Mitigating effects of recruitment and migration of skilled labour
27 January 2005
 |
| High wages, better working and living conditions, and greater opportunities for career advancement are the pull factors for the migration of skilled labour. |
Dr Barbara Stilwell of the World Health Organisation stated that the beneficiary countries of skilled foreign labour felt the need to attract workers because of domestic shortages in specific fields such as healthcare and education. She said: "There is insufficient capacity for some developed countries to produce enough workers in these fields and the ability of these developed countries to offer quality training and better wages is advantageous to the foreign worker."
Dr Stilwell emphasised it is hard to stop the migration of skilled workers but efforts can be made to support governments in improving their planning mechanisms to manage migration. She said this can be done through compensation and the introduction of codes of practice.
Susan Maybud of the International Labour Organisation suggested the need for a rights-based multilateral framework to address the migration of skilled labour. She noted that market forces will prevail in the supply and demand of labour. Representatives of governments, employers and workers should be involved in consultations to attract and retain workers. This is particularly important for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, where there is a great need for healthcare workers.
"Mobility policies are important to promote the circulation of talent to ensure that well-trained and skilled workers are encouraged to return to their countries," said Ms Maybud.
Wouter van der Schaaf of Education International, a global organisation of teachers' unions, stressed that efforts must be made by governments to ensure that the migration of educationists from a particular country does not lead to the collapse of that country's education system due to brain-drain.
He said: "There has to be a balance between the right of the individual teacher to migrate and the need for a country to protect the integrity of its education system by retaining quality teachers."
The speakers noted that the increasing migration of teachers and nurses from Commonwealth developing regions such as Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific to the developed world will greatly affect the educational and health systems of these regions. To curb the alarming trend in the loss of scarce human resources of developing countries in the Commonwealth, a Commonwealth Teachers' Recruitment Protocol and a Commonwealth Code of Practice for the International Recruitment of Health Workers have been introduced.
CNIS - the Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 219 26 January 2005
delicious
digg
reddit
facebook
stumbleupon
News feeds