Parallel Sessions I

F) International Labour Migration as a Strategy of Economic and Social Stabilisation at the Macro and Household Level

Conveners:

Béatrice Knerr, University of Kassel, Germany
Raúl Delgado Wise, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Mexico

Chairs:

Béatrice Knerr, University of Kassel, Germany
Raul Delagado-Wise, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Mexico

Speakers:

Germán Zarata-Hoyos, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Tijuana, Mexico
Ahmet Mançellari, University of Tirana, Albany
Gertrud Buchenrieder, Institut für Agrar- und Sozialökonomie in den Tropen und Subtropen, University of Hohenheim, Germany
Nadim Zaqqa, University of Kassel, Germany
Volker Hamann, Fachhochschule für Ökonomie und Management (FÖM), Essen, Germany
Janis Bikos, University of Kassel, Germany

Abstract:

Since the middle of the 20th century, labour migration from economically less to economically more developed countries has developed into an increasingly important sector of international economic relations. As legal barriers against permanent immigration have risen, while travelling and communication costs have steadily declined, international labour migration has become increasingly temporary. Migrants usually go abroad without their families, while their home country to which they return regularly, remains integrated in their life planning. This implies that each year billions of US dollars are remitted to the migrants' home countries, reaching an estimated US$ 80 billions in 2002.

These migration cum remittance strategies decisively reduce the migrants' households economic insecurity, in particular in countries where access to capital markets and insurance facilities are lacking. Remittances stabilise the consumption paths of younger and elder family and household members left behind. Labour migration is a means to diversify the household portfolio of income earning activities and thus buffers the risks involved in other activities. Allowing households to act less risk averse in other income generating activities, it provides them with scope to engage in enterprises which at the end may lift them to higher income levels.

For many poor countries, remittances of their nationals working abroad constitute a major source of foreign exchange. For some of them, like Bangladesh, Lesotho, Yemen and others, it is by far their most important one. It is also a source which usually is reliable and provides a basis for longer-term development planning: evidence shows that for poorer countries, remittances are a more stable source of foreign exchange than direct foreign investment and development aid. At the same time, the out-migration of labour force from an economy plagued by large-scale unemployment may significantly contribute to stabilise social peace.

The proposed panel intends to highlight these issues by presenting studies which consider both the household level and the macro-economic level. It also intends to elaborate the role which public policies may play in supporting these strategies and in helping to reduce their (negative) drawbacks.
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10th General Conference