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Note to correspondents: ILO releases 93 country survey on labour migration

The International Labour Office (ILO) today published a comprehensive new survey on labour migration that provides, for the first time, detailed information on migration laws, policies and practices in 93 countries.

Press release | 04 June 2004

GENEVA (ILO News) - The International Labour Office (ILO) today published a comprehensive new survey on labour migration that provides, for the first time, detailed information on migration laws, policies and practices in 93 countries.

Information from the new compendium, entitled "ILO Migration Survey 2003: Country summaries" ( Note 1), will be an important reference for the general discussion on migration being held during the 92nd International Labour Conference with a view to developing a new programme of action on global migration.

The report prepared for the meeting ( Note 2) said close to half of all migrants and refugees worldwide or some 86 million adults are economically active, employed or otherwise engaged in remunerative activity. The report says the number of migrants crossing borders in search of work and security is expected to increase rapidly in the coming decades and notes that if all international migrants were to form a single political entity, they would represent the world's fifth most populous country.

The International Labour Migration Survey contains information collected as of April 2004 and is the latest information on trends in migration and conditions of migrant workers, the state of law and practice, impact of migration, and the experience with structures and policies for regulating migration and employment of migrant workers.

"In practically every region the rising mobility of people in search of decent work and human security has been commanding the attention of policy makers", said Manolo Abella, Chief of the ILO's International Migration Programme. "Migration is driven by differences and imbalances among countries, and these differences have grown and not shrunk with globalization."

All the 93 responses collected by the ILO are summarized in the survey, published both as a book and in a CD electronic version, in a way that allows access to data and information for each of the countries.

Countries that answered the survey are: Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Zimbabwe.


Note 1

Note 2 - " Towards a fair deal for migrant workers in the global economy", see www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/2004/19.htm.