Unequal global order and population movements

There is ample evidence to demonstrate that global inequality has increased over the last several decades, thanks to neo-liberal economic policies adopted by governments across the world. Countries and regions that have achieved high rates of economic growth naturally have higher concentrations of wealth.

A case in point is west Asia. Rapidly increasing oil wealth there has attracted business firms large amounts of investment capital from all parts of the world. The result is a massive expansion of the economies of several countries in the region such as UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Rapidly increasing employment and business opportunities in the SE countries have attracted millions of people from outside the region.

Most of these migrants have come from poorer countries in Asia and Africa. As is well known, over a million Sri Lankan workers have migrated there to engage in contract employment for higher wages stated Prof. S.T. Hettige of University of Colombo.

On the other hand, developed industrialized countries in Europe, north America and Asia continue to attract economic migrants in large numbers.Besides very high wages, it is the highly developed social infrastructure there, i.e. health, education, social protection, etc. that attracts migrants from developing countries.

Moreover, relative social and political stability, devoid of political violence and social disorder, makes the highly developed countries the most sought after destinations for millions of people from poorer countries where poverty, widespread crime and political violence often make life very difficult even for the relatively well-to-do people.

In short, it is the prospect of a stable and comfortable life that attracts people to developed countries.

Countries that adopted liberal, open economic policies in the recent past have made it easy for people to travel overseas. Relaxation of exchange control regulations has allowed affluent parents to send their children to send their children abroad for education. Workers can use locally raised funds to pay for their passage to the destinations of their employment.

The rich can transfer investment capital and even their families to more attractive countries. Even poor countries that are heavily indebted cannot restrict such movement of financial resources and people due to their continuing commitment to liberal economic policies and global trade regimes.

On the other hand, most developed countries benefit from a liberal economic environment on the global level. The influx of hundreds of thousands of fee paying university students to countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, USA and Singapore has led to an unprecedented expansion of higher education there.

Apart from direct financial benefits, such an expansion of tertiary education has further strengthened the knowledge economies of these countries. The leading universities in the developed world that attract financial and intellectual resources from other countries naturally lead in the production of knowledge.

The knowledge so produced in turn becomes available to industry and other institutions via new innovations and well trained graduates. As is well known, overseas students who graduate from the above universities often do not return to their own countries as they can find more lucrative employment in the host countries. This is naturally a major blow to poorer sending countries.

The latter not only lose their financial resources but are deprived of well trained graduates as well. They desperately need such graduates to improve the social and economic conditions there. As mentioned before, it is the poor socio-economic conditions that largely drive people away in the first place.

Exodus of professionally qualified people adversely affects all sectors of the economy. Recent publications dealing with the knowledge economy demonstrate in no uncertain terms how important it is for countries to invest in R and D and human resource development.

On the other hand, even if a country makes such investments, it is unlikely to benefit from such investments when it fails to retain well trained personnel. For instance, the expansion of medical education will not lead to any significant improvement in the health sector if the well trained health professionals leave the country.

The world leaders continue to talk about unequal development as a major socio-political issue. The former Prime Minister of Britain persuaded G8 countries to accept the need to divert more development assistance to Africa which continues to lag behind the rest of the world.

Yet, the highly developed countries themselves have not lived up to such expectations. On the other hand, inequalities are evident not only on a global level. They have become even sharper within countries. Even in countries that have achieved higher rates of economic growth such as India and China, income distribution has become more skewed in recent years.

Economic growth might lead to a reduction of absolute poverty but relative deprivation might become a more serious socio-political issue. With increasing global integration, people become more conscious of inequality at both global and local levels. This can increase social and political unrest at home but at the same time facilitate mass migration of people, both temporary and permanent. This is what we observe in many developing countries today.

Serous issues connected with global warming and the energy crisis threaten the stability of the leading economies of the world. Such issues can naturally take the attention of the world leaders away from the developing world.

On the other hand, the same issues can have even a more debilitating impact on the latter making the situation there even worse, forcing more people to migrate. If the developed economies go into a major recession leading to widespread unemployment and indebtedness there, it will be difficult to prevent social and political tension.

Under such circumstances, migration would be the last thing that the political leaders in receiving countries want to support. Such a development can drastically reduce overseas employment opportunities for workers in the developing world. A drastic reduction in out migration can have a destabilizing impact on countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh that depend heavily on export of labour.

It is in view of the above background that the policy makers should adopt a wider perspective on development and public welfare and critically evaluate the impact of their own policies in the recent past.

In an increasingly interconnected world, there is limited space for individual countries to adopt effective endogenous policies to deal with problems that are connected with the global economy. Hence the need for a global policy dialogue that can help evolve effective strategies to address current and emerging issues in a reasonable and rational manner at both global and local levels.