Labour migration is a multi-faceted phenomenon which comprises temporary migration, including circular movement of agricultural workers to specific countries, or migration aboard, or serving on maritime and fishing vessels around the world. Managing safe migration is one of the greatest challenges of our times. While numbers of migrants from, and within, the Pacific are small, the importance of labour mobility and its impact on societies and economies is significant. Pacific island communities’ benefit from migration through remittances, transfers of skills and knowledge, networks that can lead to entrepreneurship and new markets. Labour migration can produce a lifeline for these Pacific Island communities impacted by climate change.
A regional labour migration strategy was the most effective way to address the mismatched strategies across the region, where each sending country was competing against each other to send their citizens to the recipient countries. The labour migration strategy involved reviewing the migration laws, and regulations across the three selected states, adjusting policies to address existing issues based on the unique economic, cultural, and political environment in the Pacifica states, developing new laws and regulations to align the labour migration laws across the Pacific region. Our labour migration legal and policy experts, as part of a World Bank funded program, developed a regional labour migration strategy across the Pacific Island States, beginning with Kiribati, Samoa, and Vanuatu - to present to the Pacific Island Forum to consider for adoption by its other members.
A labour migration strategy that is an integral part of national development and employment strategies of both sending and receiving nations. Allowing high remittance flows, transfer of investment, technology, and critical skills, including migrant workers earning US$ 440 billion in 2011 and $350 billion being returned to developing countries.