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"Cameron Neil" [ Profil ] |
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Globalisation of labour??
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Sep 4th, 2006 - 08:39:40 |
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very interesting article below
what do you think?
one of the big problems is the environmental implications of all that
mobility!!!
cameron
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Next step in globalisation: the workers
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/next-step-in-globalisation-the-
workers/2006/09/03/1157222010791.html
Matt Wade
September 4, 2006
ANALYSIS
WHAT would happen to the world economy if every worker on earth was
able to take a job in whatever country they pleased? When economists
at the World Bank set out to answer that question they came up with
some startling results.
The free movement of labour across the world would double global
incomes, their computer modelling showed.
The bank also examined the effects of what it considered to be a
"feasible amount" of labour mobility - a 3 per cent, or 14.2 million,
rise in the stock of migrant workers moving from low-income to high-
income countries over the next 20 years.
Under that scenario global income would rise by about $US356 billion
($465 billion) a year by 2025 after taking account of price changes
and other economic impacts. That's more than three times the amount
spent each year on overseas aid and dwarfs the expected benefits from
full trade liberalisation, the bank said. Developing countries would
benefit the most, but incomes in rich countries would also rise.
The World Bank published these findings and touted the benefits of
greater labour market mobility - especially for low-skilled workers
from poor countries - in one of its flagship publications for this
year, Global Economic Prospects 2006.
It argued the remittances sent home by guest workers - those who work
temporarily in rich countries - reduce "the incidence and severity of
poverty" and contribute to development in low-income nations. The
bank admitted there are some downsides when guest workers send money
home. Large remittance flows can push up the value of a developing
country's currency and make its exports less competitive. Remittances
can also create dependency back at home.
But the benefits are hard to ignore. "Remittances appear to be
associated with increased household investments in education,
entrepreneurship and health - all of which have a high social return
in most circumstances," the bank said.
International remittances received by developing countries have
doubled in the past five years to $US167 billion.
A World Bank economist in Sydney, Dr Manjula Luthria, compares the
emerging debate about international labour market restrictions to the
free-trade debate of several decades ago. "At the moment we have
globalisation of everything but labour - it's the elephant in the
room," she says.
Developed countries are already under pressure to rethink traditional
approaches to migration.
Last month, the World Bank published a report outlining the benefits
to small vulnerable Pacific nations if Australia and New Zealand
developed guest worker schemes for Pacific Islanders. The Government
has not shown any interest in this idea despite support for it from
fruit growers and other from agricultural producers who face labour
shortages.
At the Pacific Islands Forum late last year the Prime Minister, John
Howard, resisted pressure from several Pacific leaders for Australia
to introduce a guest worker scheme.
The Treasurer, Peter Costello, reiterated the Government's opposition
while visiting the Solomon Islands in July, saying guest worker
programs would not produce long-term benefits for Pacific Island
nations.
"We invite people to come to Australia who have skills and to become
Australians. We are not a guest worker country, [where] we invite
people to come in at low wages and then round them up and send them
home again," he said.
The political sensitivity of immigration and workers' anxiety over
the Government's workplace changes probably means any shift is some
way off. But Peter Mares, a senior research fellow at the Institute
for Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology, says the
calls for greater mobility will only get louder.
"We're likely to see arguments from countries with a labour surplus
that it's in the world's interest to free up the movement of people
because that will generate jobs for their people, and they will argue
that this will also benefit developed economies," he says.
Mares, a contributor to the World Bank's report on labour mobility in
the Pacific, says the ageing of the population in many developed
countries could push them to change their approach to migration. "We
may eventually have a range of service industries that struggle to
get enough workers," he said. "An obvious one is aged care."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Cameron Neil Chief Executive Officer
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