Pakistan's manpower export

A three-day workshop held the other day in Islamabad, and attended by delegates from 10 Asian countries to firm up a strategy to benefit from labour migration opportunities in EU member countries, has revealed some important flaws in our manpower export strategy.
According to a Recorder Report, the Minister of State for Overseas Pakistanis, Raza Hayat Hiraj, while addressing the workshop said that Pakistan needed to explore labour markets in Europe and establish mechanisms to facilitate migration of Pakistani workforce to European countries. Such a diversification has clearly become essential after the waning Middle Eastern bonanza. As the minister emphasised, closer co-operation between EU and Pakistan has become essential to facilitate labour migration that will yield rich dividends for both sides.
The European Commission has, meanwhile, expressed unhappiness over the postponement by Pakistan of the signing of Re-Admission Agreement with the European Union. The proposed accord aims at securing deportation of all illegal Pakistani immigrants, and their legalised re-entry later into the EU countries. According to a member of the European Commission delegation at the workshop, the programme is aimed at promoting legal migration from Asian countries in order to stem human trafficking, which has gradually assumed dangerous dimensions. Pakistan "exported" 175,000 workers in 2004-05 and 145,000 in the current year through legal channels.
Further, the remittances sent home by around 3.8 million overseas Pakistanis in 2004-05 stood at $3.8 billion, while the figure for the first 11 months of 2005-06 is $4.1 billion. Not bad at all.
A remark Raza Hayat Hiraj made at the workshop that his ministry has developed policies by changing the issue of "brain drain into brain gain," apart from the alluring rhyme of "drain" and "gain" makes little sense. How has the honourable minister turned the massive exodus of educated and trained manpower over the years into a "brain gain" for the country? It seems more of a "forex gain." And here lies the rub, though the role of foreign remittances as a short-term prop to the economy cannot be denied.
These have indeed eased pressure on forex availability and helped fuel our import sector. The strategy has also helped alleviate poverty in the country, and address the problem of unemployment. However, as we have earlier pointed out in this space, these short-term gains are more than neutralised when viewed in the long-term perspective, as the dark underside of manpower export is the brain drain.
Ironically, the West stole a march on the Third World by historically exploiting the latter's natural and human resources, while the Third World oligarchs, either oblivious or unmindful of the grave harm they did to their countries, became willing tools in the game plan. The short-sightedness of our policymakers is too obvious to need any comment.
It takes years of specialised training to produce a productive workforce that can later help run the wheels of industry. However, the lure of petrodollars has proved too irresistible. Viewed in perspective, short-term gain has almost invariably taken precedence over the country's long-term interest in the calculus of Pakistan's ruling elite.
There is clearly a need for our policymakers to devise a strategy that is oriented towards striking a healthy balance between the country's need of foreign remittances and the compulsions of building a trained workforce to man industry efficiently. The exodus to the Middle East has already created a serious void in the local labour market. Every precaution should be taken to block a repetition in case of Europe.
There is a perception that the signing of the Re-Admission Agreement by Pakistan will throw up for it an excellent opportunity to gain a strong foothold in the European labour market. However, the benefits of such a move need to be carefully weighed by the government against its negative impact on the country's labour market.
It is quite possible that once Pakistan has signed the agreement, the vacancies created by the exodus may be filled by cheaper labour from other South Asian countries. Perhaps it would be better for the government to negotiate a deal with EU member states that requires only legalisation of the illegal immigrants' stay without their conditional expulsion. Pakistan will thus be on a safer wicket. Pakistan's manpower export strategy needs a drastic overhaul to bring it in line with the country's augmented industrial needs in future.