IOM and the Arab Labour Organization (ALO) will launch on 19 April at the Arab League a comprehensive and up-to-date report on intra regional labour mobility in the Arab World.
The report, part of a joint project between the IOM and the ALO to assist countries in the Arab region to effectively manage human and labour mobility, finds that 5.8 out of 13 million Arab migrants worldwide reside in the region.
It underlines that the migration corridor between Mashreq (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian Territory, Syria, and Yemen) and the Arab Gulf remains the most significant one, with two in three migrants from the Mashreq and Yemen working in countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
Furthermore, the report finds that Arab countries received an estimated 35.1 billion USD in remittance inflows, marking a 6.6 per cent decline from 2008, mostly due to the effects of the financial crisis.
Nevertheless, the Arab region remains a major origin of remittance outflows, with almost 31 billion USD being sent by foreign workers in 2008.
For countries like Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, the total amount of remittances received from these expatriates are 40 to 190 percent higher than the revenues made from trade between these same countries and the rest of the region.
This, according to the report, indicates that intra-regional labour mobility is one of the major drivers of development and socio-economic integration of the Arab region.
The report also finds that these positive aspects could be better harnessed through the reinforcement of existing labour mobility management systems and making them more flexible to better respond to challenges such as growing young populations, high unemployment rates, the emergence of irregular and unsafe migration practices and widening regional development and employment differentials.
It concludes with a set of recommendations, including on the need to foster international cooperation and policy dialogue between sending and receiving Arab countries.
The launch of the report will be followed by a three-day workshop on labour migration from the 20 to 22 April.
The workshop will be attended by government officials from 20 Arab countries and representatives from regional organizations such as the League of Arab States and the Gulf Cooperation Council. The objective of the workshop is to share and discuss technical aspects of labour mobility and how they apply to the findings of the report. IOM and ALOE representatives will facilitate the workshop, which will focus on a variety of topics including tools for the facilitation of labour migration, migration and development and mechanisms to identify future practical initiatives to enhance the positive impact of labour migration policies in the Arab region.
The report s available online
Source: International Office of Migration (IOM)
