The new head of the U.N.'s migration agency said Monday that the private sector is “desperate” for their countries to take in migrants to mop up labor shortages, especially in the West — endeavoring to steer a narrative away from reticence and suspicion about migrants in many parts of the world.

Amy Pope, the first woman to head the International Organization for Migration, sought to play up the economic benefits of migration for rich nations with aging populations and declining workforces — in the face of “build-the-wall” rhetoric in the United States to block migrants from Latin America and right-wing movements in Europe that want to keep foreigners out.

”We hear from … the private sector globally, but especially in Europe and in North America, that they are desperate for migration in order to meet their own labor market needs and in order to continue to fuel innovation within their own companies,” Pope, who is American, told reporters.

She said the evidence was “fairly overwhelming” that migration benefits economies by filling jobs, powering innovation or “fueling the renovation or revitalization of aging communities.”

"Migration, on the whole, is a benefit. That’s not to say that the rhetoric around migration reflects the fact that it is a tremendous benefit.”

  • @paddirn
    link
    English
    41 year ago

    Well, yeah, because they’re easier to exploit and they can pay migrants cheaper than native populations. I don’t blame migrants for looking for work, but private companies are absolutely trying to pay as little as possible for labor that they can get away with.

    • zoe
      link
      fedilink
      English
      31 year ago

      companies want the best of both worlds: they want subsidies from society, and instead of paying it back by creating employement with reasonable living wages, they cheat the system by hiring migrants…a society can’t stay functional that way in the long term