Mobility is a key element of human freedom. Movement typically benefits migrants, their families and source and destination communities

27.10.2009

“Mobility is a key element of human freedom. Movement typically benefits migrants, their families and source and destination communities. But the full potential of migration to enhance human development is constrained by barriers of movement,” according to the 2009 Human Development Report (HDR).

The HDR, which is an independent report commissioned and published annually by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), tackles pressing global challenges. The 2009 Report, which is titled Overcoming barriers: Human mobility and development, was presented in Yerevan today with participation of Ms. Consuelo Vidal, UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative (UN RC/UNDP RR), Mr. Vache Terteryan, First Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration of the Republic of Armenia and Ms. Irina Davtyan, Deputy Head of Migration Agency under the Ministry of Territorial Administration.

More than one in seven of the world’s population is a migrant and the majority of them – over 700 million – are internal migrants, while over 200 million are international migrants. Fewer than 70 million international migrants move from a developing to a developed country. Most of the world’s international migrants move from one developing country to another or between developed countries. Nearly half of all international migrants move within their region of origin and about 40 percent move to a neighboring country. 48 percent of all international migrants are women and this share has been quite stable during the past five decades: it stood 47 percent in 1960.

“The 2009 HDR sets out the case for migration’s contribution to human development and provides the guidance to governments to fully realize this potential. However, the migration cannot be a substitute for comprehensive domestic programmes to reduce poverty and foster development. Therefore, governments should maximize the gains from migration by mainstreaming human mobility into national development and poverty reduction strategies,” said Ms. Consuelo Vidal, UN RC/UNDP RR addressing the participants of the launching ceremony.

Migrants’ gains are often shared with their families and communities at home. In many cases this is in the form of remittances, but the families of migrants may benefit in other ways too. These “social remittances,” as they are called, include higher school enrolment rates, the empowerment of women and reductions in fertility. Research for the report found that migrants from the poorest countries gained the most, and, on average, saw a 15-fold increase in income, a doubling in education in enrolment rates and a 16-fold reduction in child mortality after moving to a developed country.

Contrary to commonly held beliefs, migrants typically boost economic output. Immigration generally increases employment in host communities, does not move out locals from the job market and improves rates of investment in new businesses. Overall, the impact of migrants on public finances is relatively small, while it has a positive impact in other areas, such as social diversity and innovation. Moreover, migration often liberates women and leads to significant gains in their income, levels of empowerment and education, but it also presents risks of exploitation and harsh conditions.

Armenia has an emigration rate of 20.3%. The major continent of destination for migrants from Armenia is Europe with 78.2% of emigrants living there. In Armenia, there are around 492,000 migrants which represent 16.1% of the total population.

The HDR argues that governments should undertake a series of policy reforms to maximize the benefits of migration and to better ensure the rights of migrants. The Report lays out a core package of reforms, six ‘pillars’ that call for:

• Opening existing entry channels for more workers, especially those with low skills;
• Ensuring basic human rights for migrants, from basic services, like education and health
care, to the right to vote;
• Lowering the transaction costs of migration;
• Finding collaborative solutions that benefit both destination communities and migrants;
• Easing internal migration; and
• Adding migration as a component for origin countries’ development strategies.

“Sustainable human development is a critical area of UNDP’s work. We focus among, others, on reduction of regional disparities, income and employment generation, food security, healthcare and child protection issues, which are reflected in the 2010-2015 UN Cooperation Framework with the Government of Armenia,” stated the UN RC/UNDP RR.

Also presented today, as part of the 2009 HDR, was the latest Human Development Index (HDI) - a summary indicator of people’s well-being, combining measures of life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and GDP per capita (measured by purchasing power parity, PPP). It shows that despite progress in many areas over the last 25 years, the disparities in people’s well-being in rich and poor countries continue to be unacceptably wide. These HDI results, however, do not reflect the effects of the global economic and financial crisis, which is expected to have a huge impact on human development achievements in many countries across the world.

This year’s HDI, based on 2007 data, was calculated for 182 countries and territories, the most extensive coverage ever. The 2009 HDR introduces a new top country category: Very High Human Development, which shows that people living in countries in the higher human development categories can expect to be better educated, to live longer and to earn more.

The HDI for Armenia is 0.798, which gives the country a rank of 84th out of 182 countries and is an improvement of 0.023 points compared to the last HDI value. This improvement is largely due to the increase in GDP per capita. Between 1990 and 2007 Armenia’s HDI rose by 0.51% annually. Armenia holds the first place in the category “Medium Human Development” and is followed by Ukraine and Azerbaijan respectively. Iran and Georgia are in 88th and 89th places, while Russia and Turkey are respectively 71st and 79th in the HDI ranking.

The top three ranked countries in the HDI are, in order, Norway, Australia and Iceland. The bottom three ranked countries are Niger, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone.

Trends in the HDI since 1980 show significant advances in human development, with an average improvement of 15 percent in countries’ HDI scores. The strongest gainers have been China, Iran and Nepal. Yet progress has been much more significant in education and health than on the income front.

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