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Top 10 Migration Issues of 2008
Issue #7 — Demography and Migration Flows: Do Shrinking Populations Mean More Migrants?
Graying populations have led governments to consider immigration as a solution to their aging workforces.
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December 2008
Confronted with the inescapable reality that the workforce in much of the
developed world is graying rapidly, policymakers are beginning to take the
increasingly stark demographic landscape more seriously.
While these governments acknowledge immigration is not the sole answer and
that other measures, such as raising the retirement age or enticing more women
into the labor force, would help alleviate the strain, they are considering
immigration as a means to inject much-needed youthful labor into their aging
workforces.
One example of greater openness to immigration is Japan, which has long resisted
opening its borders to immigrants despite its rapidly aging population.
In June, members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) issued a bold
report that calls for Japan to make foreign residents 10 percent of the nation's
population — meaning an additional 10 million-plus people — in the next half
century, up from less than 2 percent currently.
According to media reports, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is taking the report
seriously though he said that overcoming Japan's preference for exclusivity
will be the main challenge to establishing a new immigration system.
The report also recommends that Japan aim to have 1 million foreign students
in the country by 2025, an acknowledgment that foreign students can be an important
source of skilled workers.
Japan already is taking small steps toward increased immigration. After receiving
parliamentary approval in May, the government admitted 200 health-care workers
from Indonesia as part of an economic partnership agreement between the two
countries that will eventually bring 1,000 such workers: 600 nurses and 400
caregivers for the elderly.
This is the first time Japan has allowed a large number of foreigners to work
in hospitals and nursing homes, according to Japanese media.
Demographic pressures have also factored into new labor migration policies
in Norway and Sweden. Norway is considering a more user-friendly process for
recruiting highly skilled immigrants, while Sweden has just launched a new,
entirely employer-driven system for issuing needed work permits (see Issue
#2: The Recession-Proof Race for Highly Skilled Migrants).
Tobias Billstrom, Sweden's minister for migration and asylum policy, carefully
articulated Sweden's position in a government brochure:
"I do not believe that increased labor immigration is the only appropriate
response to the demographic challenges we are facing," Billstrom wrote. "More
labor immigration is only one of several instruments in efforts to prevent
labor shortages and to maintain the supply of labor in the short and long term."
One of the provisions of the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum also
signals the first-ever intergovernmental political decision to address labor
shortages partly through migration. The pact's introduction states, "[International
migration] can contribute decisively to the economic growth of the European
Union and of those Member States which need migrants because of the state of
their labor markets or of their demography."
The pact, which seeks to harmonize several aspects of immigration policy across the European
Union while maintaining Member States' sovereignty, received the approval of
the 27 Member States this fall. It encourages Member States to implement labor-migration
policies, but many have yet to make substantial commitments to step up employment
flows.
At the EU level, Moldova and Cape Verde signed on as pilot countries for mobility
partnerships to facilitate legal migration and control illegal migration (see Issue
#9: Warming up to Circular Migration?).
The European Union also took a small step forward with Asia in April, when
it convened a labor migration meeting in Brussels that included officials from
10 Asian countries, including India and the Philippines, and 16 EU Member States.
In contrast to Europe, South Asia and some parts of Southeast Asia are experiencing
rapid population growth.
Participants called for continued dialogue at the ministerial level. They
also agreed "there are mutual benefits to strengthening cooperation on the
issue of migration flows from Asia to Europe especially in light of the demographic
and economic dynamics that characterize both regions," according to the meeting
summary.
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