Panaji, Dec 1 (IANS) Governments adopting protectionist immigration policies only end up deepening the negative impact of the economic crisis, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi said Tuesday, saying migrant workers from countries like India fill labour supply gaps that cannot be met by the local workforce.
Ravi said that irregular migration had increasing social and security ramifications which were “well beyond mere law enforcement”.

Delivering the inaugural address at the 8th ASEM conference on migration and development at The Lalit resort in Goa, Ravi said the global economic downturn had unfortunately “resulted in populist policies that immigration is bad, or worse still, that immigrants are the cause of rising domestic unemployment”.

“Nothing can be further from the truth. Migrant workers fill labour supply gaps that often cannot do or do not want to be met by local workers,” the minister said.

“Raising protectionist barriers to the movement of natural persons as a policy response, as some countries are doing, are both short-sighted and counter intuitive and will only delay the recovery from the economic crisis,” Ravi said, adding it was imperative that influential policy makers in Europe and Asia meet to discuss opportunities to enhance international co-operation and maximize the benefits of migration on development.

Thirty delegates from 12 Asian countries and 30 delegates from 18 European countries are attending the ASEM conference that serves as the communication channel between Asia and Europe.

The minister said India was a major country of origin and destination with several hundreds of years of experience in migration and the Indian diaspora stood at nearly 25 million persons spread across 110 countries all across the world.

“We are also host to over 20 million immigrants, many of who are irregular. They have made India their home and contribute in full measure to our pluralistic society,” Ravi said.

Ravi said proper management of migration can help offset the structural imbalances which have been created in the international labour markets caused by ageing populations in several countries. “The declining share of agriculture and industry are declining and that of the services sector growing rapidly, creating new job opportunities,” he said.

Ravi further said irregular migration had increasing social and security ramifications which are now “well beyond mere law-enforcement”.

Stressing that “free movement of persons will increasingly shape both the direction and pace of future global development prospects” the minister said, “We therefore need to work together to change perceptions about free movement of people, allay apprehensions on labour market access in the destination countries, allay apprehensions on labour market access in the destination countries…. to achieve calibrated migration practices that can best meet the needs of both - the countries of origin and destination”.

The ASEM over the last 12 years has been the main multilateral channel for communication between Asia and Europe, strengthening interaction and mutual understanding between the two regions in the area of migration through the Conference of the Directors General of Immigration.