Name: Why rich countries are so dependent on migrant workers | CNBC Explains
Uploaded: 2021-10-14T18:50:09.000Z
Duration: 9 min 21 s
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Did you know that 1 in 20 workers worldwide is a migrant?

The migrant experience, it's a powerful one.

In an environment where we're talking about global inclusive growth, this entire group

of people is being left behind and ignored.

A migrant worker is defined as someone who lives and works in a country where they don't

And some 67% of migrant workers reside in high-income countries.

So, what are the ways their presence bolsters an economy, and what are the challenges that

The growing speed of economic globalization has created more migrant workers than ever

As long as there's been history, people have been going overseas to work.

And it's connected with the economic cycles as well.

He's a Singapore-based senior correspondent for CNBC and has covered international markets

There's a lot that we can unpack about migrant workers right, but we're focusing now on

And seeing that many are concentrated in wealthy countries, is it just the appeal of well-paying

There are a number of push and pull factors.

What it comes down to is the dynamics of the international labor markets.

And it's exactly like that, it's exactly like a market.

You go where you get the best price for your unit of labor, whether you are skilled, unskilled

The increasingly interconnected world has just accelerated those trends.

The barriers to entry have come down in the workforce.

Fertility rates have been falling, low birth rates, higher ageing population, and that

depletes the available pool of labour, creates the dynamics for entrants into the economy.

But who are the biggest drivers of a migrant workforce?

In 2020, the top three sources for remittances, which is the money workers send home, were

the United States, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, all high-income countries.

In the same year, the top 5 recipient countries for remittances inflows were India, China,

Mexico, the Philippines and Egypt, all low to middle-income countries.

In fact, India has received the highest number of remittances since 2008.

The foreign exchange factor is a big driver in terms of the flow.

So if you take the Singapore example, many foreign workers, migrant workers who work

in the construction industry, in the shipbuilding industry, from Bangladesh and from India for

example, Sri Lanka too, come here because they can remit their salary in Singapore dollar

terms back to their families, which will inevitably mean more currency in their bank account,

better standard of living for their family.

It's not necessarily a case of country A, which is lower to middle income, workers there

looking at country B, which is at a higher stage of economic development, better prospects,

higher exchange rate and thinking, I'll have a piece of that.

It is across different countries of different rates of economic development.

There were many British construction workers who went to work in Germany, when the Berlin

Wall came down during the East-West reunification, because there were opportunities.

So that's an example of the higher-income country, not necessarily a developing country,

where the workforce and labor have shifted.

It's a broad global theme that manifests itself in different ways across the income

What are some of the commonalities of low-income countries who are providing these migrant

Countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh, like the Philippines, they're still trying to

They're at that stage of economic development where it's a lot of agriculture, a lot of

And they have not yet fully developed a higher-value tech industry, for example.

So those workers, who may even want to transition, may not be able to do so because the infrastructure

isn't there, the upscaling isn't there and they are stuck.

And they see the prospects, with the skills that they have, are better in other countries

within Asia, Singapore, Malaysia for example.

While there is no internationally accepted statistical definition of labour migration,

they are usually categorized by the sectors they work in.

And the challenges differ according to their skillset.

You have varying degrees of exclusion, varying degrees of injustice, when it comes to the

issues of basic pay, working conditions, living conditions, recourse to basic labor rights

In fact, there are very strong laws that are put in place to protect and safeguard their

It's enforcing those laws that's the tricky part because that comes down to the companies

And typically, many of these companies, many of these contractors and subcontractors, it's

According to Human Rights Watch, Qatar's two million migrant workers make up an estimated

The country has faced intense international scrutiny over its treatment of migrant workers16

since it won the 2010 bid to host the World Cup in 2022.

Pre-pandemic, that was a big, big problem.

Also, there is no basic insurance or health coverage for when these men are hurt in an

The vulnerability of migrant workers was highlighted even further with the pandemic18, as borders

were closed and mobility was heavily restricted.

A lot of these men and women cannot go back because of the restrictions in their own country,

and have to stay here and have to work because of the economic desperation in their own country.

The situation is quite different for migrant workers who still had their jobs in their

For example, at one point in December 2020, almost half of migrant workers living in packed

dormitories in Singapore had had a Covid-19 infection.

Social distancing in a dormitory, where there are 12 men sleeping there and using that as

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Why rich countries are so dependent on migrant workers | CNBC Explains

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