2007年-世界发展银行全球_Migration_from_Zambia___Ensuring_Temporariness_through_Cooperation_34页_364kb

Summary of "Migration from Zambia: Ensuring Temporariness through Cooperation"

Core Content

This paper explores the challenges and opportunities of migration from Zambia, focusing on how migration policy can be designed to support development in least developed countries. It emphasizes the importance of ensuring the temporariness of both skilled and unskilled migration to mitigate negative impacts and maximize benefits for both sending and receiving countries.

Main Points

• Migration Pattern in Zambia:

  • Overall emigration from Zambia is not high by regional standards.
  • Migration is skewed towards the skilled, with tertiary-educated Zambians constituting about 10% of the total tertiary-educated population both in Zambia and abroad.
  • Unskilled migration is very low, with only 0.1% of primary-educated Zambians living abroad.
  • This pattern is similar to other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries but differs from other African regions.

• Benefits of Temporary Migration:

  • Temporary migration can reduce brain drain concerns for Zambia by allowing skilled individuals to return after gaining experience.
  • It also helps receiving countries manage unskilled migration without long-term burden.
  • Temporary migration offers a broader opportunity for skill transfer and knowledge sharing upon return.

• Challenges of Ensuring Temporariness:

  • Host countries cannot ensure the return of unskilled migrants without cooperation from the source countries.
  • Source countries cannot ensure the return of skilled migrants without the host countries’ cooperation.
  • Current international agreements, such as the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services, do not provide mechanisms for ensuring temporariness.

• Need for International Cooperation:

  • Bilateral agreements between source and destination countries are more effective than regional or multilateral ones in managing temporary migration.
  • Examples of successful bilateral schemes include the agreements between Spain and Ecuador, and the German contract worker scheme.
  • These agreements involve clear obligations from both sides, including pre-departure training, monitoring of migrant activities, and mechanisms for return.

• Policy Recommendations for Zambia:

  • Zambia should take proactive steps to ensure the temporariness of both skilled and unskilled migration.
  • This includes setting up a migration agency, providing pre-departure training, and cooperating with host countries to facilitate return.
  • The country should also seek to develop a credible case for ensuring temporariness, rather than solely focusing on liberalizing migration.
  • Investment in education and training infrastructure is critical to reducing brain drain, especially in sectors like healthcare.

Key Information

• Emigration Rates:

  • The total stock of Zambians in OECD countries is 27 per 10,000 of the population, which is lower than many other African countries.
  • Tertiary-educated Zambians living abroad account for 10% of the total tertiary-educated population.
  • The emigration rate of tertiary-educated individuals is 35 times that of secondary-educated individuals in Zambia.

• Education and Brain Drain:

  • Zambia has a low number of physicians (12 per 100,000 population), below the least developed country average.
  • The country has only 7 new health graduates per 100,000 population, which is among the lowest in Africa and the world.
  • The country ranks 17th among 29 African countries and 5th among 10 SADC countries in terms of tertiary education stock.

• Government Initiatives:

  • The National Employment and Labor Market Policy (NELMP) aims to attract skilled Zambians back home.
  • A "bonding system" requires scholars to return after completing their studies.
  • The Return of Qualified Africans (RQAN) program and Migration for Development in Africa (MIDA) are other initiatives, though with limited success.

• Economic and Social Factors:

  • Migration is driven by economic and socio-political push and pull factors.
  • The real wage gap and demographic trends are major drivers of migration.
  • Unskilled migration is often overlooked despite its potential for global welfare gains.

• Future Strategy:

  • Zambia should focus on bilateral cooperation with host countries to ensure temporary migration.
  • Host countries may be more willing to accept unskilled migrants if assured of their temporary status.
  • Host countries can support Zambia by investing in training capacity rather than compensating for skilled emigration.

Conclusion

A development-friendly migration policy for Zambia must ensure the temporariness of both skilled and unskilled migration. This requires cooperation between source and destination countries, including mechanisms for monitoring, return, and reintegration. Bilateral agreements are more effective in this regard than multilateral ones. Investing in education and training infrastructure is also essential to address skill shortages and reduce the negative impacts of brain drain.