Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Introduction

It is an honor and privilege to take part in this ILO Governing Body’s 326th Session, and I wish to thank ILO General-Director Guy Ryder, our friend and neighbor, for organizing this important event. I am delighted that the theme for this panel discussion will focus on “Addressing the Impacts of Refugees and Other Forcibly Displaced Persons on Labour Markets”.

For my brief presentation today, I have three points:

• First, I shall touch briefly on global migration trends;
• Second, I shall make some general observations about the impact of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons on labour markets; and
• Third I shall offer, for discussion, some broad suggestions for the effective integration of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons into labour markets.

I. Global Migration Trends

The topic deserves serious and urgent attention because we live in an era of unprecedented human mobility – a moment in time in which more people are on the move than ever before. We are facing, in particular, a record level of forced migration compounded by an unparalleled number of simultaneous, complex, and protracted crises involving persecution, armed conflicts, political upheavals, natural disasters, failed governance as well as abject poverty.

There are people displaced by Boko Haram in Nigeria and its neighboring countries, by ethno-religious rivalries in the Central African Republic, power struggles in South Sudan, multi-layered civil wars in Syria and Yemen, as well as conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Ukraine. As a result of conflicts, over 60 million persons have been forcibly displaced, amounting to the highest level of displacement since the Second World War. More than 1.2 million refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe since January 2015. Tragically, in 2015 3,700 migrants drowned while crossing the Mediterranean or remain missing. And the numbers keep rising: more than 155,000 have arrived since the beginning of the year and 467 deaths have already been recorded. 

We are witnessing a dearth of political leadership and serious erosion of international moral authority; declining confidence of people in government’s ability to manage migratory flows; and unprecedented and growing anti-migrant sentiment, public discourse and policies as migrant numbers increase.

IOM’s thesis has long been that increased migration is inevitable, given demographics, disasters and other drivers; necessary if we are going to have the skills we need to fill jobs in order for economies to flourish; and, indeed, desirable if well governed through the choice of appropriate policies, including those that relate to the encounter between migrants and their host societies.

I pause here, however, to acknowledge that:

• when arrivals are unplanned;
• when means of entry are irregular, and
• when numbers are large,

policy equations have to be formulated with great care and with the participation of all stakeholders.

II. Refugees and Other Forcibly Displaced Persons and the Labour Market: A complex interplay

Besides the overriding humanitarian concern for refugees and migrants, governments, labour unions, and the private sector are concerned about the economic consequences of large numbers of migrants on their labour markets. Consider, for instance, the impact of refugees and migrants on countries neighboring Syria. The Syrian crisis, which has resulted in the deaths of some 300,000 people, forced 4.8 million to flee the country, and displaced 6.5 million internally (OCHA Humanitarian Needs Overview 2016). Some 10 million of the 11 million Syrian refugees and migrants came to Europe, e.g., Syria’s neighbors took proportionally much larger numbers: Lebanon with a population of five million hosts more than a million Syrian refugees; water-poor Jordan hosts a million; and Turkey is now the largest refugee-hosting country in the world, owing to the influx of Syrian refugees.

The negative effects are obvious, primarily a heavy burden on the government, the budget and the people. Careful policy planning will be required to address these challenges – and other economic pressures such as the downward pressure on wages, especially in the informal sector and labour exploitation.

If we now turn to Europe, we note that the EU Member States face the challenge of linking the humanitarian needs of the refugee/migrant flows with the continent’s demographic deficit and labour needs in all skills levels:

• Europe has the world’s oldest population profile;
• E.g., the percentage of those aged is projected to double – from 28 percent today to 50 percent – by the year 2060.
• Migration will, therefore, almost certainly be one of the answers to Europe’s declining population and its labour market needs,
• The immediate challenge is to address the employment needs of those who have already arrived. We must avoid “refugee amnesia” and recall that IOM and UNCHR were both established in 1951 to assist European refugees ravaged by the Second World War. We know well that migrants’ talents and abilities have contributed to building many of our countries.

III. Refugees and Other Forcibly Displaced Persons and the Labour Market: Options and Orientations?

A. Employment and language learning are perhaps the main keys to successful migrant integration:

• Jobs enable migrants to have the means to support themselves and their families. This is about more than just financial resources. It is also about dignity and self-worth. Once a refugee has a job, he/she is no longer a refugee;
• Jobs ensure that migrants have a meaningful stake in their host country as opposed to remaining dependent on welfare systems.
• Jobs prevent de-skilling and may even enable the refugee to acquire new skills
• Jobs create relationships. It creates a sense of belonging to a work community, in particular through trade union membership.
• Jobs enable a migrant to attend to the needs of family members left behind.

B. Three Principles for Forced Migrants’ Integration into Labour Markets

• Integration must be grounded on human rights and respect for the specific rights of both migrants and their domestic counterparts; this requires measures to ensure equal treatment of migrant workers regardless of status, including wage parity.
• Integration should be based on a comprehensive approach to managing migratory movements. Migration policies need to be linked to labour market realities to avoid labour exploitation.
• Partnership and engagement of all parties – labour unions, employees, civil society, and the refugees themselves – is critical to responsible refugee and migrant policy.

IV. Conclusion

The ultimate economic impact of migration will largely depend on the success of medium and long-term labour market integration, as most refugees and migrants will actually settle. Failure to find work will increase the fiscal cost associated with welcoming refugees, especially in countries which are not well positioned to help. For all these reasons it is important to foster a confident, comprehensive, and coordinated policy response across the EU, in addition to national policy measures in individual countries, to facilitate the labour market integration of refugees and the displaced.

Forced migration resulting from crisis is challenging but entirely manageable. Europe must make the decision to take up this challenge by implementing the necessary measures to manage it. Choosing to strategically engage with the challenges of our time may we expect to successfully adapt to the ever-changing economic and political atmosphere of the world we live in.