International Migration: The Search for Work. Worldwatch Paper 33.

Approximately 20 million workers are presently living in countries other than their homelands in order to find better job opportunities. This labor migration is determined mainly by an income gap between the sending and receiving countries. Less important determinants are historical ties, cultural or linguistic affinity, and proximity. Emigrants include highly educated professionals such as doctors and engineers, and unskilled laborers who can assume low-paying jobs in agriculture and industry, for example. Countries from which the workers emigrate benefit in that unemployment rates drop and their economies are boosted by foreign money which the emigrees send back to relatives staying at home. However, the loss of human capital in selected areas often retards national development. Countries to which the workers immigrate benefit from incoming professionals whose training has been financed elsewhere, and from an availability of unskilled laborers willing to work for low wages. But at the same time countries of immigration suffer competition for jobs among the newcomers and indigenous minority groups, as well as effects of social tension among cultural groups. Problems caused by migration can be solved by restructuring economic relations so that people can earn a decent living in their home countries. Countries of emigration must emphasize labor-intensive development with egalitarian income distribution. Countries of immigration must restructure their labor markets to make exclusive use of indigenous worker populations. (Author/AV)