Challenges and Opportunities in Low-skilled Migration: Insights from BISP Pakistan
The analysis explores the wage patterns, migration costs, and key challenges faced by low-skilled workers in Pakistan, focusing on the exploitation through visa trading. The study highlights the need for further investigation into the illegal profits in the visa market and the role of regulating institutions in addressing migrant exploitation.
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Presentation Transcript
Wage Wedge & Key Challenges and Way forward Nasir Iqbal Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Pakistan KNOMAD Workshop on Measuring Migration Costs for the Low-skilled The World Bank Nov. 16-17, 2015
Monthly earning pattern (US$) Region Earning at Home Earning Abroad Saudi Arabia 572 497 384 463 428 576 480 All Sample 586 472 360 410 399 421 443 UAE 604 333 322 307 359 342 387 Rawalpindi Mardan Charsada Sailkot Gujrat Gujranwala Pakistan 161 79 135 161 125 162 135
Q Analysis: Earnings at home and destination (US$ per month) 1200 995 1000 800 673 569 600 507 419 374 400 316 300 280 246 202 167 154 148 200 134 111 100 87 74 47 0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 At Home At Destination
Fundamental Causes of High Migration Cost Wage wedge 4540 Q10 888 4303 Q9 579 4508 Q8 471 4374 Q7 390 3119 Q6 307 3130 Q5 242 2947 Q4 196 2665 Q3 160 2520 Q2 111 2682 Q1 9 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 Average Cost Avg. Wage Differential
Migrant Costs: Key Challenges Identification of Respondent Law and order situation Choice criteria (only low skill) Time period (after 2011) Cost estimates? Majority knows LUMP SUM not breakdown Role of Friends/Relatives Semi-illegal market for visas operate through Friends/Relative and individual agents Lesser job opportunities in home countries may increases the demand for foreign employment hence cost of migration
The Way Forward The central conclusion of this analysis is that large benefits associated with the overseas migration of low-skilled workers are eaten up as visa fee by an unscrupulous group of people who trade in the selling of visas. But? How are these illegal profits collected and how this large semi-illegal market for visas works needs much more study?
The Way Forward Pakistan has developed institutions overtime to regulate overseas temporary migration for employment. The exploitation of low-skilled workers through visa trading in the presence of the official regulating machinery is extremely disappointing but also shows that the faith in government in solving problems may not be well placed. Indeed the more controls are put in place the higher can be the costs which are extracted by those officials who are tasked with implementing these countries. This points to the enormous challenges that any reforms to reduce these costs will face.
Suggestions to Improve CAPI Cost module needs extensive revision Format of the module (table format is better) Currency (option should be one or two) Built-in Sum up (for spot verification) Component should be reduced Basic Profile module Education related question is misleading (it should be continuous rather than categorical) (Q 1.13) How many people have you supported (need more clarification) Sources of job information question need revision like what is difference between Individual recruiter/ broker; Manpower agency and Government employment service center
Suggestions to Improve CAPI Occupation and Remittances Occupation related questions like 2 digit code; 3 digit code; & 4 digit are difficult to understand Remittances Module should be extended to incorporate various questions like flow pattern, formal vs informal, amount, use etc Addition of country specific factors may be allowed Technical Issues In some cases, zero required skip other question but actually its response is n/a Hanging issues Some time slow working; Few more checks required to ensure accurate entries like restriction on earning; age; time etc
