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Introduction
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- By Ali Rashid Al-Noaimi, UAE University, Irena Omelaniuk, University of Queensland
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- Book:
- Labor Mobility
- Published by:
- Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research
- Published online:
- 05 September 2014
- Print publication:
- 18 December 2013, pp 1-28
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- Chapter
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Summary
The Abu Dhabi conference, “Labor Mobility – Enabler for Sustainable Development”, brought together national and international experts in a regional debate propitiously timed to complement the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) 2013 and offer practical multi-stakeholder inputs into the 2013 UN High Level Dialogue (HLD) on International Migration and Development. The conference yielded some important policy messages about foreign labor dynamics in the GCC region, including the need for governments and research institutions to create a coherent, regional research agenda and a collaborative framework to deal with the issue. GCC states have become major global players in labor mobility and could help advance a global development agenda based on better-informed, coherent and protective governance of labor mobility. This introductory section distills the key points raised in the conference and reflected in the papers reproduced in this volume, and the messages to be taken forward from the conference, both for regional policymakers and researchers and to the second UN High Level Dialogue.
Foreign Labor in the GCC benefits both Origin and Destination Countries
The employment of overseas contract labor is a critical policy issue for the GCC region. Foreign workers are required to meet the huge demand for labor in sectors such as construction and the services industry, and the scale of migration to the Gulf states makes the region a major player in the global migration and development field.
13 - Global migration institutions and processes
- Edited by Brian Opeskin, Macquarie University, Sydney, Richard Perruchoud, International Organisation for Migration, Jillyanne Redpath-Cross, International Organisation for Migration
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- Book:
- Foundations of International Migration Law
- Published online:
- 05 November 2012
- Print publication:
- 27 September 2012, pp 336-365
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
A complex array of international institutions and processes has emerged around migration in recent decades. This is partly a function of the increasingly globalised and interlinked nature of human mobility, and partly a response to the level of attention devoted by governments to international migration. Sending States are concerned about the rights of their nationals abroad, and receiving States are concerned about meeting their labour market needs. Despite growing awareness of the interdependence of migration experiences across regions and countries, little progress has been made towards an effective, coherent system of global migration governance. There continues to be an absence of shared vision, leadership and political will for migration policy making at the international level, which makes it difficult to develop appropriate structures and laws to regulate and coordinate international responses to global human mobility.
Attention to migration differs dramatically among governments, in terms of institutions and policies. Even within a single government, there can be a wide range of policies and practices across temporary and permanent categories of migration. The autonomy of governments to deal with their own migration challenges, combined with the lack of a single body of international law on migration or a global entity to cohere their practice, has left a governance vacuum. In contrast to trade, labour, environment and health, there are no regular global fora in which ministers responsible for migration meet to discuss issues of common concern, although this does occur in some regions.