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Doc. 8185
9 September 1998
Activities of OECD in the fields of migration and demography in 1997
Contribution to the debate on OECD and the world economy
Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography
Rapporteur: Mrs Manuela Aguiar, Portugal, Group of the European People’s Party
Introduction
1. The Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography presents regular reviews of OECD’s activities in the field of international migration and demography as a contribution to general reporting on OECD’s activities carried out by the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development. The purpose of the written contribution is twofold: to make the OECD activities in these fields more visible to the Parliamentary Assembly and to strengthen co-operation between the two institutions.
2. Co-operation in the area of international migration continues to be high on the political agenda for OECD member States with a view to strengthening and improving control of migration flows. The OECD Working Party on Migration has therefore developed a work programme which covered following areas of activity in 1997:
International migration
3. OECD migration activities are organised around two main poles:
3.1 The monitoring of trends in international migration movements and policies, which is carried out through the Continuous Reporting System on Migration (SOPEMI) network of experts on migration from Member countries and selected non-member countries. Every year, the network members submit a report outlining recent developments with respect to migration movements and policies in their countries, including analysis of the immigrant population and its role in the labour market.
The annual report, Trends in International Migration, describes the size and nature of migration flows involving OECD countries and presents an overview of policies to regulate flows and of international co-operative measures in the area of migration. The report includes statistical data on flows, immigrant or foreign populations, migrant workers, naturalisations, etc. The Annual report for 1997 will be completed in September 1998.
3.2 The second area of work involves analyses and studies of migration-related issues of interest to OECD Member countries, with a view to comparing national policies and regulations. Among recent issues covered are:
3.2.1 Temporary migration for employment
Since the permanent immigration of foreign workers is today very limited in most OECD countries, temporary migration for employment has developed offering flexibility to the labour markets. Temporary employment is characterised today by the fact that it facilitates the movement of highly qualified workers. OECD has analysed the phenomenon of temporary migration in a summary report, which followed eight national case studies including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the USA. The report provides a comparative analysis of national legislation relating to temporary migration for employment by identifying the main categories of workers, conditions and length of employment, geographical zone and type of activity for which temporary work permits are delivered.
3.2.2 Migration and development
OECD has organised a series of seminars dealing with the issue of migration, free trade zones and regional economic integration. The following regions were covered : Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, South-East Asia and North-South America. The conclusion for all regions is that the creation of free trade zones accelerates migratory flows. This work is being carried out at the same time as the negotiations on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), but no links have been made yet. However, results of the work on migration and economic integration demonstrate that the regulation of investment flows needs to be accompanied by multilateral co-operation regarding migration policies.
3.2.3 Regularisation of illegal immigrants
Beside traditional migration flows, southern European States such as Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece have been faced with increasing illegal immigration flows. As a result, a number of those countries have proceeded with regularisation of illegal immigrants as part of their immigration policies. At the same time, governments have reviewed their migration policies relative to family reunion and strengthened prevention of illegal immigration flows. The OECD has produced national reports on Portugal and Spain.
3.2.4 Integration of immigrants in cities
The OECD has recently published the results of a meeting of experts organised in 1996 on the subject of integration of immigrants in urban areas. The report demonstrates that rapid economic and social change in cities (inner cities as well as suburbs) creates new difficulties for the integration of immigrants and their descendants. In Europe in particular, national and local authorities are confronted with problems arising from the economic and social decline of some neighbourhoods with high concentrations of immigrants. There is a need to implement active integration policies including promotion of equal opportunities, vocational advancement, access to social services, socio-cultural integration and civic participation by immigrant communities.
Demography
4. Demographic trends are a key element in defining economic, social, migration and other policies. Although demographic issues are not in the forefront of OECD activities, the Organisation does study demographic elements in certain specific areas:
4.1 Population ageing
In his report on behalf of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development, Mr Davis outlines the issues raised in the OECD’s recent publication entitled Maintaining prosperity in an ageing society. This publication sets out some of the key economic, financial and social policy challenges for responding to the ageing of OECD societies. The document makes an in-depth analysis of the economic implications of ageing societies and concludes that there is a need for national governments to promote the concept of « active ageing » which encourages gradual transition into retirement with a balance between socially useful activities, part-time employment, leisure and further education. In order to have a more balanced approach to the phenomenon of population ageing, Ministers have recently given a mandate to the OECD Secretariat to organise future activities with a view to sharing national experience in the social policy area.
4.2 OECD Development Centre activities
The OECD Development Centre has been working on both migration and demographic aspects of development issues. More specifically, and with reference to the third UN Conference on population, held in 1994 in Cairo, the Centre identified the main challenges of the current development process : economic - requiring a new approach to poverty; ecological - requiring sufficient food supply without environmental damage; socio-political - requiring good conditions for education and access to employment across the world; demographic - requiring adequate policies in order to deal with the phenomenon of ageing. The OECD Development Centre is currently involved in the second North-South Campaign of the Council of Europe entitled “Global interdependence and solidarity : Europe against poverty and social exclusion”.
4.3 Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is one of the five main priorities for future OECD activities outlined by the Secretary General in September 1997. In November 1997, a high level advisory group on environment proposed a series of strategic objectives for the Organisation in its report Guiding the Transition to Sustainable Development: A critical role for the OECD. As a result the OECD will be examining three interdependent components of sustainable development: the economic dimension, the human and social dimension and the environmental dimension. Four specific projects are envisaged for the next three years, prior to the Council of Ministers meeting in 2001 and prior to the “Rio + 10” Conference: climate change; integration of environmental and social costs; financial incentives for technological innovation and eco-efficiency; and sustainable development indicators. Demographic aspects of sustainable development are covered in the work on sustainable development indicators.
Conclusion
5. International migration and demographic trends are key elements in defining economic, social and other policies. Both the Council of Europe and the OECD have developed activities in those two areas in order to assist policy makers in the respective member countries. Given that their memberships, and hence geographic coverage, as well as their political mandates are different, each Organisation has developed a different approach. The OECD’s work is fundamentally focused on the economic implications of international migration and recent demographic trends, while the Council of Europe’s work covers in particular human rights and legal aspects of migration and it also provides an analytical basis for developing social cohesion policies. The Council of Europe also provides a forum for comprehensive discussions of migration policy at the pan-European level. The Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography fully encourages co-operation between the two Organisations in order to mutually reinforce and benefit from each other’s activities and at the same time avoid any duplication of work.
Amendment to the draft resolution on OECD activities in 1997
6. The Committee proposes, as an amendment to the preliminary draft resolution on the OECD and the World economy presented by the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development (Doc. 8179 prov.), to add the following new paragraph after paragraph 12:
“Since the OECD’s work on migration indicates that free trade agreements may also affect migration, the Assembly recommends that the migration implications of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) should be taken into account in the forthcoming negotiations.”
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Reporting committee: Committee on Economic Affairs and Development (Doc. 8179 prov.).
This contribution was approved by the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography on 2 September 1998.
Secretaries of the committee: Mr Newman, Mr Adelsbach and Mrs Karanjac.