Diego López de Lera Paper on "SOPEMI. Sistema de Informacion
Sobre Migracion." By: G. Edward Ebanks Population Studies
Centre University of Western Ontario
International migration is the third component which determines the size, rate of growth and the structure of the population. The paper by Thomas-Hope examines an important demographic issue in the Caribbean countries with special reference to the English speaking Caribbean. The paper by López de Lera looks at immigration to the OECD countries. Thomas-Hope’s paper is mainly on emigration from the Caribbean Commonwealth countries and among the countries.
The Caribbean countries have been settled by emigrants from elsewhere and hence immigrant to the Caribbean, up to the 19th century. The 20th century was one of emigration, mainly outside the region to Europe, United States and Canada and some migration among the Caribbean countries themselves.
The OCED countries in the last 25 years has been one of immigration. The European OECD countries had emigration in the first 75 years of the 20th century.
Emigration and immigration are partly determined by the rate of growth of the population. High rate of growth acts as a push for emigration. Low rate of growth motivates a pull for immigration. The two papers are macro level analyses of the two sets of countries. The Caribbean paper obtained the data from the census of Caribbean countries and data compiled by the destination countries, Caribbean, North America and Europe. The OECD paper uses a "Continuous Reporting System on Migration" (SOPEMI). SOPEMI obtains its data from different systems of recording immigration and emigration data, such as population register, administrative permits of residence and work, census and surveys. The data are from different sources and they are excellent. They are mainly on immigration. These countries pay much less attention to emigration.
A major problem in international migration surrounds the definition and the various categories defining the types and the source of data. All these aspects are part of the two papers. The authors have painstakingly attempted to handle issues of migration. There is much work to be done in standardizing definitions, source of the data and the different categories of international migration. The two papers, one mainly on emigration and the other on immigration, can be used to help pay some attention to these problems.
Undocumented migrants exist in the major receiving countries. Their numbers are difficult to obtain. Refugees are increasing in numbers. They are mainly from the developing countries but there are some from Eastern Europe. Economic refugees are not recognized. But many of the refugees are in fact economic ones from the very poor countries. This is manifested in the Caribbean in the case of Haiti. In the European OECD countries, they are from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. This is more recognized in the Diego López de Lera paper than the one by Thomas-Hope, with good reasons. The OECD paper does not pay any attention to North America. But Canada and the United States have refugees from the developing countries and from Eastern Europe.
Remittances from migrants are recognized as an important source of foreign exchange in the Caribbean. The extractions of these sums are not a concern in the OECD paper. These remittances partly compensate for the loss in human resources. The Caribbean countries lose their professionals and highly skilled workers. These migrants from the Caribbean fall into two types. The first gained their tertiary education abroad where they remain or changed to another OECD country. The second are trained in the Caribbean and have migrated. The first enter easily in their professions, the other
is invariably downgraded to lower level occupations. They both will sponsor their dependents and send remittances to their native country.
These two papers highlighted the problems of studying international migration. They are concerned with the types of international migration, the data sources currently available and some concern for policy issues. The contribution of migrants to the society they join and to the ones they leave are recognized. The migrants, the origins and destinations societies are involved. We assume the migrants are better off economically. The origin society loses some of their qualified people and these enter the labour force at the destination. Since employment is high at the origin and there is demand for labour at the destination, the international migration could be a win, win, win for all three parties.
Some comments on the Caribbean paper
They type of statistics on international migration recently produced by ECLAC would add further dimension to this paper. However, it presents a good picture of international migration in the 20th century for the English speaking Caribbean.
The intra-regional Caribbean migration identifies an area that is not known. It is unfortunate that the figures for Jamaica are not included since Jamaica is the largest of the countries. Montserrat has massive emigration during the volcanic eruption. Its population has been significantly reduced. The age and sex distribution of all migrants are treated briefly in this paper. The age distribution identifies the time of migration. Education and occupation of the migrants follow the usual pattern. The extra-regional Caribbean migration is better known and has been of interest in the last half of the twentieth century. Migrants from the region have gone to the United States, Canada and Europe. Here the paper extends to the greater Caribbean. These data are obtained from the receiving countries.
In addition to the independent outmigration, refugee movements and guest worker schemes are recognized.
Not much is known of the undocumented migrants in the United States and Canada. We know it exists but the magnitude is not known.
The age, sex, education and occupation of the migrants are expected. These show that the Caribbean is losing some of its valued labour force.
Receiving some attention is the migration to Canada, the Untied Kingdom, and the United States, in the latter part of the twentieth century. Migration of Caribbean nationals among these three countries are missed when one uses the country of last residence; since some of the migrants last residence was not their native land. They could be from Jamaica, lived in England and then moved to Canada.
The United States and Canada are desired destinations for the population of the Caribbean region. The remittances from these countries are very significant. The United States and Canada received each year, farm workers for a limited time. In the past, Canada received domestic workers. These domestic workers had their own domestic help in the Caribbean, and the travel and expectation to remain in Canada, they give up jobs as nurses and teachers to become domestics for a year.
There has been return migration from all the destinations, but more so from the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. These return migrants have been successful and return home to build large houses, buy cars and opening businesses. In addition to the globalization of information, these return migrants are windows on the quality of life in the developed societies.
This paper did not specifically look at the demographic consequences on these societies. The population of all these societies would have been much larger. We recognize that these societies have been in serious economic crisis. This could have been worse with an even larger population.
The OECD paper omitted migrants from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico and migrants to Barbados, Montserrat, the Virgin Islands, among others.
We should also realize the emigrants are subtracted from the total population and so too are their births which are born abroad. The relatively low fertility rate, is in part, due to emigrants who are in the childbearing age at the time of migration.
Extra-regional migration will continue to play a role in international migration but that between the Caribbean and North America will continue to be the main focus.
Comments on the Continuous Reporting System on Migration
(SOPEMI)
This Continuous Reporting System on Migration gives a description of the system and the sources of data across the OECD countries. The OECD countries are an area of destination. The emigrants to the OECD countries cover all categories of international migration. The countries have their own sources of data. Comparison among the countries are problematic. However, López de Lera’s paper is a good analysis of the issues of concern.
We see the reporting system and we have some of the data from the countries both graphically and in tables.
The immigrant population is given for each country but we do not know the origin of these migrants. It would have been important to look at the origin of these migrants. But the sources of data pay more attention to residence and labour force participation.
The immigration in each country is given and the rates. Germany, Australia, Canada and the United States are the major immigration countries. These migrants help to keep the population young and growing. Many of these counties will need immigrants to prevent a declining population.
Refugees and asylum seekers are possible from data obtained from the population registers in some countries. Data of those who have become naturalized citizens of certain countries are also available.
The paper has comparison among the countries in the way they collect and report data. They are significantly different. One would hope for a gradual movement towards the sources of data collection and reporting. The OECD countries could lead the way, by themselves standardizing their data sources.
The undocumented migrants in the OECD countries are significant. It is particularly true of North America and Southern European countries. These migrants are attracted to employment opportunities in the OECD countries. This aspect will continue to be a problem for these countries. Some of these undocumented migrants are migrant workers who entered the countries for a set time period with a visa and then remained illegally.
The SOPEMI is a good source of data. For comparison among the countries we would hope that the definition of international migrants could be standardized and the data sources more regularized.
Summary
The two papers give us a good picture of international migration. The Caribbean paper is on emigration and the OECD paper is on immi- gration. The Caribbean paper deals with a small total population, but a major source of emigration. The OECD paper covers most of the desti- nation for all current international immigrants.
Policy implications are drawn, especially in the Caribbean pa- per. The two papers are good examples of the requirements of managed migration and they recognized that international migration is a major demographic force that will affect all countries, and especially in the Americas.