An economic migrant is someone who emigrates from one region to another, including crossing international borders, seeking an improved standard of living, because the conditions or job opportunities in the migrant's own region are insufficient.[1][2] The United Nations uses the term migrant worker.[3]

Although the term economic migrant may be confused with the term refugee, economic migrants leave their regions primarily due to harsh economic conditions, rather than fear of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a particular social group. Economic migrants are generally not eligible for asylum, unless the economic conditions they face are severe enough to have caused generalised violence, or seriously disturbed the public order.

Legality

Many countries restrict people from entering their borders to work, unless they have been granted a visa that specifically allows them to work in the country. Migrants who seek paid employment after entering without authorization to work may be subject to deportation.[4]

Advantages and disadvantages

With economic migration on a large scale, the majority of migrants are often of working age, defined by the OECD as 15-64 years of age. In such cases, migration can cause economic strain in the countries they leave behind – as working-age people exit the region, the elderly and aging population remains but with less support.[5]

However, the mass migration of working-age people can also release pressure on the region's current job market and resources. Migrants also transfer wealth back to their source regions: the World Bank estimates that remittances totaled US$420 billion in 2009, of which $317 billion went to developing countries.[6]

For host regions, the influx of large numbers of working-age migrants is a source of cheap labour. In some cases, economic migrants are highly skilled and looking for specialized jobs not available in their home regions. The inflow of migrants can also increase cultural diversity.[7]

The energy transition to clean energy technologies, mainly solar, wind, and geothermal, should improve economies in the Global South and moderate the number of economic migrants. Successful energy transitions should also reduce the severity and number of failed states, which usually cause several types of refugee crises.

Labour market

Over the past ten years, migrants accounted for 47% of the increase in the work force in the United States, and for over 70% of the increase in Europe, as reported by the OECD in 2012.

Migrants fill important niches in the labor market, and contribute significantly to labor market flexibility, especially in Europe. Recent studies from the OECD report that immigrants are playing a crucial role in the labor market: in the U.S., immigrants made up 22% of entries in the fastest growing occupations and 15% in Europe (healthcare, STEM, etc.).

Immigrants are also highly represented in the slowest growing occupations, making up approximately 28% of new entries in the U.S. and 24% in Europe. In the United States, these occupations are primarily in production and other industries that domestic workers would consider unattractive; in the absence of demand for these occupations, immigrant workers fill these sectors.

In OECD countries, the inflow of migrants accounts for less than 0.5%+/- change in GDP. Exceptions to this are Switzerland and Luxembourg, which have approximated a 2% net benefit in GDP due to migrants.[8]

Many developing economies largely depend on remittances sent from abroad. For example, the total remittance to GDP ratio has been estimated to be 12% in Armenia.[9] After its independence from the Soviet Union a considerable amount of emigration from Armenia happened between 1992-1994. By the official government statistics around 780,000 people emigrated from Armenia during 1991-1998 due to war and the economic conditions.[10] Also, due to the increased trends in immigration the country receives most of its remittances, about 64%, from the process of voluntary migration of workers to Russia, followed by the U.S. accounting to 14% of the total remittances received from abroad.[11]

Many people from Japan also go to Australia, Canada and, USA and more as economic migrants to escape the low wages and extremely poor working conditions in Japan.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "economic migrant - definition and synonyms". Macmillan Dictionary. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  2. ↑ "Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary". Oxford Dictionaries. p. economic migrant. Archived from the original on 2015-09-14.
  3. ↑ "United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families". United Nations. Archived from the original on August 15, 2019. Retrieved December 29, 2014.
  4. ↑ Types of migration: Economic Migration, BBC
  5. ↑ "עורך דין הגירה לישראל". Tuesday, 17 August 2021
  6. ↑ Remittance Prices Worldwide
  7. ↑ "Effects of Migration". BBC. 2015. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Migration Policy Debates" (PDF). Migration. OECD. 2014. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Personal remittances, received (% of GDP) - Armenia | Data". The World Bank.
  10. ↑ (PDF) https://case-research.eu/sites/default/files/Armenia%20country%20study%20-%20final_0.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ↑ "Migration and Remittances Data".
  12. ↑ "円安が進行する今、海外就職を考える…より豊かな生活を送るには？ – 学ぶ働く研究所". 学ぶ働く研究所 (in Japanese). 株式会社パセリホールディングス. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
  13. ↑ "円安で「日本から海外への求人検索」が増加 人気の国は？". ITmedia ビジネスオンライン (in Japanese). ITmedia. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  14. ↑ Nippon TV. "円安で給料アップ……Tシャツ60円"物価安"のタイで仕事「日本より自由に暮らせる」 豪州移住で月給「4倍超」の人も｜日テレNEWS NNN". 日テレNEWS NNN (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  15. ↑ Nippon TV. "止まらぬ円安で…海外で働く日本人 カナダで「貯金は月 20 万円」 "時給 3000 円"豪州の焼き肉店で「稼げる額半端ない」｜日テレNEWS NNN". 日テレNEWS NNN (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  16. ↑ "【"出稼ぎ"日本人】寿司職人は年収8000万円に バイトでも給料"倍以上"". テレ朝news (in Japanese). TV Asahi. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
  17. ↑ "円安ニッポンから海外出稼ぎ 寿司職人、美容師などは引く手あまた 「金額目当てだけでは痛い目に遭う」と識者 | TBS NEWS DIG (1ページ)". TBS NEWS DIG (in Japanese). TBS. 18 October 2022. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  18. ↑ "海外に出稼ぎにいく若者たち 外国人労働者にも敬遠される日本". 毎日新聞 (in Japanese). Mainichi Shimbun. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
  19. ↑ "「海外に出稼ぎの時代」 円安で渡航費増 留学フェアの様相変化：朝日新聞デジタル". 朝日新聞デジタル (in Japanese). Asahi Shimbun. 2022-12-24. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  20. ↑ "若者は海外に"出稼ぎ"へ 「海外には夢がある」止まらない円安に"日本離れ"【福岡発】｜FNNプライムオンライン". FNNプライムオンライン. Television Nishinippon Corporation. 8 November 2022. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  21. ↑ 日本放送協会 (February 2023). "日本人が海外で出稼ぎ！？ 若者たちが海外を目指す背景にあるもの". NHK みんなでプラス - みんなの声で社会をプラスに変える (in Japanese). NHK. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  22. ↑ "Les Japonais rêvent d'ailleurs, fatigués de l'archaïsme de leur pays". Le Monde.fr (in French). Le Monde. 2023-04-05. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
  23. ↑ 中藤, 令 (2021-03-09). 安いニッポン 「価格」が示す停滞 (in Japanese). Japan: 日本経済新聞出版.
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