECD countries.

Some of this downside can be mitigated by the eventual return of migrants with newly acquired skills and other resources. Remittances sent home by migrants have become a critical resource for many developing countries with the total sum remitted annually now exceeding $US350 Billion, far outweighing the global total of foreign aid.

International migration is also a significant health challenge for our world.

And what of the almost 2 Billion people who cross international borders by air or ship every year on vacation, in pursuit of employment or education.

In almost every case their journey is far shorter than the incubation period of all infectious diseases meaning that airport vigilance and immigration and health checks count for nothing.

SARS, Avian and Swine Flu revealed how easily infections move around our world accompanying such travellers. Once infections burnt themselves out on the long shipping voyage around the world followed by formal quarantine on arrival but air travel and short shipping cruises have changed all that.

The influx of migrants particularly over the last 10 years raises a host of critical questions.

Do immigrants benefit the economy of the receiving country, bolster lagging labour force numbers and pursue jobs that no one else wants to do, or do they edge out local workers and place an undue burden on the housing market, social welfare and public resources? Do immigrants add to cultural diversity or do they serve to fragment national identity? Are all immigrants easily assimilated, enthusiastically adopting local customs and way of life or do some become marginalised and see themselves as isolated, bereft of rights and benefits and forced back into their particular immigrant fold as is the case in the Northern suburbs of Paris?  

Perhaps we have to wait for the next generation to display a new allegiance while their parents and grandparents cling to old traditions and linkages.

Are many developing countries suffering from the loss of skilled workers and the better educated or is this compensated by the inward flow of remittances and the eventual return of people who have acquired new skills and education? Do migrants contribute to global terrorism and drug trafficking?