Migrants' remittances during the last fiscal, exceeded Rs 240 billion, sources in International Labour Organisation (ILO) said on Tuesday. An estimated four million Pakistanis move abroad in search of livelihoods.
Moreover, before the onset of the oil boom in the Middle East, Pakistanis were working in UK and other Western countries. Since 1970s, Gulf countries have offered job opportunities and absorbed millions of Pak workers and these migrant streams are associated with significant financial flows, they said.
Focussing on migrants' contributions to household income and the national exchequer, working abroad is seen as a strategy to improve people and nations' socio-economic conditions, they said.
However, the search for greener pastures abroad has a price too as migration brings about significant changes in the lives of those left behind and especially, changes in the gender division of tasks between women and men may increase women's workload, the sources said.
In a research project on "the role of trans-national migration for women and men in North-West Pakistan", takes a closer look at the opportunities and risks of migration from rural NWFP to Gulf states.
Sources identified the absence of employment opportunities and growing income disparities in Pakistan as main catalysts of migration and deplored that despite the fact that these workers are contributing significantly to the national economy, their legal rights are not being recognised often at the national or international levels, making them very vulnerable.
At the national level, they said the loss of a skilled workforce, the so-called 'brain drain', as another risk associated with trans-national migration, they said.
Sources said that while implementing the existing legal instruments, more emphasis must be laid on equal rights and treatment at work, a social charter for migrant workers, as well as the ratification of international conventions encompassing equal treatment in jobs, wages, security and safety and union rights were some of the necessary measures that need specific attention in our policies.
They elaborated the issue of migrants' integration in the host society and highlighted 'the other side of the coin' that were remitted. The same migrant workers who are seen as key instruments for raising foreign exchange face serious psychological, social, and religious problems in the receiving countries, they said.
In the study area in the Upper Dir and Swat districts, remittances are the most important source of cash income, covering expenditures for food, health, clothing and education, they said. However, the fact that no significant differences in food intake, health status or education were observed between households with and without migrants raises questions regarding the contribution of remittances towards socio-economic uplift, they said.
In some households, migration of their husbands, brothers or fathers raises women's vulnerability as their workload increases as they take over male tasks and their dependency on other household members' rises, they said.
They recommended that at the national level, the government must form Labour Ministerial Committee on migration for better coordination among state level stakeholders. Moreover, it includes improvement in skills in which better co-operation between the national and provincial institutions is required.
They demanded that the government must ratify the ILO conventions 97 (on Migration for Employment) and 143 (on Migrations in Abusive Conditions and the Promotion of Equality of Opportunity and Treatment of Migrant Workers) as well as the United Nations International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers.
The government should campaign for these conventions' ratification in the main host countries of Pak migrants and at the regional and international level, besides seeking greater co-operation regarding the protection of the rights and interests of migrant workers at forums such as Saarc, Asean, and the WTO, they urged.
They strongly recommended that the migration-related welfare activities of the government such as housing and education should be extended to the main sending regions, which are being neglected at present.
Development interventions should take the role of migration and remittances into account regarding development of small and medium enterprises and financial infrastructure, they suggested.
Ultimately, infrastructural improvement and economic development in sending regions must become the governments' main concern rather than the stimulation of migration that this includes education and health-related awareness-raising activities in order to improve livelihoods in the sending regions, they added.